Lesser-Spotted Catshark

The lesser-spotted catshark is a small, slender shark with a mottled brown or grey body covered in dark spots and saddle markings—features that make it one of the easiest small sharks to identify on the seabed. Found across the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, it inhabits sandy and muddy bottoms at 20–400 m, though most common between 50–100 m. Largely nocturnal, it hunts fish and crustaceans along the bottom; divers may spot one resting motionless on the sand during the day, or watch it sniffing its way across the seabed at night.