This widely distributed species occurs on deep hard bottoms and >90% of its global population is in Brazilian waters. The estimated generation length is 18.5 years, and therefore, past declines are estimated over a time period of 55.5 years or ~1969-2024. It is commercially targeted throughout its range and has been overexploited since the 1970s with landings declines of 68% since 1970 and biomass declines of 50% since 1995 recorded in southeastern-southern Brazil. It is intrinsically susceptible to overfishing due to its long lifespan and late maturity which slows its recovery time. Some fishing regulations are in place, but the population is not yet stable and the continued take of immature individuals is a concern. Based on these data, a global decline of at least 30-49% is inferred over the past three generations and it is listed as Vulnerable A2bd with a recommendation to conduct research on population and catch trends in northern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

This species is distributed from Ceará, Brazil to northern Argentina (Carvalho-Filho 2023), including the Vitória-Trindade Seamounts (Pinheiro et al. 2015). The depth range is 50-500 m (Imoto et al. 2016, Carvalho-Filho 2023).

This species is common mainly south of the Abrolhos Bank (Fiedler et al. 2021). At least 90% of its global population is inferred to occur within Brazilian waters. Little information is available on the status of its population in Uruguayan and Argentinian waters. 

The commercial landings of this species in southeastern-southern Brazil between 1950 and 2015 peaked at ~1,600 tons around 1970 and steeply declined to ~100 tons around 1976. Landings fluctuated from the 1980s to 2015 (Freire et al. 2021). After 2009, landings began increasing until at least 2015, where the total number of landings was 512 tons, which compared to the peak of ~1,600 t in 1970, landings declined over the entire time period by about 68% (Freire et al. 2021). According to a stock assessment, from 1995 to 2000, this species sustained a 50% reduction in biomass (Freire et al. 2021). Overfishing resulted in a considerable population decline between at least 2000 and 2020 (de Melo et al. 2020). 

This species occurs near reef patches, submarine mounts, and oceanic islands over muddy, gravel or rocky bottoms (Fiedler et al. 2021, Carvalho-Filho 2023). It is carnivorous, feeding primarily on benthic invertebrates such as ophiuroids, molluscs, and crustaceans, and sometimes smaller fishes (Carvalho-Filho 2023). Its reproductive biology is poorly understood, although it is known to spawn from September to December (Vaz-dos-Santos et al. 2014), and is suspected to produce pelagic eggs and larvae based on its congeners (Carvalho-Filho 2023). The maximum lifespan is 30 years, and it is capable of attaining a maximum total length and weight of 120 cm and 25 kg (Carvalho-Filho 2023). It most commonly reaches 50 cm and 5 kg (Carvalho-Filho 2023). The age and length at first maturity are estimated to be between 7 and 15 years and 44 cm (Fiedler et al. 2021).

One of the recommended methods in the IUCN Red List Guidelines for calculating generation length (IUCN Standards and Petitions Committee 2024) is “Age of first reproduction + [z * (length of the reproductive period)], where z is a number between 0 and 1; z is usually <0.5, depending on survivorship and the relative fecundity of young vs. old individuals in the population.”. Here, we use 7 years as age of first reproduction for this species, and longevity of 30 years. However, the constant z currently is not known, therefore we use z = 0.5 to estimate a likely maximum generation length for the species: 7 + [0.5 * (30-7)] = 18.5 years. Therefore, we estimate three generations to be around 55.5 years.

This species is highly vulnerable to overfishing due to its long lifespan and late maturity (Freire et al. 2021). It is considered to be overexploited throughout Brazil (Verba et al. 2019). The regular take of immature individuals has impacted population recovery, while continued take of adults in longline and trawl fisheries has led to the decline of many of its populations (Fiedler et al. 2021).

This species is taken in deep-water longline and trawl fisheries in Brazil with restrictions (Fiedler et al. 2021, Carvalho-Filho 2023). It is also targeted by sport fishers using heavy tackle and shrimp, sardines, or squids as bait (Carvalho-Filho 2023).

This species was listed as Vulnerable on the Brazil national Red List in 2019 (ICMBio online database accessed July 2024). In 2018, Brazil's Special Secretariat for Aquaculture and Fisheries enacted SEAP Administrative Ruling #40/2018 to manage this species within the country's fisheries (Freire et al. 2021). This ruling decreased the number of available fishing licenses, created a closed season from September 1st to October 31st that prohibits fishing at depths of 100-600 m, and established a minimum catch size of 40 cm for this species (Freire et al. 2021).

Research is needed on population trends in northern Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.