Surveys of marine resources suffer from the lack of long time series, particularly concerning targeted species currently not of high value. The disappearance of a marine species, even of large size, can go completely unnoticed. Large shark species are among the most affected by depletion because of their life history traits. In European and adjacent waters, the rare Bramble shark (Echinorhinus brucus; formerly known as the Spinous shark) is suspected of being threatened, but the lack of population data precludes its evaluation. As a result, the species is currently unregulated and listed as "Data Deficient" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)