Small-spotted catshark

Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-16

The small, densely freckled shark that almost every British sea angler catches and almost nobody looks at properly — abundant, harmless, sandpaper-skinned, and the reason a great many anglers think they dislike dogfish.

Safety

Injury while handling fish — Minor injury

The skin is covered in dermal denticles and is abrasive in one direction, and the fish curls its body tightly around whatever holds it. A catshark twisting against a bare forearm removes skin, and the resulting graze can become infected in the way any seawater abrasion can.

What reduces it: Hold the fish straight — one hand behind the head, one at the tail — so it cannot wrap, or support it along its length with both wet hands. Do not brace it against a bare forearm or leg. Unhook with pliers or a disgorger rather than fingers.

Worse when:

Holding the fish around the middle, which is the grip it can coil out of.
Unhooking on a pier or boat in the dark with one hand occupied.
Handling many fish quickly when a mark is producing continuously.

Fish welfare — Minor injury

Because they are abundant and regarded as a nuisance, catsharks are routinely dropped on shingle, left unattended while another rod is dealt with, or thrown back from a height off a pier or boat. The fish is hardy and has no swim bladder, so almost all of the harm done to it is avoidable handling harm rather than anything inherent to the capture.

What reduces it: Treat it as you would any other fish: wet hands, minimal air exposure, unhook with a tool, cut the trace on a deep hook, and place the fish in the water rather than throwing it. If a mark is producing nothing but catsharks, move rather than handle a hundred of them badly.

Worse when:

Fishing from a high pier or harbour wall where fish are dropped rather than lowered.
Multi-rod sessions where a hooked fish waits while another is dealt with.
Warm weather, where a fish left on a hot surface deteriorates quickly.

Precautions that always apply here

Wet your hands before touching a fish. Dry hands strip the protective mucus layer that keeps infection out.
Support the fish's weight along its body, keep it out of the water for as short a time as possible, and hold it over something soft.
If a hook goes past the barb into a person, cut the line, leave the hook where it is, and get medical help. Pulling it back out does far more damage than pushing it through under proper care.
Keep fingers out of the gills and clear of the teeth. Gill damage is usually fatal to the fish, and several species will remove skin from a finger.

This is, on most reckonings, the fish British sea anglers catch more often than any other. It is a small shark, rarely much over 70 centimetres, covered in dense small dark spots, and it turns up on clean and mixed ground almost everywhere around the British Isles at almost any time of year.

IT IS ALSO THE FISH MOST ROUTINELY MISHANDLED, because it is common, small and regarded as a nuisance. A catshark wraps its body around a forearm when held, its skin is genuinely abrasive, and an angler who has not been shown how to hold one ends up wrestling it. The technique takes one demonstration and is on this page.

THE NAME IS A MESS AND WORTH SORTING OUT. British anglers call it a lesser spotted dogfish or simply a dogfish. It is not closely related to the spurdog, which is the other fish called a dogfish, and the two are not remotely similar: this one has an anal fin and no spines, the spurdog has spines and no anal fin. Catshark is the more accurate name and the one that avoids the collision.

AND IT LAYS EGGS, which most sharks do not. The mermaid's purse found on a strandline with a tendril curled at each corner is a catshark egg case, and finding one is the commonest first encounter anybody has with a shark's reproduction.

Identification

FishingHQ holds no photograph of this species whose identity and licensing it can vouch for, so it is not showing one. Misidentified fish photographs teach identification wrongly, and a picture with an unchecked caption would be worse than none. The identification points below are what to look at instead.

Scientific name: Scyliorhinus canicula
Family: Scyliorhinidae
Water: Saltwater
Conservation status: Least Concern
Regions: Britain & Ireland, Western Europe, Northern Europe, Mediterranean, West Africa

THE NASAL FLAPS ARE THE DIAGNOSTIC CHARACTER, and they separate this fish from the bull huss. Turn the fish over: in a small-spotted catshark the two nasal flaps are JOINED and extend down to reach the mouth, forming a continuous flap across the front of it. In a bull huss they are separate and do not reach the mouth.
SPOTS ARE SMALL, DARK AND DENSE — freckling rather than blotching, scattered thickly over a sandy or greyish-brown back. A bull huss has larger, sparser, better-defined spots.
Small: usually 45–70 cm. A spotted catshark much over 80 cm should prompt a second look at the nose.
Has an ANAL FIN and NO SPINES — which is what separates every catshark from a spurdog at a glance.
Skin is conspicuously rough — the old name rough hound is literal, and it is felt immediately on picking one up.
Slender and flexible, and it curls its body around an arm or a wrist when held. That behaviour is itself a good field clue.

