Common smooth-hound on its underneath. It is often confused with the starry smooth-hound which has white spots on its back. The starry smooth-hound can often have faded spots which leads to misidentification. Another shark it is often confused with is the tope shark although the common smooth hound has a larger second dorsal fin. Due to the similarities between the common smooth-hound and other sharks, misidentification occurred for a long time. The common smooth-hound has two dorsal fins, an anal fin, a pair of pectoral fins, a pair of pelvic fins and a heterocercal tail. All of these fins help stabilise the
Speckled smooth-hound by artisan fishermen using gill nets. Landings in Chile peaked in 1989 at around 1300 tons but have since dwindled to less than 200 tons a year, with fish stocks declining and a transfer of the fisheries to targeting rays. In 2001, the Peruvian authorities introduced a minimum size requirement of for tollo. The speckled smooth-hound is assessed by the IUCN as being "near threatened" on the basis of its past over-fishing. This assessment may be raised to a more-threatened category if intensive fishing resumes. Speckled smooth-hound The speckled smooth-hound ("Mustelus mento") is a houndshark of the family Triakidae. It