 Hunting close to the sea floor, the bignose shark feeds on bony and cartilaginous fishes, and cephalopods. It is viviparous, meaning the embryos are sustained to term via a placental connection. Females bear litters of three to15 pups after a 10-month gestation period. Despite its size, this shark lives too deep to pose much danger to humans. It is caught incidentally by commercial fisheries in many parts of its range; the meat, fins, skin, liver oil, and offal may be used. The International Union for Conservation of Nature presently lacks enough information to assess the global conservation status of this species. However, the various fishing pressures within its range are cause for concern given its slow reproductive rate, and it may have already declined in the northwestern Atlantic and elsewhere.
