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Spurdog

Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-16

A small shoaling shark with a sharp venomous spine in front of each dorsal fin, a gestation approaching two years, and a habit of arriving in packs — the most awkward fish to unhook in British waters.

Safety

Venomous and spined species — Can cause injury needing treatment

A spurdog carries a stout sharp spine in front of each dorsal fin, associated with a mild venom. A held fish bows its body and lashes sideways to drive a spine into whatever is holding it. The result is a puncture wound with pain, throbbing and swelling well out of proportion to its size, and it can become infected.

What reduces it: Hold the fish straight so it cannot bow — one hand behind the head, one in front of the tail — and keep it away from your body and legs. Never grip a spurdog around the middle, and never unhook one resting on your thigh. Use long-nosed pliers or a T-bar. If spiked, clean the wound, expect disproportionate pain, and take medical advice if pain persists, if anything is left in the wound, or if infection develops.

Worse when:

  • A shoal is on the mark and fish are being unhooked quickly under time pressure.
  • Unhooking seated in a boat with the fish across a leg.
  • Gripping the fish around the middle, the one hold both spines can reach.
  • Working in the dark or in a moving boat where the fish cannot be controlled cleanly.

Fish welfare — Can cause injury needing treatment

Spurdog shoal and segregate by size and sex, so a mark producing large fish is producing disproportionately many mature females, each of which carries young for something close to two years. Heavy catches from a single shoal remove far more reproductive capacity than the weight suggests, and a mishandled fish released after a struggle to control its spines may not survive.

What reduces it: Control the fish quickly and cleanly so the struggle is short, support it horizontally, keep air exposure to seconds, cut the trace rather than dig for a deep hook, and treat moving off a productive mark as a legitimate decision when more fish are coming than can be handled properly.

Worse when:

  • Fishing a shoal of large fish, which is where the mature females are.
  • Continuous fast fishing where handling quality falls as the pace rises.
  • Warm or low-oxygen water, where recovery from exhaustion is slower.

Precautions that always apply here

  • Handle spined and venomous species with the spines controlled. Know which local species have them before you fish, not afterwards.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

The spurdog is the British shark that hurts. It carries a stout, sharp spine immediately in front of each of its two dorsal fins, the spines are associated with a mild venom, and a hooked spurdog curls itself into a bow and drives them at whatever is holding it. Anglers who handle them casually get spiked, and it is a wound that hurts out of all proportion to its size.

IT IS ALSO A SHOALING FISH, which is the second thing that defines the fishing. Spurdog arrive in packs, often segregated by size and sex, and a boat that finds them can catch a great many in a session. That combination — abundant, easily caught, easily killed — is exactly what made the species commercially valuable and is a large part of why it is now assessed as Vulnerable.

AND ITS REPRODUCTION IS EXTRAORDINARY. Gestation in this species is somewhere in the region of two years, among the longest known in any vertebrate, and litters are small. There is no faster way to understand why a fish this abundant can be depleted and stay depleted.

THE IDENTIFICATION IS UNMISTAKABLE ONCE KNOWN: two dorsal spines, and NO ANAL FIN at all. No other shark an angler meets in British water combines those two things.

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
Squalus acanthias
Family
Squalidae
Water
Saltwater
Conservation status
Vulnerable
Regions
Britain & Ireland, Northern Europe, Western Europe, Mediterranean, Arctic & Subarctic, North America
  • TWO STOUT SPINES, one immediately in front of each dorsal fin. These are the diagnostic character and the hazard, and they are the reason for the name.
  • NO ANAL FIN. Run an eye along the underside between the pelvic fins and the tail: it is bare. Every catshark, smooth-hound and tope has an anal fin. This one does not, and the combination of spines and no anal fin identifies the fish beyond argument.
  • Slate grey to grey-brown above, pale below, usually with scattered small WHITE SPOTS along the flanks — clearest in younger fish and often faded in large old ones.
  • Slender and small-headed with a fairly pointed snout and large eyes, rarely over a metre in British waters.
  • Teeth are small, flattened and set in a continuous cutting edge — nothing like a tope's large blades, and nothing like a smooth-hound's crushing plates.
  • Caught in numbers rather than singly, and usually from deeper water than the shore dogfishes.

