Author: Pietschmann, 1928

Field Marks:
No anal fin, dorsals spineless and far back, first behind pelvic origins; denticles relatively close-set and only moderately large, not formed as large, flat thorns.

Diagnostic Features:
Dermal denticles on body moderate-sized, close-set, and with relatively small, stellate bases, less than 5 mm in diameter; denticles not expanded into large bucklers or thorns, not fused together.

Geographical Distribution:
Western Pacific: Taiwan (Province of China), New Zealand. Central Pacific: Palau (Belau) and HawaiianIslands. Eastern Pacific: Central California to Gulf of California, also Peru.

Habitat and Biology:
A large, sluggish bottom shark, occurring on continental and insular shelves and upper slopes at depths from 11 to at least 424 m; in California caught in submarine canyons. Eats a variety of fishes, including spiny dogfish, the young of the sixgill shark (Hexanchus-griseus), hake, flounders, rockfish, lingcod, topsmelt, herring, elephantfish (Callorinchus), and catshark (Apristurus) eggeases, also octopuses and squids.

Size:
Maximum about 4 m, size at birth below 45 cm, mature males reaching at least 220 cm, females immature at 254 cm and adult at 299 cm (sex not reported for 4 m specimen).

Interest to Fisheries:
Unimportant, occasionally taken by line gear, gillnets and bottom trawls.

Type material:
Holotype: Formerly in Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, apparently lost. Type Locality South coast of Kauai, Hawaiian Islands. Neotype: National Museum of New Zealand, NMNZ 2774, Pallaser Bay, Cook Strait, New Zealand, designated by Garrick (1960:110).

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Superclass Gnathostomata
Class Chondrichthyes
Subclass Elasmobranchii
Superorder Squalomorphii
Order Squaliformes
Family Echinorhinidae
Genus Echinorhinus
Species Echinorhinus cookei

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Echinorhinus cookei Pietschmann, 1928

Scientific synonyms and common names

Echinorhinus cookei Pietschmann, 1928

Echinorhinus cookei Pietschmann, 1928, Anz.Akad.Wien, 65:297.

Synonymy: None.

FAO Names:
Prickly shark [English]
Squale bouclé du Pacifique [French]
Tiburón negro espinoso [Spanish]
ECHIN Echin 2 [FAO Code]

Garrick, J.A.F., 1960. Studies on New Zealand Elasmobranchii. Part 10. The genus Echinorhinus, with an account of a second species E. cookei Pietchmann, 1928. Trans.R.Soc.N.Z., 88(1 :105-17

Garrick, J.A.F. and J.R. Moreland, 1968. Notes on a bramble shark, Echinorhinus cookei, from Cook Strait, New Zealand. Rec.Dom.Mus.Wellington, 6:133-9

Varoujean, D.H., 1972. Systematics of the genus Echinorhinus Blainville, based on a study of the prickly shark Echinorhinus cookei. MA Thesis, Department of Zoology, Fresno State College, 56 p.

B. Saunders (pers. comm.)

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