Brown Smooth-hound

The brown smooth-hound is a slender, small houndshark that lives along the eastern Pacific coast. It typically stays close to shore in shallow bays, growing to about 100 cm at most.

Other smooth-hound sharks look much alike, but this species stands out for its unusually large eyes, more noticeable even from a distance than on most of its relatives.

This shark has a slim body, a long snout, and large eyes. Its mouth sits on the underside of its head, lined with sharp teeth that carry one main point and often one or two small extra points beside it. The tail has a longer upper lobe than lower, and the dorsal and pectoral fins are broad and triangular. Colour is reddish or bronze on top and silvery underneath.

This shark lives along the subtropical eastern Pacific coast, from northern California to the Gulf of California, and again off Ecuador and Peru. It favours shallow, muddy, enclosed bays close to shore, though it has been found from the surface down to about 281 metres.

This shark spends most of the year in shallow bays but moves out into deeper coastal water as the water cools each winter, returning to the bays the following spring. It faces predation from larger sharks and fish-eating birds, and it forages along the seafloor, sometimes swimming up into open water to hunt.

The brown smooth-hound is listed as least concern. It is not a specific target for any major fishery, and most catches come as low-value bycatch. Its comparatively fast growth and high number of young each year have helped it avoid the population declines seen in many other sharks.

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  Dusky Smooth-hound

  Mustelus canis

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  Gray Smooth-hound

  Mustelus californicus

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  Gummy Shark

  Mustelus antarcticus

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  Leopard Shark

  Triakis semifasciata

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  Spotted Gully Shark

  Triakis megalopterus

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  Tope shark

  Galeorhinus galeus