Prickly Shark, Echinorhinus cookei

Prickly Shark, Echinorhinus cookei. Fish caught in coastal waters off of Puerto Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, April 2008. It was an end product of gorilla warfare between the fish above and a 24 foot Northern Elephant Seal, Mirounga angustirostris. The Seal abandoned the shark as the Panguero approached allowing it to be gaffed. Catch and photograph courtesy of Eric Brictson, La Playita, Baja California Sur. Length 1.20 m (4 feet 0 inches). Identification reconfirmed by H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.

The Prickly Shark, Echinorhinus cookei, is a member of the Bramble Shark or Echinorhinidae Family, and is known in Mexico as tiburón espinoso negro. There is the only this species in the genus Echinorhinus, which is found in Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean.

The Prickly Shark has a cylindrical robust body and are a uniform grayish-brown color with white around their snout and mouth. All their fins have black margins. They have a flattened head with a short snout. Their teeth are similar on both sides and have one large point and 3 small points on their sides. They have 5 gill slits with the last 1 being longer than the others. Their spiracles are small and located well before the eyes. All of their fins are short and blunt. They do not have anal fins; their caudal fin is strongly asymmetrical with a small lower lobe and without a notch under the tip; they have two small equally-sized dorsal fins (a key to identification) located at the rear of their body and well behind their pelvic fins; and, the pelvic fins are large and located well back on their body. They are covered with numerous closely-packed regularly-spaced thorn-like denticles that resemble coarse sandpaper (after which they are named) which they utilize to wound prey.

The Prickly Shark is a slow-moving demersal species found on the continental shelf, insular shelves, and upper slopes at depths between 10 m (30 feet) and 1,100 m (3,600 feet). They reach a maximum 4.5 m (14 feet 9 inches) in length. They feed on a variety of fish, other sharks, and squid. Reproduction is ovoviviparous with litters of up to 114 live pups that are 40 cm (16 inches) to 45 cm (18 inches) at birth. The Prickly Shark is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.

The Prickly Shark is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean with the exception that they are absent from north of La Paz, Baja California Sur, in the Sea of Cortez.

The Prickly Shark is easy to identify and cannot be confused with any other species.

From a conservation perspective the Prickly Shark is currently considered to be Data Deficient with unknown population sizes and trends and no dedicated surveys or population estimates. Records across its range are sparse and limited. They are quite rare and seldom seen by humans.