Abstract
The Guatemalan Caribbean has a deepwater fishing area close to the shore around the Cayman Trench. This study reports the first record of the bluntnose sixgill shark (Hexanchus griseus) from this fishing area. Fishery-independent surveys using longlines at ~430-465 m depth, ~11 km northeast of El Quetzalito fishing village, were conducted in 2022 and 2023. Two bluntnose sixgill sharks were captured during these surveys. The sharks were females with total lengths of 300 and 310 cm, with morphological characteristics consistent with this species. These are the first confirmed records of bluntnose sixgill sharks in the western Caribbean Sea. Expanding coastal fisheries to deeper waters presents an emerging threat to deep-sea chondrichthyans in the region. Therefore, periodic fisheries monitoring is needed to estimate their vulnerability to fishing pressure.
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