PATAGONIAN SMOOTHHOUND » Mustelus Schmitti

Other common names in Latin America

Brazil: Cocoa
English common name: Patagonian smoothhound

Distinctive external characters:
Head and short snout rather blunt. Small eyes, spiracles visible behind the eyes. Boca mosaic bearing teeth. Five pairs of gill bendeduras, the latter three located above the base of the pectoral. With anal fin. Caudal heterocerca, highlights a lobe at the rear.
Coloring: iridescent uniform leaden gray, darker on the back, dotted with small white dots.

Distinctive external characters:
Head and short snout rather blunt. Small eyes, spiracles visible behind the eyes. Boca mosaic bearing teeth. Five pairs of gill bendeduras, the latter three located above the base of the pectoral. With anal fin. Caudal heterocerca, highlights a lobe at the rear.
Coloring: iridescent uniform leaden gray, darker on the back, dotted with small white dots.

Size:
The maximum size observed is 94 cm, females reach larger sizes than males.

Other biological characteristics:
It feeds on organisms close to bottom or attached to it. Predominate in the diet of crabs. Secondly include polychaete annelids. Third small fish, both pelagic (anchoita, Ray, mackerel) and demersal (whiting and hake juvenile brótoloa, beating) and benthic (Testolin, sole, tongue). The fourth is a heterogeneous group consisting of prawns, shrimp, other crustaceans, cephalopods (pulpit, squid, calamarete) sea anemones, etc..
The reproductive cycle is annual. During the months of November-December breeding females are then fertilized and are re-gestation, which is about ten months. Can release between 2 and 13 embryos (the number of embryos increases with the size of the mother) but more often, 4. The size of the unborn embryo is about 25 cm. The length at first maturity was calculated for males is 60 cm and 62 cm for females.

Geographic distribution and behavior:
Is in latitude from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Patagonia, in Argentina, and in depth from the coast to no more than 120 meters, at least in the far south of its distribution.
In late spring (November-December) both sexes meet in the coastal area to breed. the rest of the year tend to form small clusters of male dominance or embras, which leads to the diet during this time is different in both sexes. In the Province of Buenos Aires have been two areas of parenting, one south of the Bay Samborombón and one in the corner.

Size:
Moderate

Fishing fleet and capture gear:
The fleets that catch this species are mainly from the bay or estuary and coast. The fishing gear used is bottom trawl.

Ways to use:
It is marketed fresh for domestic consumption, peeled, head, viscera.