Size

Typical: 45–70 cm and 0.5–1.5 kg.
Large: Over 75 cm is a large one.

Exceptional: Around 1 m is the widely reported maximum for the species, and fish approaching it are unusual. A supposed metre-plus 'dogfish' is far more likely to be a bull huss.

Lifecycle and reproduction

Unusually among sharks, the small-spotted catshark is oviparous: the female lays eggs rather than bearing live young. Each egg is enclosed in a tough, translucent rectangular capsule with a long curling tendril at each corner, which she wraps around seaweed, hydroids or other structure so the case is anchored while the embryo develops. Development inside the case takes many months, varying with temperature, and the young emerge as fully formed miniature catsharks of around 9 to 10 cm, already able to feed. Empty cases wash ashore in quantity and are the mermaid's purses found on strandlines. Growth is slow by bony-fish standards but the species matures earlier and produces eggs more steadily than the live-bearing sharks, which is a large part of why it remains abundant while they do not.

Egg-laying takes place over an extended season rather than in a short spawning window, with females depositing capsules a few at a time over months and attaching them to structure in relatively shallow water. Because the eggs are anchored, laid steadily and produced in reasonable numbers, this species' reproductive output is far less vulnerable to the removal of a few large adults than a spurdog's or a tope's. That difference in reproductive strategy — eggs on the seabed rather than a two-year pregnancy — is the single clearest explanation for why this shark is Least Concern in the same seas where the live-bearers are not.

Feeding and senses

An opportunistic bottom feeder and scavenger taking crustaceans, molluscs, polychaete worms, small fish and anything dead it finds. It hunts along the bottom by scent, working a trail rather than pursuing prey, and it is a persistent and undiscriminating taker of baits. For an angler this is the whole problem and the whole charm: a catshark will find and take almost any bait left on the bottom, which makes it excellent for a beginner and infuriating for somebody waiting for a bass.

Smell dominates, supported by the ampullae of Lorenzini that detect the electric fields of buried and living prey, and by a lateral line. Vision is functional but plays little part in finding food on a dark bottom. The practical result is that a catshark will locate a bait in any conditions — coloured water, darkness, strong tide — and that no presentation refinement will discourage one. If a mark holds catsharks, catsharks will find the bait.

Through the year

Present around the British Isles throughout the year on almost all clean and mixed ground, with local movements between depths and inshore concentrations that vary by area rather than by a national calendar. There is no honest closed season for catshark fishing, and this is exactly the species that keeps a winter beach session producing when nothing else does.

Distribution

North-east Atlantic from Norway south to Senegal, throughout the North Sea, the Irish Sea, around the whole of the British Isles and Ireland, and into the Mediterranean. Occupies sand, mud, gravel and mixed ground from a few metres down to several hundred, and is generally abundant across that range. The IUCN global assessment is Least Concern, and unusually among sharks the assessment reflects a species that is genuinely doing well — a consequence of laying anchored eggs steadily rather than bearing few live young slowly.

This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.

Why anglers care

The species most British sea anglers catch most often, and therefore the species on which most anglers form their handling habits — which is why it deserves a careful page rather than the dismissal it usually gets. It is an excellent first shark: abundant, small, harmless, present year-round, and completely undemanding about bait. It is also the fish that teaches an angler that a shark is a different animal from a bony fish, if anybody bothers to point it out.

Handling and returning

Small-spotted catsharks are harmless — no spines, and teeth too small to be a real concern — but they are awkward, and the awkwardness causes both angler discomfort and fish damage. THE SKIN IS THE ISSUE: dermal denticles make it abrasive like fine sandpaper in one direction, and a fish twisting against a bare forearm takes skin off. The fish also curls its body tightly around whatever holds it, which is what turns unhooking into a wrestle. THE TECHNIQUE IS TO REMOVE THE LEVERAGE: hold the fish along its length with wet hands, or grip it firmly just behind the head and hold the tail so it cannot bend around your arm. Do not let it wrap. Unhook with long-nosed pliers or a disgorger rather than fingers, and if the hook is out of sight cut the trace close. On welfare: catsharks have no swim bladder so depth is not a problem, but they are frequently thrown down on shingle, left in a bucket, or dropped back from height because they are regarded as a pest. Return them the way you would return anything else — wet hands, minimal air time, and placed in the water rather than thrown.

