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Smooth Dogfish
Mustelus canis
"AKA smooth hound, dogfish, dusky smooth hound and grayfish "

Description: The body of the smooth dogfish is slender, olive-gray, tanish-gray, slate-gray or brown on top and white, grayish-white or yellow below. It's snout is tapering and blunt. The smooth dogfish is able dogfish spiracles

to change color through contraction
and/or relaxing of the migratory pigment cells. They can appear as pale as the sandy ocean bottom (taking several days to be extremely pale) or as dark as the dark murky bottom (only taking one to two hours). There is a large top lobe that has a sooty spot near the tip and a smaller round lobe on the caudal fin. The second dorsal fin is almost twice as large as the anal fin and slightly anterior to it. The dogfish has an obvious spiracle behind each cat-like eye.

smooth_dogfish_teeth

The smooth dogfish do not have the sharp knife-like teeth. Instead they are small, flat and blunt in both the dogfish teeth

upper and lower jaws. They have a rounded cusp and they are asymmetrical. The larger full-grown smooth dogfish have low tooth crowns that hide the cusps. They crush and grind their prey with their 8-10 rows of teeth instead of biting and tearing as do other shark species. Their teeth are irregularly-spaced with anywhere from two to six ridges going down the whole length of the denticle.

Similar Fish:    The spiny dogfish (has one spine in front of each dorsal fin whereas the smooth dogfish has no dorsal spines). The canis insularis has a longer caudal fin tip and a slightly higher dorsal fin. The main difference is the canis insularis has more vertebrae than the smooth dogfish. The Florida smoothhound shark has a lower backward caudal lobe that ends in a sharp point, while a smooth dogfish shark has a rounded lower caudal lobe and its dorsal fins are considerably more pointed.

Where Found:   The smooth dogfish shark is commonly seen in the waters off Cape Cod to the Delaware Bay and migrate close to shore in packs (thus the name dogfish or houndfish) to the Chesapeake Bay to South Carolina in the winter. The larger fish travel in small packs of a dozen members, however, the smaller juveniles can be found in packs of hundreds of members. The smooth dogfish shark prefers waters less than 60 feet deep. Subspecies have been documented in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Bermuda, but there seems to be no gene flow between these fish.   This fish has been noticed occasionally in fresh water, but it is doubtful that it could exist for any length of time in this environment.

Size & Age:    The smooth dogfish shark averages five feet in length.   The females reach their maximum size when they are seven to eight years old. The average size is about 48 inches. The females live to be about 16 years old while the males live to be approximately 10 years old.

World Record:   The longest smooth dogfish recorded is 59 inches and weighing 27 pounds.

Bait used:    They can be caught with most any bait such as fresh or frozen bunker, squid, and crab.

Tactics to catch:    Commercial fisheries are primarily located along the shores of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

Climate   (water temperature range):    The Smooth dogfish shark prefers water temperatures above 50 degrees.

Spawning habits:   The smooth dogfish shark sexually matures when it reaches 33 inches in length. Males are sexually mature when they are between one and two years old and females are sexually mature when they are between two and three years old. The female can store live sperm throughout the year, but it is not proven that the sperm can actually fertilize the eggs. The smooth dogfish shark is viviparous (giving live birth) with a gestation period of ten to eleven months. There is a yolk-sac placenta connection between the embryo and the mother. The smooth dogfish shark gives birth to a litter of 10 to 20 pups that are 13 to 15 inches in length this usually occurs in the summer (May through July). The larger females have the larger litters. The pups are born tail first. The markings of a newborn has a first dorsal fin with dusky gray edges on its top. The top of the second dorsal fin is the same except it has a white real edge and the tail fin is edged in white. This markings are temporary and last until the juvenile is approximately two feet in length.

Table food?    The smooth dogfish is used as table food cooked fresh or freeze-dried. It is commonly eaten in England, however, it is not commonly eaten in the USA at this time.

Feeding habits:    The smooth dogfish shark eats what it can find primarily feeding on crabs, lobster, mollusks, small fish (menhaden and tautog) and shrimp. When kept in captivity they never stop moving while searching the bottom for food. They sense their prey by keen sight and smell. They do not bother healthy fish, but will quickly devour sick or injured fish in the same area.

Remarks:    The smooth dogfish shark is nocturnal. They are mostly harmless and non-agressive Unlike its larger cousins the Tiger and Bull sharks the Smooth dogfish will flee from the presence of a diver.

These fish are listed as "near threatened" by the World Conservation Union. Their demise is mainly due to large numbers caught as bycatch while fishing commercially for other species.

Recreational tour boats catch hundreds of thousands of dogfish each year and are deliberately killed on the boat or die when thrown back due to damaged internal organs and hook injuries to the mouth.

These fish are surprisingly delicate animals because the cuts and skin abrasions rarely heal. In captivity another common injury is when the fish bumps into the walls of the saltwater tank. This results in "nose rot" that will not heal.

Often a shark will lift its head out of the water to smell or look for prey. This is called spy-hopping.

The name Mustelus canis means weasel-like dog.

References:
http://na.nefsc.noaa.gov
http://findarticles.com
http://omp.gso.uri.edu
http://links.jstor.org
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/
http://www.springerlink.com
http://www.bartleby.com
http://www.ocean.udel.edu
http://new-brunswick.net
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu
Wikipedia

Smooth Dogfish Mustelus canis "AKA smooth hound, dogfish, dusky smooth hound and grayfish "

Smooth Dogfish
Mustelus canis
"AKA smooth hound, dogfish, dusky smooth hound and grayfish "