Nursehound

How it lives

The nursehound is a catshark of rocky ground and seaweed-covered seabed, usually at 20 to 63 m but found from the shallows down to about 400 m. It is mostly active at night. Females lay eggs in pairs in dark brown egg cases, 10 to 13 cm long, which they attach to seaweed between March and October. The eggs take about 7 to 12 months to hatch, and hatchlings are about 10 to 16 cm long. It matures at about 78 cm, and the oldest age reported is 19 years.

Where it goes

Studies of nursehounds in coastal waters of the UK describe animals that shelter in the same sheltered or exposed places and often return to them. Numbers there are highest in September. By day the shark rests in holes in the rocks, and at night it swims into deeper water to hunt. The sources I read do not describe long migrations.

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

Worldwide it is Vulnerable (assessed 2020). The IUCN estimates a fall of 30 to 49% over about 48 years, with numbers rising in the Northeast Atlantic and falling in the Mediterranean. Some local drops are large: in the upper Tyrrhenian Sea numbers are reported to have fallen by over 99% since the 1970s, and groups in the Gulf of Lion, Albania and the Balearic Islands have also declined. In the Celtic Sea, Irish Sea and Bristol Channel it is a regular catch in lobster and crab pots (2024 study). It is also a minor target of commercial fisheries. Some records from the southern Atlantic may be a different species.