Holding one properly, and why the skin does the damage

Nothing about a small-spotted catshark is dangerous, and almost everybody handles one badly. Both things are worth explaining.

THE SKIN IS NOT SCALES. Sharks carry dermal denticles — small tooth-like structures with the same basic construction as teeth, pointing backwards. They are why the skin feels like fine sandpaper one way and smooth the other, why it was historically used as an abrasive, and why a catshark twisting against a bare forearm removes skin from it.

AND THE FISH WRAPS. A catshark is extremely flexible and its response to being held is to curl its body around whatever is holding it — an arm, a wrist, a hand. That combination, an abrasive animal with the ability to coil, is the whole reason unhooking one turns into a struggle.

SO REMOVE THE LEVERAGE RATHER THAN FIGHTING IT. Either hold the fish along its length with both hands, supported, with wet hands; or take a firm grip immediately behind the head with one hand and hold the tail with the other, keeping the body straight. Held straight, the fish can do nothing. Held by the middle, it does what it is built to do.

WET HANDS ARE NOT A FORMALITY HERE EITHER. A shark's skin carries the same mucus layer function as a bony fish's, and dry hands damage it.

USE A TOOL FOR THE HOOK. Long-nosed pliers or a disgorger. The teeth are small, but there are a lot of them and they are sharp enough to graze. If the hook is out of sight, cut the trace close and return the fish — that is a far better outcome than excavating.

AND RETURN IT PROPERLY, WHICH IS THE PART MOST OFTEN SKIPPED. Catsharks are widely treated as vermin: dropped on shingle, left flapping while the next rod is dealt with, thrown back from height off a pier. None of that is defensible, and none of it is necessary. There is no swim bladder to worry about, so a catshark returned quickly and gently does very well. Put it in the water rather than throwing it.

IF THE MARK IS PRODUCING NOTHING ELSE, MOVE. The honest response to a session where every cast produces a catshark is not to handle a hundred of them badly. It is to change ground, change bait, or fish elsewhere in the tide.

Practitioner consensus

Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.

Shark Trust identification guides and angling best practice — The Shark Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Identification characters separating the British sharks, skates and rays, and the handling, unhooking and release practice asked of anglers.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including ground, seasonal timing, tackle convention and species behaviour.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of species behaviour and regional angling practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Mermaid's purses: the shark that lays eggs

Most sharks bear live young. This one does not, and the difference explains why it is thriving while the tope and the spurdog are not.

THE EGG CASE IS THE MERMAID'S PURSE. A tough, translucent, roughly rectangular capsule with a long curling tendril at each corner. The female wraps those tendrils around seaweed, hydroids or other structure, anchoring the case where current will flow over it, and the embryo develops inside on its yolk for many months — longer in cold water, shorter in warm.

WHAT EMERGES IS A COMPLETE MINIATURE SHARK, around nine or ten centimetres long, able to feed immediately. There is no larval stage and no metamorphosis. This is a very different arrangement from the flatfish on the neighbouring page, which hatches as a symmetrical larva and is rebuilt.

THE EMPTY CASES WASH ASHORE IN QUANTITY, and for most people finding one on a strandline is their first and only encounter with shark reproduction. They can be told from skate and ray cases, which are larger, blacker, stiffer and carry horns at the corners rather than long curling tendrils.

AND HERE IS WHY IT MATTERS FOR THE FISHING. A spurdog carries a handful of young for two years. A tope produces perhaps thirty pups after a year-long pregnancy and matures late. A small-spotted catshark lays anchored eggs steadily over an extended season, matures earlier, and does not stake its entire reproductive output on the survival of a few large adults.

THAT IS THE WHOLE EXPLANATION FOR THE RED LIST CATEGORIES. In the same seas, under the same pressure, the live-bearing sharks are Vulnerable and Critically Endangered and this one is Least Concern. It is not that catsharks are tougher or luckier. It is that their reproductive strategy can absorb losses and the live-bearers' cannot.

WHICH IS ALSO A USEFUL WARNING ABOUT REASONING FROM ABUNDANCE. An angler who catches catsharks constantly might reasonably conclude that British sharks are doing fine. The species doing fine is the one being caught, and it is doing fine for a specific biological reason that does not transfer to the others.

