Abstract
The Atlantic Sharpnose Shark (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae) is a small (to 113 cm total length) coastal
shark found in the Northwest and Western Central Atlantic Oceans ranging from New Brunswick,
Canada (although it rarely occurs north of North Carolina in the USA) to the Yucatan Peninsula in the
south, including the Gulf of Mexico. It is found in warm temperate and tropical continental shelf and
slope waters to a depth of 280 m. It exhibits life-history and population growth characteristics that
would make it very productive when compared to other sharks. The species is caught in both
commercial and recreational fisheries, mainly as bycatch in gillnets and shrimp trawls.
Population trend data are available from multiple surveys in the Northwest Atlantic and a stock
assessment for the Gulf of Mexico and US south Atlantic. Combining all time-series in a global model
estimates an annual increase of 1.1% and an increasing population over the past three generation
lengths (30 years). There is no evidence of population decline, the species is not suspected to be close
to reaching the population reduction threshold, and the Atlantic Sharpnose Shark is assessed as Least
Concern.