The Pacific sharpnose shark is captured as bycatch in demersal shrimp and hake trawl fisheries and in teleost traps, and is targeted by artisanal gillnets and longlines throughout much of its range. These fisheries are generally intense in the Eastern Central and Southeast Pacific. There is evidence of a population reduction including an increasing rarity of landings and anecdotal evidence from fishers. Gillnet pressure in the Gulf of California, Mexico, is high and has led to declines in pelagic sharks, and smaller coastal sharks are increasingly targeted without management (or inadequate enforcement of regulations). Shrimp trawling is substantial off southwest Baja California Sur and also off Mazatlan, where declines in catches in other species, overcapacity, and poor governance have been highlighted. Throughout its Central and South American range, the species is subjected to intense fishing pressure. Recent landings surveys in Costa Rica have recorded relatively few individuals, and anecdotal evidence from fishers indicates that they were previously much more common. In Colombia, this species is recorded in artisanal fisheries at lower frequency than the 1990s. Mangrove habitats, which often serve as nursery areas for coastal sharks such as this, have been degraded with the development of shrimp aquaculture in many areas of the Eastern Central Pacific. Although this species has a relativity high biological productivity, a lack of management and enforcement throughout most of its range precludes sustainability. This shark may have some refuge from fishing in southern California and the relatively remote Pacific coast of Baja California. Overall, due to the level of intense and largely unmanaged fisheries operating in its range, its increasing rarity in some areas, and the degradation of coastal mangrove habitats, balanced with some areas of refuge, it is suspected that the Pacific Sharpnose Shark has undergone a population reduction of 30–49% over the past three generations (15 years), and it is assessed as Vulnerable A2cd.