These harmless sharks are of no commercial or recreational interest, though their highly limited distributions in heavily fished South African waters are of potential conservation concern.

The genus Haploblepharus was created by American zoologist Samuel Garman in 1913, in the 36th volume of Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Harvard College, to contain the puffadder shyshark, then known as Squalus edwardsii.

[2] In 1988, Leonard Compagno placed Haploblepharus with Halaelurus and Holohalaelurus in the tribe Halaelurini of the family Scyliorhinidae, based on morphological characters.

The large, oval eyes have cat-like slit pupils, a rudimentary nictitating membrane (protective third eyelid), and a prominent ridge running underneath.

When threatened, these sharks adopt a curious posture in which they curl their bodies into a ring and cover their eyes with their tails, which is the origin of the name "shyshark".

Reproduction has been investigated in the puffadder and dark shysharks; neither species appears to have a distinct breeding season, and their eggs take around three and a half weeks to hatch.

[6] Due to their small size, shysharks pose no danger to humans and are not sought by either commercial or recreational fishers.

As a result, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed two shyshark species as Near Threatened.