Scientific evidence

Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.

The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat, identification characters and biology of the fishes of the British Isles and north-west Europe, including the sharks, skates and rays.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The global Red List category and the population assessment behind it, which is a statement about the species rather than about any managed stock.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic identification characters, family placement, depth range and distribution as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Shark Trust identification guides and angling best practice — The Shark Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Identification characters separating the British sharks, skates and rays, and the handling, unhooking and release practice asked of anglers.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Where they are, what takes them, and telling one from a bull huss

Small-spotted catsharks are close to ubiquitous, which makes where they are a shorter question than what to do about it.

THE GROUND IS ALMOST ANYTHING. Sand, mud, gravel, mixed ground and the clean patches between rough — from a few metres of water off a beach down to several hundred offshore. Bull huss prefer rougher, rockier ground; the small-spotted catshark is the one on the open clean stuff.

THE SEASON IS ALL OF THEM. Fish are present around the British Isles throughout the year, with local movements that vary by area. There is no honest national calendar for this species, and it is precisely what keeps a winter session producing.

NIGHT IS BETTER THAN DAY, generally, and this is a fish that feeds actively in darkness using scent and electroreception rather than sight.

ANY BAIT WILL DO, WHICH IS THE POINT. Fish, squid, worm, shellfish, and anything dead. A catshark works a scent trail along the bottom and is entirely undiscriminating. This makes it a genuinely good species for a beginner — a bait on the bottom in the right area will produce a shark, which is not a sentence many countries can offer — and it makes it the bane of anyone fishing for something selective.

AND THE IDENTIFICATION PROBLEM IS THE BULL HUSS. The two are confused constantly, and every field guide's first answer — spot size — is the least reliable one, because spotting varies and worn fish are ambiguous.

THE ANSWER IS ON THE UNDERSIDE OF THE NOSE. Turn the fish over and look at the nasal flaps between the nostrils and the mouth. In a SMALL-SPOTTED CATSHARK the flaps are JOINED into a single continuous flap that extends down and REACHES THE MOUTH. In a BULL HUSS the two flaps are SEPARATE and DO NOT reach the mouth. That character does not vary with age, condition or wear, and it settles the identification every time.

SIZE IS A USEFUL PRIOR AND NOT A PROOF. A small-spotted catshark is usually 45 to 70 centimetres and around a metre at the extreme; a bull huss commonly exceeds that and reaches well over a metre and a half. A very large spotted shark is probably a huss — but check the nose.

NOTHING HERE STATES WHETHER THIS FISH MAY BE KEPT, what minimum size applies, or whether it is protected where you are fishing. Several British sharks, skates and rays are protected in some administrations and not in others, the designations are revised, and the answer differs between England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland. Ask the fisheries authority for the water you are fishing before you go.

Practitioner consensus

The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat, identification characters and biology of the fishes of the British Isles and north-west Europe, including the sharks, skates and rays.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Shark Trust identification guides and angling best practice — The Shark Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Identification characters separating the British sharks, skates and rays, and the handling, unhooking and release practice asked of anglers.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic identification characters, family placement, depth range and distribution as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including ground, seasonal timing, tackle convention and species behaviour.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Where to go next

Similar and related fish

What these connections rest on (2)

Scientific evidence — 2 connections

Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.

Flapper skate
A dietary claim made at SPECIES level because the reference works identify the prey to species: the evidence is about Scyliorhinus canicula specifically, which is what a preys_on edge against that record asserts.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: The diet of the British sharks, skates and rays as set out in the species accounts, in which Scyliorhinus canicula is identified to species among the recorded prey.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Feeding habits and prey composition for the eastern Atlantic elasmobranchs, including the occurrence of Scyliorhinus canicula in the diet.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Lesser sandeel
A dietary claim made at SPECIES level because the reference works identify the prey to species: the evidence is about Ammodytes marinus specifically, which is what a preys_on edge against that record asserts.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: The diet of the British sharks, skates and rays as set out in the species accounts, in which Ammodytes marinus is identified to species among the recorded prey.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Feeding habits and prey composition for the eastern Atlantic elasmobranchs, including the occurrence of Ammodytes marinus in the diet.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

How it is caught

What these connections rest on (3)

