For the greater glory of prickly shark

What is a prickly shark?

The prickly shark Echinorhinus cookei is a large predatory shark with a pan-Pacific distribution (Long et al. 2011). Prickly sharks are amazing looking and have a traditional shark body type although they are a bit thicker around the middle than many other species. Their skin is covered with modified teeth called dermal denticles or "skin teeth". They have very interesting teeth that are razor sharp but have no serration. You can also see the oral papillae on the roof of the mouth that have taste buds on the end. They have a fold in the corner of their mouth that may be used to create suction when the shark is feeding and quickly opens its mouth (Motta 2004). Click below to see pictures and get more information.

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What research has been done?

Most of the published literature on prickly sharks has been about their distribution. The seminal paper on what is known about prickly shark range and depth distribution was published as Long 2011. We know prickly sharks live in submarine canyons, around sea mounts and over sandy habitat. My research on habitat use was published as Dawson and Starr 2009. Small sharks, egg cases of other sharks and rays, octopus, squid, chimera and other mid-water and benthic fishes have been found in prickly shark stomachs. We don't know how often they reproduce but we know the females need to grow to around 3 m or 10 ft to reproduce and pregnant females have been caught carrying up to 113 pups! Research on what prickly sharks eat and their size at reproductive maturity in Crow et al.1996. Click below for a full bibliography of published papers on prickly shark including the ones mentioned above.

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Take Action

Make sure you and everybody you know doesn't buy anything with shark in it. That means souvenirs (e.g. shark tooth necklaces, dried shark jaws) and certainly don't eat shark. Sharks in general are slow growing, take a long time to mature enough to reproduce, don't have very many offspring that reach adulthood and are fairly long lived. At this point, shark is not a seafood we can eat without making sharks die out to a level that makes the oceans an unhealthy place. Sharks are top predators and without them ecosystems become unbalanced and less productive overall. Sharks have been swimming the oceans for 400 million years and our oceans and in turn us need them to keep doing that. Predators control and balance ecosystems. They help prevent species from becoming too abundant which will then lead to those species running out of food. A common example that is often sited is the decline of large sharks in the North Atlantic Ocean. This led to a huge increase in the number of a shark relative the cownose rays. These rays in turn eat scallops which we humans like to eat and this in addition to other factors such as over-fishing led to a huge decline is scallop populations. We are only just beginning to understand how ecosystems work and the role of top or apex sharks play in them. We need sharks to help regulate populations of other sea creatures and ensure the ocean remains healthy. You can do your part by not using ANYTHING that has shark in it and not spending your money at establishment that sells ANYTHING with sharks in it regardless of the species.

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