Category: Fish
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Family: Chimaeridae

Other Names:
Chimaera
Shark, Ghost

Notes
Not a true shark, they have smooth skin and only one gill slit. Very distinctive with its large pectoral fins, whiplike tail and sharp dorsal fin spine, they also lack an anal fin. Small mouth with six plates for teeth, these help them eat starfish, shellfish and other invertibrates. Commercially fished. Young hatch from egg cases at about 9-12 cm.
Not really a shark but a primitive fish with similarities, found to depths of 745m. Sometimes sold as pearl fillets. This species makes up more than half the ghost shark caught as bycatch in New Zealand waters.

References
Deep New Zealand: Batson P