Zebra Shark - Human Interactions

Human Interactions

Docile and slow-moving, zebra sharks are not dangerous to humans and can be easily approached underwater. However, they have bitten divers who pull on their tails or attempt to ride them. As of 2008 there is one record of an unprovoked attack in the International Shark Attack File, though no injuries resulted. They are popular attractions for ecotourist divers in the Red Sea, off the Maldives, off Thailand's Phuket and Phi Phi islands, on the Great Barrier Reef, and elsewhere. Many zebra sharks at diving sites have become accustomed to the presence of humans, taking food from divers' hands and allowing themselves to be touched. The zebra shark adapts well to captivity and is displayed by a number of public aquaria around the world. The small, attractively colored young also find their way into the hands of private hobbyists, though this species grows far too large for the home aquarium.

The zebra shark is taken by commercial fisheries across most of its range, using bottom trawls, gillnets, and longlines. The meat is sold fresh or dried and salted for human consumption. Furthermore, the liver oil is used for vitamins, the fins for shark fin soup, and the offal for fishmeal. Zebra sharks are highly susceptible to localized depletion due to their shallow habitat and low levels of dispersal between populations, and market surveys suggest that they are much less common now than in the past. They are also threatened by the degradation of their coral reef habitat by human development, and by destructive fishing practices such as dynamiting or poisoning. As a result, the World Conservation Union has assessed this species as Vulnerable. Off Australia, the only threat to this species is a very low level of bycatch in prawn trawls, and there it has been assessed as of Least Concern.