Waters off the Welsh coast will be one of the main project areas for a new scheme to track an endangered fish species on the Welsh coast.
A project to protect the critically endangered angelshark will gather data from five key areas: North Anglesey; the Llyn Peninsula; Porthmadog to Aberarth; Fishguard to Milford Haven; and Swansea to Porthcawl.
A launch event was held on Thursday, 27 February in Aberystwyth, led by the Zoological Society of London, the international conservation charity behind ZSL London and Whipsnade Zoos.
The event revealed a new educational e-book which covers the anatomy, threats, behaviour and ecology of the Angelshark. In the coming weeks it will be made available to schools across Wales free of charge.
The critically endangered Angelshark, once common across the western British Isles, is a rare species of shark that glides across the seabed with elongated fins.
After suffering widespread decline across its range over the last century, there have been an increasing number of sightings of this rare species along the Welsh coast in recent years, giving hope for its future.
Angelsharks (Squatina squatina) are large, flat-bodied sharks that can reach 2.4m in length and belong to the angel shark family (Squatinidae), which rank as the second most threatened family of elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) in the world.
Angelsharks are normally found submerged in sandy habitats in coastal waters.
In Wales, Angelsharks are also known as Monkfish or angel fish, and they are sometimes mistaken for a ray or misrecorded as Anglerfish.
To understand major threats and conservation projects for the angel shark family, visit the project’s website at www.angelsharknetwork.com