At a glance
- IUCN category
- EN · Endangered
- Animal group
- Fish
- Population trend
- Decreasing
- FaunaHub record reviewed
- Checked against IUCN
- Matches source — IUCN's 2019 global assessment of Carcharhinus obscurus says EndangeredChecked 2026-10-09 against IUCN's Red List export published 2026-07-28 · assessment
Conservation overview
The dusky shark is a large, wide-ranging coastal shark. It is assessed as Endangered.
It is one of the slowest-reproducing sharks, maturing very late.
Range & habitat
Warm and temperate coastal and offshore waters worldwide.
Major threats
Threats below are drawn from the authoritative sources listed on this page. For the current, complete assessment, see the IUCN Red List.
- Overfishing and the fin trade
- Bycatch
- An extremely slow reproductive rate
Why it matters
A large coastal shark with exceptionally slow reproduction, the dusky shark is highly sensitive to fishing and a focus for shark management.
Sources
Sources for Dusky Shark
- IUCN Red List — look up Dusky Shark (authoritative status)
- FishBase
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the dusky shark so slow to recover from fishing?
It matures very late and produces few young over a long lifespan, so populations rebuild extremely slowly once reduced — making overfishing especially damaging.
Why is the dusky shark Endangered?
Published assessments cite overfishing and the fin trade, bycatch, and its very slow reproductive rate. See the IUCN Red List.