Find a Fish
Prickly Shark
Echinorhinus cookei Pietschmann, 1928
D. Bray (Museum Victoria) measuring a 1.8 m long Prickly Shark. This fish was caught at a depth of around 580 m by FV Majestic Star (Tom Bibby) off north-western Tasmania. Photo: J. Broomfield © Museum Victoria. View larger image.
The whole Prickly Shark specimen. Photo: J. Broomfield © Museum Victoria. View larger image.
Teeth of a 2.84 m long Echinorhinus caught on hook and line by R. Howard, at a depth of 240 m, near North Solitary Island, New South Wales, January 1981 (AMS I.25335-001). Photo © I. Bennett. View larger image.
The Prickly Shark has two small dorsal fins positioned posteriorly on the body. It lacks an anal fin. There are numerous, thorn-like denticles on the body.
The species is usually grey-brown in colour. The margins of the fins are sometimes black and the underside of the snout and around the mouth are usually white.
Stomach contents of Prickly Sharks have included fishes (including sharks and rays) and cephalopods.
The Prickly Shark grows to 4 m in length.
It lives in marine waters at depths between 11 m and 580 m (usually over 70 m).
The species is recorded from scattered localities around the Pacific.
In Australia it is known to occur from Bass Strait, Victoria to eastern South Australia.
It has also been called Cooks Bramble Shark.
Two species of Echinorhinus (Bramble Sharks) are known from Australian waters. The Prickly Shark and the Bramble Shark, Echinorhinus brucus. The latter species has fewer, sparsely spaced denticles on the body.
Related links
- View the family Echinorhinidae list
- View the Sharks list
Further reading
- Last, P.R. & J.D. Stevens. 1994 Sharks and Rays of Australia. CSIRO. Pp. 513.
- Stevens, J.D. in Gomon, M.F., Glover, C.J.M. & R.H. Kuiter (Eds). 1994. The Fishes of Australia's South Coast. State Print, Adelaide. Pp. 992.