Size

Typical
70–95 cm and 2–5 kg for rod-caught fish.
Large
Over 1 m and 7 kg is a good spurdog.

Exceptional: Around 1.2 m and something over 9 kg is the reported upper end, and the largest fish are females. Fish of that size are decades old.

Lifecycle and reproduction

Spurdog are aplacental viviparous. Eggs are fertilised internally and develop inside the female, nourished by their yolk, and the pups are born live and fully formed at around 25 cm. Gestation is exceptionally long — widely reported as approaching two years, among the longest of any vertebrate — and litters typically number in the single figures to low tens. Maturity comes late, particularly in females, and individuals are long-lived, with reported ages running well into the decades. The species combines high local abundance with a reproductive rate that is close to the slowest known in fishes.

Females mature later and at a greater length than males and carry young for something close to two years, so a female is pregnant for most of her adult life and can produce only a handful of pups per cycle. Shoals are frequently segregated by size and sex, which means a fishery can encounter and remove a concentration of large pregnant females as a single event rather than as a gradual pressure. That segregation, combined with the gestation length, is the mechanism behind the species' documented depletion and its very slow recovery.

Feeding and senses

An opportunistic predator and scavenger of small fish, cephalopods and crustaceans — herring, sprat, sandeel, small gadoids, squid, shrimp and whatever the ground offers. Spurdog feed as a pack, and a shoal working over a mark will strip baits continuously. Their small, uniformly bladed teeth cut rather than crush. For an angler the practical signature is unmistakable: bites that come one after another on every rod, and baits returning shredded.

As in all sharks, an acute sense of smell and a set of ampullae of Lorenzini detecting the electric fields of living tissue, combined with a lateral line and good low-light vision. Spurdog live and feed in deeper, darker water than the inshore catsharks, and the sensory package reflects it — this is a fish that finds food without seeing it. A fresh oily bait producing a scent trail is what draws a shoal onto a mark, and it is why the fishing goes from nothing to constant within minutes.

Through the year

Present in British and Irish waters through the year but strongly mobile, with shoals moving between depths and along the coast seasonally, and inshore appearances that are locally predictable rather than nationally uniform. Deep-water marks and sea lochs on the west coast of Scotland hold fish at times when open-coast marks do not. Because shoals are segregated and mobile, the fishing is characteristically all-or-nothing: a mark produces heavily or not at all.

Distribution

Widely distributed in temperate seas of both hemispheres, including the whole north-east Atlantic from the Barents Sea to the Bay of Biscay, around the British Isles and Ireland, and in the western Mediterranean. Occupies shelf and slope waters from the shallows to several hundred metres, generally deeper than the inshore catsharks. The IUCN global assessment is Vulnerable, and north-east Atlantic populations have a documented history of severe depletion under commercial fishing followed by very slow recovery — the predictable outcome of a two-year gestation meeting an efficient fishery.

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

A significant boat species in deeper water and in the Scottish sea lochs, and the species that most reliably tests whether an angler actually knows how to handle a shark. Spurdog fishing is characteristically a pack fishery — long quiet spells and then continuous action — and the tackle question is less about hooking fish than about unhooking them without injury. It is also a species whose conservation history is unusually well documented, which makes it the clearest example in British waters of what a slow life history does when it meets efficient fishing.

Handling and returning

The spines are the whole problem and they are not decorative. There is a stout, sharp spine in front of each dorsal fin, they are associated with a mild venom, and a spurdog defends itself by curling into a bow and lashing sideways to drive a spine into whatever holds it. The wound is puncture plus irritant, and it hurts badly and swells. CONTROL THE FISH BEFORE UNHOOKING: hold it firmly behind the head and in front of the tail so it cannot bow, keep it away from your body and legs, and never grip it around the middle where both spines can reach you. Use long-nosed pliers or a T-bar, not fingers. If you are spiked, clean the wound, expect disproportionate pain and swelling, and get medical advice if pain persists, if anything is left in the wound, or if infection develops. On welfare, the same elasmobranch rules apply as for tope: no swim bladder so release genuinely works, support horizontally, minimise air time, do not lift by the tail, and cut the trace rather than dig for a deep hook. Where a shoal is being caught in numbers, moving off the mark is a legitimate decision.