Practitioner consensus — 3 connections

Drift fishing
A statement about how a species is fished, which is angling convention rather than biology and is labelled as such.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including ground, seasonal timing, bait and method convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of species behaviour and regional angling practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Ledgering
A statement about how a species is fished, which is angling convention rather than biology and is labelled as such.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including ground, seasonal timing, bait and method convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of species behaviour and regional angling practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Surfcasting
A statement about how a species is fished, which is angling convention rather than biology and is labelled as such.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including ground, seasonal timing, bait and method convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of species behaviour and regional angling practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Gear for this fish

What these connections rest on (3)

Practitioner consensus — 3 connections

Ragworm
A bait joined to the quarry it is conventionally used for. Convention, recorded as convention.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including ground, seasonal timing, bait and method convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of species behaviour and regional angling practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Sea deadbaits
A bait joined to the quarry it is conventionally used for. Convention, recorded as convention.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including ground, seasonal timing, bait and method convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of species behaviour and regional angling practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Squid and cuttlefish
A bait joined to the quarry it is conventionally used for. Convention, recorded as convention.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including ground, seasonal timing, bait and method convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of species behaviour and regional angling practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Where it lives

What these connections rest on (3)

Scientific evidence — 3 connections

Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.

Harbours, piers and breakwaters
A distributional claim about where a species is found, which rests on the standard regional reference works rather than on angling report.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the sharks, skates and rays of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Inshore ground
A distributional claim about where a species is found, which rests on the standard regional reference works rather than on angling report.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the sharks, skates and rays of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Surf beaches
A distributional claim about where a species is found, which rests on the standard regional reference works rather than on angling report.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the sharks, skates and rays of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Understanding this fish

What these connections rest on (3)

Scientific evidence — 3 connections

Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.

Decapod crustaceans as prey
A dietary claim recorded at GROUP level against a modelled prey concept, because the sources describe the prey as a group and selecting a species for the edge to point at would assert a precision the evidence does not carry.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the sharks, skates and rays of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Polychaete worms as prey
A dietary claim recorded at GROUP level against a modelled prey concept, because the sources describe the prey as a group and selecting a species for the edge to point at would assert a precision the evidence does not carry.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the sharks, skates and rays of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
What actually happens to a released fish
A record pointing at the mechanism that explains its own behaviour, so the explanation lives once rather than on every species page.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the sharks, skates and rays of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Told apart from

What these connections rest on (2)

Authoritative guidance — 2 connections

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

Bull huss
Two records a reader must hold together, because the animals are confused with one another in the hand and the consequences of getting it wrong are not symmetrical.
- Shark Trust identification guides and angling best practice — The Shark Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Identification characters separating the British sharks, skates and rays, and the handling, unhooking and release practice asked of anglers.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Spurdog
Two records a reader must hold together, because the animals are confused with one another in the hand and the consequences of getting it wrong are not symmetrical.
- Shark Trust identification guides and angling best practice — The Shark Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Identification characters separating the British sharks, skates and rays, and the handling, unhooking and release practice asked of anglers.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Safety reading

Handling fish safelyHarmless but awkward: denticled skin that removes skin from a forearm, and a body flexible enough to coil around whatever holds it. Both problems are solved by holding the fish straight.

What these connections rest on (1)

Authoritative guidance — 1 connection

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

Handling fish safely
A hazard the species genuinely presents, joined to the record that explains how to manage it.
- Shark Trust identification guides and angling best practice — The Shark Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Identification characters separating the British sharks, skates and rays, and the handling, unhooking and release practice asked of anglers.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Check the rules before you fish

Fishing laws, bylaws, access rules, seasons, bait restrictions and permitted methods vary by location and can change. Check the current rules from the relevant authority and the water you intend to fish before fishing.

Check with:

Current national or regional law for where you are fishing
Current local bylaws
The relevant fisheries authority
The landowner, club or fishery whose water it is
Any restrictions specific to the species or the method you intend to use

Sources for this page

The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat, identification characters and biology of the fishes of the British Isles and north-west Europe, including the sharks, skates and rays.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic identification characters, family placement, depth range and distribution as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Shark Trust identification guides and angling best practice — The Shark Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Identification characters separating the British sharks, skates and rays, and the handling, unhooking and release practice asked of anglers.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The global Red List category for this species and the population assessment behind it, as published in the assessment dated 31 August 2020. Recorded with its date because a Red List category is revised, and a status with no date is a claim with no shelf life.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including ground, seasonal timing, tackle convention and species behaviour.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.

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