Horn Shark - Human Interactions

Human Interactions

Under normal circumstances, horn sharks are harmless to humans and can readily be approached underwater. However, they can be provoked into biting, and some pugnacious individuals have been known to chase and bite divers after being harassed. These sharks should be handled with care as their fin spines can inflict a painful wound. The horn shark adapts well to captivity and has been maintained and bred in many public aquariums across the United States.

The horn shark has no commercial value in California, where it is captured unintentionally in traps and trawls and by recreational anglers. The shark's hardiness ensures that it can often be returned to the water alive. This species benefits from general restrictions placed on coastal fishing gear by the State of California. The average annual bycatch off California is 1,800 kg (4,000 lb), though historically it has varied from 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) in 1976 to 9,500 kg (21,000 lb) in 1979. Divers sometimes kill them for sport or to make jewelry out of their fin spines, which may be the cause of a decline in the numbers of horn sharks in the most intensely dived areas of southern California. Off Mexico, this species is caught incidentally in shrimp trawls and demersal gillnets, and used for human consumption and fishmeal. The expansion of Mexican gillnet fisheries may pose a conservation concern in the future. At present, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) does not have sufficient information to assess the overall conservation status of this species; its status in United States waters is likely Least Concern.