Bignose shark

How it lives

It lives near the continental shelf edge. Wikipedia gives a typical depth of 90 to 430 m, while FishBase gives 12 to 810 m and usually 80 to 220 m. Young sharks may come into water as shallow as 25 m. It gives birth to live young nourished through a yolk-sac placenta. Litter sizes are given as 3 to 15, 1 to 13 or 3 to 11 pups depending on the source, after a gestation of about 10 months, and newborns are about 60 to 90 cm long. Females mature at about 2.3 m.

Where it goes

In the northwestern Atlantic, Wikipedia describes seasonal travel of about 1,600 to 3,200 km between the US East Coast in summer and the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean in winter. Night-time catches near the surface suggest a daily vertical movement. Elsewhere, movements are not described in the sources I opened.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

Listed as Near Threatened by IUCN (assessed February 2020, per FishBase). Wikipedia notes it is Near Threatened in the northwestern Atlantic and Least Concern in Australian waters. FishBase notes it is on CITES Appendix II. It is caught as bycatch in gillnets, bottom trawls and deep longlines, and its fins are traded. The Florida Museum says harvest is prohibited in US waters. Declines are of most concern where fishing is heavy and its slow breeding cannot keep up.