Copper Shark - Human Interactions

Human Interactions

Though large and powerful, the copper shark is not particularly aggressive towards humans unless in the presence of food, and is thus not regarded as especially dangerous. However, it has been known to harass spear fishers in an attempt to steal catches, and has also bitten several bathers in Australia, where it is abundant. As of May 2009, the International Shark Attack File listed 33 attacks on people and boats by the copper shark, 17 of them unprovoked and none fatal. However, witnesses attributed a fatal attack on September 2011 in Bunker Bay, Western Australia to a copper shark. Like many large, active sharks, this species adapts poorly to captivity; it tends to bump into the sides of its enclosure, and the resulting abrasions then become infected with often fatal consequences.

Commercial fisheries for the copper shark exist off New Zealand, Australia (though the "bronze whaler fishery" of Western Australia actually takes mostly dusky sharks), South Africa, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico, and China; it also contributes to the bycatch of other commercial fisheries across its range. This species is caught in gillnets and on bottom longlines, and to a much lesser extent in bottom trawls and on pelagic longlines. The meat is sold for human consumption. The copper shark is also popular with recreational fishers in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico and California, predominantly by anglers but also by bowfishers and gillnetters. In New Zealand, it is the Carcharhinus species most frequently caught by sport fishers and sustains a small, summer recreational fishery in northern North Island, that mainly captures pregnant and post-partum females and for the most part practices tag and release. A tag and release program is also practiced in Namibia.