Two spines, no anal fin, and a fish that unhooks nothing like a dogfish

Almost every spurdog injury comes from treating the fish like a catshark. It is not one, and the differences are physical.

THE DIAGNOSIS TAKES TWO SECONDS. Two stout spines, one in front of each dorsal fin, and no anal fin between the pelvics and the tail. A catshark, a smooth-hound and a tope all have an anal fin and none of them has spines. Nothing else an angler meets in British water combines these two characters, and the identification does not depend on colour, spotting or size.

THE SPINES ARE WEAPONS AND THE FISH KNOWS HOW TO USE THEM. A held spurdog bends itself into a bow and lashes sideways, driving a spine into whatever is holding it. This is a deliberate defensive action, not a thrash. It is why the fish must be held so it cannot bow — a firm grip behind the head and another in front of the tail, the animal kept straight and kept away from your body.

THE WOUND IS WORSE THAN IT LOOKS. The spines carry a mild venom, and a spiking produces pain, swelling and throbbing well out of proportion to a puncture of that size. Clean it, expect it to hurt for some hours, and seek medical advice if the pain persists, if anything remains in the wound, or if it becomes infected. There is nothing heroic about being spiked; it is a handling error with a predictable cause.

NEVER GRIP ONE ROUND THE MIDDLE. That is the one hold from which both spines can reach the hand doing the holding, and it is the commonest way people are injured.

AND NEVER LAY ONE ON YOUR LEG. Spurdog are frequently unhooked by a seated angler in a boat, and a fish that bows on a thigh drives a spine through clothing.

USE TOOLS, NOT FINGERS. Long-nosed pliers or a T-bar. The teeth are small but they are set as a continuous cutting edge and they work.

THE OTHER REASON TO BE EFFICIENT IS THAT THEY ARRIVE IN PACKS. When a shoal settles on a mark the fishing becomes continuous, and an angler unhooking badly under time pressure is an angler who gets spiked. Slowing down is the fast option, and moving off a mark when the shoal is producing more fish than can be handled properly is a legitimate decision rather than a failure.

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
  • 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
  • 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

Where the shoals are, what they eat, and why the fishing is all or nothing

Spurdog fishing does not build gradually. Either the shoal is on the mark or it is not.

THEY ARE A DEEPER-WATER FISH THAN THE INSHORE DOGFISHES. Shelf and slope ground, generally in tens to hundreds of metres, which makes this predominantly a boat fishery. The notable British exception is the deep sea lochs of western Scotland, where genuinely deep water sits close to land and fish come within reach in a way they do not on most open coast.

SHOALS ARE SEGREGATED BY SIZE AND SEX. A mark producing fish will often produce fish of remarkably similar size, and a shoal of large fish is disproportionately likely to be females, which is disproportionately likely to mean pregnant females. That is a fact worth holding while deciding how many fish a session needs.

THE FISHING IS PACK FISHING. Nothing, and then bites on every rod at once. A shoal moving onto a mark announces itself, and it will strip baits continuously for as long as it stays.

SCENT IS WHAT BRINGS THEM. Fresh oily fish baits — mackerel, herring and similar — produce a trail that a shoal follows. Combined with an acute sense of smell and the electroreceptive ampullae that detect living muscle, this is a fish that hunts perfectly well in dark, deep water where sight contributes very little.

WHAT THEY ACTUALLY EAT is small fish, squid and crustaceans: herring, sprat, sandeel, small gadoids and whatever the ground provides. The teeth are small and uniform, forming a continuous cutting edge rather than crushing plates, and shredded baits are the signature.

SEASONALITY IS LOCAL RATHER THAN NATIONAL. Fish are in British and Irish waters year-round, but shoals move between depths and along the coast, so a mark has a season and the country does not. Local knowledge genuinely outperforms general rules here, and there is no honest month-by-month calendar to give.

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

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.

  • 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
  • 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
  • Cefas science, advice and data on marine and freshwater environments — Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: UK marine fisheries science: survey data, distribution, elasmobranch stock monitoring and the biological basis of management advice.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • ICES Advice on fishing opportunities, catch and effort — International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Scientific advice on north-east Atlantic elasmobranch stocks, including stock state and the basis for management advice.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

A two-year pregnancy, and what it does to a fishery

The spurdog is the clearest illustration in British waters of a single biological fact deciding the fate of a fishery.

