A ray with a wedge-shaped head and a shark's body and tail. Among the most threatened families of marine fish anywhere.
To about 3 m, grey-brown with scattered white spots and a wedge-shaped head that is neither a shark’s nor a ray’s, with a shark-like body and tail behind it. It is a ray: the gill openings are on the underside. There are ridges of thorns above the eyes and along the back.
It lies on sand near reef and is uncommon at every destination on this site. Wedgefishes are among the most threatened families of marine fish anywhere, because the fins are among the most valuable in the shark fin trade and the animals live in shallow coastal water where fishing is heaviest. A sighting is worth recording carefully for that reason.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.