It is distributed in a number of separate populations in the northeastern and southwestern Atlantic, off southern Africa, in the northwestern and eastern Pacific, and around Australia and New Zealand, with scattered reports from equatorial regions.

It is characterized by its narrow, hook-shaped upper teeth, lack of a prominent ridge between the dorsal fins, and plain bronze coloration.

Off South Africa, this species associates closely with the annual sardine run, involving millions of southern African pilchard (Sardinops sagax).

[4] The earliest name was once thought to be Auguste Duméril's 1865 Carcharias remotus, until it was found that the type specimen associated with that name is actually a blacknose shark (C. acronotus).

[5] An even earlier name, Richard Owen's 1853 Galeolamna greyi, is of questionable taxonomic status as it was based solely on a set of now-destroyed jaws that may or may not have belonged to a copper shark.

[1][8] Günther originally referred to four syntypes: a stuffed specimen from Antarctica and another from New Zealand, which have since been lost, and two fetuses from Australia that were later discovered to be bull sharks (C.

[4][6] In the interests of taxonomic stability, in 1982 Jack Garrick designated a 2.4 m (7.9 ft) long female caught off Whanganui, New Zealand, as a new type specimen.

The copper shark is common off parts of Argentina, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, and rare elsewhere; in many areas its range is ill-defined because of confusion with other species.

[18] Copper sharks can be found from the surf zone to slightly beyond the continental shelf in the open ocean, diving to depths of 100 m (330 ft) or more.

This species commonly enters very shallow habitats, including bays, shoals, and harbors, and also inhabits rocky areas and offshore islands.

[1] Populations of copper sharks in both hemispheres perform seasonal migrations, in response to temperature changes, reproductive events, and/or prey availability; the movement patterns differ with sex and age.

Adult males remain in the subtropics for most of the year, except in late winter or spring when they also move into higher latitudes, in time to encounter and mate with post-partum females dispersing from the nurseries.

This species is bronze to olive-gray above with a metallic sheen and sometimes a pink cast, darkening towards the fin tips and margins but not conspicuously so; the color fades quickly to a dull gray-brown after death.

[23] Known parasites of the copper shark include the tapeworms Cathetocephalus australis,[24] Dasyrhynchus pacificus and D. talismani,[25] Floriceps minacanthus,[26] Phoreiobothrium robertsoni,[27] and Pseudogrillotia spratti,[28] the leech Stibarobdella macrothela,[29] and the fluke Otodistomum veliporum.

[23] The copper shark feeds more towards the bottom of the water column than the top, consuming cephalopods, including squid (Loligo spp.

), cuttlefishes, and octopus; bony fishes, including gurnards, flatfishes, hakes, catfishes, jacks, Australian salmon, Atlantic salmon, mullets, sea breams, smelts, tunas, sardines, Cape horse mackerel, and anchovies; and cartilaginous fishes, including dogfish sharks (Squalus spp.

[35] Like other members of its family, the copper shark is viviparous, in which the yolk sac of the developing embryo, once depleted, is converted into a placental connection through which the mother delivers nourishment.

In the Southern Hemisphere, mating takes place from October to December (spring and early summer), when both sexes have migrated into offshore waters at higher latitudes.

[1][33][36] Female copper sharks make use of shallow inshore habitats, varying from stretches of open coast to more sheltered bays and inlets, as nurseries.

[42] Like many large, active sharks, this species adapts poorly to captivity; it tends to bump into the sides of its enclosure, and the resulting abrasions then become infected with often fatal consequences.

[5] The copper shark is also popular with recreational fishers in Namibia, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico and California, predominantly by anglers but also by bowfishers and gillnetters.

In New Zealand, it is the Carcharhinus species most frequently caught by sport fishers and sustains a small, summer recreational fishery in northern North Island, that mainly captures pregnant and post-partum females and for the most part practices tag and release.

While the global population is unknown, the long maturation time and low reproductive rate of this species render it highly susceptible to overfishing.

Regionally, the IUCN has listed this species under Least Concern off Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, where fisheries are generally well-managed; the local copper shark population for each of those three countries is contained almost entirely within their respective Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).

The number of large adults have been too low to sustain targeted fisheries since the 1970s, and most of the current shark catch consists of small juveniles.