Nursery areas are located in inshore shallows or estuaries for most commercial species. Nursery areas offer young sharks abundant supplies of food and some protection from their major natural predators, larger sharks. Larger individuals of many shark species are found predominantly in deeper offshore waters, leaving shallower depths to the young. Many inshore nursery areas are threatened by human development, pollution, and commercial and sport fishing. These areas are fished extensively by inshore longliners and especially by shrimp trawlers, where sharks largely become part of discarded bycatch.
Nurseries also are prime angling areas for sportsfishers.
Florida regulations should serve as a model for other states, limiting catches to one shark per person per day and two sharks per boat and prohibitting finning, the inhumane and wasteful practice of removing fins after capture without retaining the carcass for consumption. Most of the larger species involved in fisheries move northward along the U.S. east coast as water temperatures increase in the spring and summer and move southward in the fall as temperatures drop. In addition, there are inshore-offshore movements tied to water temperature and reproduction. Because these movements are reasonably predictable, knowledgeable fishers are able to follow the pack during the migratory process, and can target certain species and even certain sizes. A generic shark, then, must wait 8-20 years just to reach sexual maturity, then additionally nurture their young internally for a year or more.