# Anything wrong with eating leopard sharks?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-eating-leopard-sharks/395779>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 13, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-eating-leopard-sharks/395779 "2007-03-13T18:50:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-eating-leopard-sharks/395779/1 "2007-03-13T18:50:35Z")

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By “wrong,” I mean bad tasting meat, for example. Anyway, I was watching a rerun of an old TV program (@1965), and in it, a hillbilly visiting the west coast happens to catch one of the biggest catfish she’s ever seen. One of the LA locals tells her something to the effect of, “You don’t want to eat that. That’s a leopard shark.” She then responds that “Well, aren’t leopards related to cats?” Ha Ha.

Anyway would that have been such an unusual fish to eat that at that time (and, yes, elasmobranchs to qualify as “fish”)? I know that some fish aren’t eaten because of the poor quality of the flesh (like the tarpon, too oily and bony). Or was shark just such a culinary oddity at that time?

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**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-eating-leopard-sharks/395779/2 "2007-03-13T19:02:42Z")

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Nothing wrong with it according to this site:

[http://www.dfg.ca.gov/MRD/mspcont5.html](http://www.dfg.ca.gov/MRD/mspcont5.html)

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**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-eating-leopard-sharks/395779/3 "2007-03-13T19:45:10Z")

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_Anyway would that have been such an unusual fish to eat that at that time_

Yes. Sharks were considered trash fish by most sport fishermen. If it’s not what you’re hoping to catch, then it’s no good. Seems a bit silly now, but was (and still is in some cases) a common attitude. You have to remember also that sharks don’t look anything like the food fish that people were used to and so it wasn’t that strange to shy away from them. Any fish that looks like a bass might get a try, but not that disgusting shark thing.