Identification
A slim, supple shark reaching a little over a metre and a half. The back is even grey to grey-brown over a creamy-white belly, and the upper body — back, flanks and the tops of the pectoral fins — is covered in many small, crisp white star-like spots. Unlike the spurdog there is no spine in front of the dorsal fins, and an anal fin is present. The snout is fairly long and blunt, the eye horizontally oval. The mouth holds no cutting teeth but flat crushing plates.
Behaviour & ecology
Those crushing plates give away the diet: this is primarily a crab eater, nosing along sand and gravel with its snout down and crushing its prey rather than cutting it. Shrimp and other crustaceans fill out the menu. The species moves into shallow coastal water in schools in summer and back to deeper water in winter. Young are born live, seven to fifteen per litter and already around thirty centimetres at birth.
In the Netherlands
The starry smooth-hound appears to have increased in the southern North Sea in recent years, though the IUCN Red List assesses it as Near Threatened. Shallow coastal water, the Voordelta and the Oosterschelde act as nursery grounds, so young animals turn up regularly here in summer. That is exactly what makes the species sensitive: fishing here means fishing over a nursery. VisScanner marks it for release. It is entirely harmless — those crushing plates cannot bite you — so hold it horizontally, support the belly and return it promptly.
