Fishery of Aphanopus carbo

The black scabbardfish belongs to the Trichiuridae family characterised by: i) an extremely elongate and compressed body with a small forked or hair-like caudal fin; ii) strong teeth, fang-like in the anterior part of the upper jaw; iii) one nostril on each side of snout; and iv) pelvic fins absent or reduced to 1 scale-like spine and 0-2 rudimentary soft rays (Nakamura and Parin, 1993).

In the northeast Atlantic, this family includes 3 genera and 5 benthopelagic carnivorous species. Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 and Lepidopus caudatus (Euphrasen, 1788) (the silver scabbardfishes) occur mainly from the English Channel southward to the northwest coast of Africa, including the Mediterranean.