Giant guitarfish have the origin of the first dorsal fin over or in from the pelvic fins. The tail fin has a distinct lower lobe and the snout is wedge shaped merging into a concave lateral head profile. They are dark olive green dorsally and usually have pale spots in longitudinal stripes on the body and pectoral fins. They have a dark eyespot ringed with pale spots at the base of each pectoral fin and a dark polygonal mark between the eyes (Heemstra and Heemstra 2004).

Restricted to the Red Sea and tropical waters of the WIO south to SA (Wallace 1967, Smith and Heemstra 1991). May comprise a complex of three or more species (Heemstra and Heemstra 2004).

EC, KZN, MOZ Common in KZN and the Pondoland area of the EC during summer, known to occur as far south as Knysna (Heemstra and Heemstra 2004) but seldom found south of Port St Johns (Wallace 1967).

Giant guitarfish are nomadic. Based on tagging data and shore anglers’ catches, adults of this species appear to be fairly mobile and although movement patterns are difficult to interpret, it is likely that they move southwards down the coast during the summer months and return to northern KZN and MOZ with the onset of winter (Wallace 1967, Bullen and Mann 2003, Pradervand 2007). Juveniles appear to show some resident behaviour (ORI Tagging Project, unpubl. data).

Adults feed on benthic mollusks, crustaceans, polychaetes, squid and small fish (Wallace 1967, van der Elst 1993, Heemstra and Heemstra 2004 and the diet of juveniles is thought to be similar.

Giant guitarsharks are ovoviviparous, producing four young ~60cm TL at birth (Smith and Heemstra 1991, van der Elst 1993, Heemstra and Heemstra 2004). Breeding occurs from December to February (summer) in northern KZN (Wallace 1967, Smith and Heemstra 1991, van der Elst 1993) in the in shallow waters off sandy beaches in northern KZN and MOZ (Wallace 1967). Age at 50% maturity: Based on the approximate length of males and females at first maturity (Wallace 1967), the corresponding age would be about 1-2 years and 2-3 years for males and females respectively (van der Elst 1993) but ages need verification. Length at 50% maturity: Observed length at first maturity for males and females in KZN was 156 and 177cm TL respectively (Wallace 1967).

Inshore, Offshore (>30m)