Summary of porbeagle (Lamna nasus) litters from Guernsey and Jersey,
Channel Islands GB by Richard Lord

Richard Lord's photographs are copyrighted and may not be copied and displayed on other web sites without his written permission fishinfo@guernsey.net. Litters are ordered according to increasing TL of embryos. One litter is from the west Coast Orkney. Two recent litters (2002 and 2008) are from Scotland and North East England, respectively, compliments of Andrew Sprott. The 16 Feb 2002 litter is from G. Mauger's website and a link is provided for complete information.

Credit for the photos of the largest porbeable term-embryo ever observed go to the Marine Biology Section of La Société Jersiaise and thanks go to Nick Jouault for sharing the photographs. We acknowlege comments by Malcolm Francis.

Photograph	# of emb.	TL emb.* (mm)	W emb.* (kg)	TL fem. (m)	W fem. (kg)	Cap. date	Cap. location	Comments
				2.35	129	15 Dec 1996	Around Jethou & Herm Island	Caught by Shane Petit & Ken Robilliard. Uterus contained 4 eggcases as shown in photo. Likely to be nutritive eggcase, no embryos nor eggcases with blastodisc egg were reported.
	3	~100		2.49	170	Nov 2008	North East England	The shark was 8, 2" and weighed 357lbs. It was female and had 3 small embryos each one was 10cm long. It was caught off the North East of England in Nov 2008.
	5	205-212 (range of 3)		2.46	185	15 Nov 2002	Eyemouth Market, Scotland	Fishmerchant saw 5 samll pups, 3 were kept and measured. Had small yolk-stomachs. Click here for additional info.
	4	~300?		2.45	~100	16 Feb 2002	Baie d'Ecalgrain Normandie, France	Summary of information: GŽrard Mauger reports on an usual intervention for the Normandy Marine Mammal Study Group (GECC). A pregnant porbeagle (2.45 m long, ca. 100 kg) stranded at Baie d'Ecalgrain on the west coast of the Cherbourg peninsula, Normandy in line with the Channel Island of Alderney, The tide is very strong there and the flood tide is called the "Alderney Race". A necropsy revealed 4 embryos (early-term, my guesstimate ~ 30 cm TOT). Stomach contents included a conger or large eel, fish remains, fish vertebrae, ÒcristallinsÓ? of fish, and remains of two octopus.
	4	371-382	1.031-1.219	2.43 (TOT) 2.30 (FL) 1.89 (PCL)	~185	09 Jan 2002	Small rocky reef North-West of Guernsey (49o30.3'N, 2o38'W)	Caught in a monofilament gill net by Richard Seager and landed at 1315. Male caught the previous day measured 2.01 m TOT, 1.80 m FL, and 54.54 kg gutted.
	4, 3F	387-394 (323-331 FL)	0.961-1.382	2.14 FL	est. 168 from 118.65 kg gutted	25 Jan 2005	Near Hanois Lighthouse Guernsey	Richard Seager caught a female porbeagle in a gill net off the South-west coast of Guernsey . The fish drowned in the gill net. She was too big for the packing house scale to weigh whole so she was gutted.
	4, 4M	385-425	1.343-2.044	2.05 FL		14 Feb 2008	Guernsey	Caught by Steve Fallaize in gill net in 12-13 m depth of water. Stomach of female contained 1 decomposed bass (Dicentrachus labrax) of ~2.2 kg (5 lbs). Capture location was 2 39 72 W & 49 28 99 N.
	4	401-417	1.867 - 2.127	2.29	~155	02 Feb 2000	~1 mile west of the North tip of Guernsey	Caught by Rick Ferbrache in monofilament gill net in ~50 m of water in a non-tidal area (set 1600, retrieved 0900 on Feb 3)
	4		~2.0	2.12	est. 123 from 100 kg gutted	17 Jan 2000	North-West coast of Guernsey GB	Caught by Steve Fallaize in gill net set for sea bass;
	4	410 (1)	0.6 (1) without yolk-stomach	2.46	204	01 Feb 1994	west Coast Orkney	Andrew Sprott p.c.
	3(4?)	~est. 457 (18")		est. 2.74 (9 feet)	141	23 Jan 1999	off North end of Guernsey (Fontenelle Bay)	Caught in gill net by Ken Robilliard and Shane Petit with assistance from Andy Loader
	3	518-566	2.730-5.246(a)	2.29	~168	03 Jan 2000	Near Hanois Lighthouse, Guernsey GB	Caught by Richard Seager & Peter Merrien;
	4	est. >900	6.5-7.5		195	29 Jun 1969	South of Jersey GB	Caugth by Des Bougourd. Guernsey Press, July 29 1969. Well healed teeth? marks on dorsal fin.
	3	889 (35") smallest embryo	~9 kg (nearly 20 lbs) for the smallest embryo		166	25 Jun 1960	3 m south of Corbiere on SW tip of Jersey GB	Caugth by Brian Phillipps. Credit for the photos go to the Marine Biology Section of La Société Jersiaise and thanks go to Nick Jouault for sharing the photographs.
Photograph	# of emb.	TL emb.* (mm)	W emb.* (kg)	TL fem. (m)	W fem. (kg)	Cap. date	Cap. location	Comments

*Number in parenthesis gives number of embryos measured if not all were available
a) yolk-stomach of this embryo weighed ~3.75 kg (Aaron Henderson reported 3.361 kg, I added 10% to account for weight loss of embryo when weighed by Aaron after 83 days in the freezer.). This embryo would weigh about 9.0 kg at birth (5.25 + 3.75 again). It suggests that the 9.1 kg porbeagle embryo reported by Hubbs (1923) could indeed have been a porbeagle.

Created May 2000; revised September 2009. Back to previous page