GESTATION IS ROUGHLY TWO YEARS. It is among the longest reported for any vertebrate. The eggs develop inside the female, nourished by yolk rather than by a placenta, and she gives birth to live pups around 25 centimetres long. Litters run from a few to a couple of dozen.

SHE IS THEREFORE PREGNANT FOR MOST OF HER ADULT LIFE, and each of those pregnancies produces perhaps a dozen young. Set that against a herring producing tens of thousands of eggs annually, and the difference is not one of degree.

MATURITY IS LATE AND LIFE IS LONG. Females mature late and large, and reported ages run well into the decades. A large spurdog is an old fish. That is the same pattern as the tope and it has the same consequence.

NOW ADD SHOALING AND SEGREGATION. Because shoals sort themselves by size and sex, a fishery does not remove fish evenly. It can encounter a concentration of large pregnant females and remove it in a single event. The reproductive capacity lost is not proportional to the weight landed — it is far greater.

WHICH IS WHAT HAPPENED. North-east Atlantic spurdog were fished heavily and commercially for decades, sold widely under market names, and were severely depleted. Recovery has been slow in exactly the way the biology predicts, because a stock whose females need years to mature and two years to produce a small litter cannot rebuild on a fishery's timescale. The IUCN global assessment is Vulnerable.

THE ANGLING CONSEQUENCE IS PROPORTION RATHER THAN PROHIBITION. Nothing on this page says a spurdog may not be kept — that is not FishingHQ's to say. What the biology does say is that a shoal encountered on a mark is not an inexhaustible resource, that large fish are disproportionately breeding females, and that a session which catches thirty and keeps none has a very different effect from one that keeps thirty. Handling them well so they survive release is therefore the part an angler controls: no swim bladder means a returned fish is not doomed by depth, support horizontally, keep air exposure short, control the spines so the fish is not damaged in a struggle, and cut the trace rather than excavate a deep hook.

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.

Scientific evidence

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

  • 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
  • ICES Advice on fishing opportunities, catch and effort — International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Scientific advice on north-east Atlantic elasmobranch stocks, including stock state and the basis for management advice.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • Cefas science, advice and data on marine and freshwater environments — Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: UK marine fisheries science: survey data, distribution, elasmobranch stock monitoring and the biological basis of management advice.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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

Where to go next

Similar and related 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.

  • Atlantic herring

    A dietary claim made at SPECIES level because the reference works identify the prey to species: the evidence is about Clupea harengus 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 Clupea harengus 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 Clupea harengus in the diet.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • European sprat

    A dietary claim made at SPECIES level because the reference works identify the prey to species: the evidence is about Sprattus sprattus 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 Sprattus sprattus 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 Sprattus sprattus 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

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.

  • Deep-drop 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

  • 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

Gear for this fish

What these connections rest on (2)

Practitioner consensus — 2 connections

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.

  • 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 (2)

Scientific evidence — 2 connections

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

  • 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

  • Open ocean

    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 (2)

Scientific evidence — 2 connections

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

  • Cephalopods 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 (3)

Practitioner consensus — 1 connection

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.

  • Blue shark

    A comparison a reader with the animal or the decision in front of them actually needs, joining two records that resolve one another.

    • 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 fishes and inshore fauna 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, family placement, 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

Authoritative guidance — 2 connections

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

  • Small-spotted catshark

    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

  • Tope

    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

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.

  • 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

  • Venomous and spined fish

    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

Environment and conservation

What these connections rest on (1)

Scientific evidence — 1 connection

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

  • Fish stocks and sustainability

    A conservation claim about a species with a documented assessment, joined to the environmental issue it exemplifies.

    • 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 for the species concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • Cefas science, advice and data on marine and freshwater environments — Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: UK marine fisheries science: survey data, distribution and elasmobranch stock monitoring in UK waters.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
  • 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 21 November 2019. 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
  • 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
  • ICES Advice on fishing opportunities, catch and effort — International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Scientific advice on north-east Atlantic elasmobranch stocks, including stock state and the basis for management advice.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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