Star spotted smooth-hound

3/28/2018

This shark has a lot of common names. The gummy dogfish, gummy shark, Japanese smooth hound, spotted shark, star-spotted gummy shark, star-spotted shark, star-spotted smooth hound, star-spotted smooth-hound, topes, and hound shark. Phew, what a mouthful!

TFUI will refer to them as the star-spotted smooth hound (Mustelus manazo). As TFUI has said before, Mustelus comes from the Latin word "mustela" which means weasel. Getting up to 3.15 kg (6.94 lbs) and commonly measuring 62-68 cm in length, these short lived (they are believed to only live 10 years) animals can be found in the intertidal zone with soft substrate (mud or sand). They are found down to a depth of at least 360 metres. In this range, they eat bottom-dwelling invertebrates and small fish. Due to their small size, they may even be prey themselves (for larger sharks)!

The star-spotted smooth hound is viviparous with yolk-sac with a gestation period of 10-12 months. Litter sizes are around 8 pups, with the young being born during springtime. A houndshark of the family Triakidae, they are caught as bycatch regularly by demersal longliners operating both inshore and in deep-water. #Finfact: These sharks are eaten by humans! The IUCN has assessed these animals as Data Deficient (DD).

what new #finfact did you learn about this animal?

glossary

Bycatch: The part of a fishery’s catch that is made up of non-target species.
Gestation: The period in which a fetus develops, beginning with fertilization and ends at birth.
Invertebrates: Animals with no backbone (i.e. crustaceans, jellyfish, corals, sea anemones).
IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Pups: Baby sharks.
Viviparous with yolk-sac: Also known as aplacental viviparous and previously known as ovoviviparous/ovoviviparity; it is the production of eggs that are fertilised and hatch inside the female shark but the embryos lack a placental connection to the oviduct or uterus and so do not feed off the mother.