In the USA in 2006, National Marine Fisheries Service finalized the Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Federal Management Plan. This Federal Management Plan includes a range of management measures including quotas and seasonal closures. Bonnetheads are managed under this plan. There are also coastal gillnet bans in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Texas which will also provide protection for the species.

In Mexico, there is a closed season for the shark fishery in May and June in the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Quintana Roo, and May 15 to June 15, and August 1–29 in the states of Tabasco, Campeche and Yucatán. The Official Standard NOM-029-PESC-2007 establishes management measures that finning prohibited and the protection of some species (whale shark, white shark, basking shark, sawfishes, and species of Mobula). It also establishes that fishing is prohibited at the surrounding area of 5 km of coral reef areas, at adjacent areas in front of mouth rivers and coastal lagoons (delimited by a semicircle of 2.5 km in the mouth), and at nursery areas (prohibited the use of gill-nets in June) in front of Playa Bagdad, Tamaulipas. There is a marine protected area of 30 km from the mouth of the Rio Bravo to Conchinal; Terminos lagoon, Campeche; Usumacinta-Grijalva Rivers, Tabasco; Yalahau lagoon, Quintana Roo; and Espiritu Santo and Ascension Bays, Quintana Roo. There is also a Management Plan of the Natural Protected Area “Marine Biosphere Reserve of the Mexican Caribbean” that prohibits any elasmobranch fishery in all this biosphere reserve that comprises all Mexican Caribbean. There are enforcement problems.

In the Central America and Dominican Republic, the Regional Office of Fisheries of the Sistem of Integration of Central America, prohibit Shark Finning with the resolution OSP-05-11 in all of the Central American countries (from Belize to Panama), including the Dominican Republic.

In the Guatemalan Caribbean, there are fishing bans for one month (usually August) for the capture sharks (Families: Carcharhinidae, Sphyrnidae, Triakidae, and Ginglymostomatidae) and two months (usually July and August) for rays (Family Dasyatidae). However, enforcement of these bans is a challenge.

In Honduras, there is a national regulation (Governmental Degree 107-2011) that declared the territorial waters of Honduras a shark sanctuary. Fishing and exploitation of all shark species was prohibited in all territorial waters of Honduras. This regulation was revised by a new regulation (Governmental Degree 26-2016), which indicated that sharks that are incidentally caught can be used. There are enforcement problems.

In Panama, there are some marine protected area in the middle and west of Panama, which can benefits shark populations because it establishes management in these areas like fishery controlled areas. However, enforcement is a challenge. In 2006, a regulation was approved that prohibited shark finning in Panama water. In 2017, another regulation was implemented for longline fisheries (e.g. limits of number of hooks up to 1,000 per surface longline strand).

In the Bahamas, longline fishing was banned in The Bahamas in 1993, and peak elasmobranch export occurred the same year (UN FAO). The export steadily declined until the last export of any elasmobranch product from The Bahamas occurred in 2004 (UN FAO). The Bahamas Shark Sanctuary was established in 2011 (Haas et al. 2017), and it is currently illegal to fish for, land or possess any sharks or shark parts in The Bahamas. This protection does not extend to rays or skates. Enforcement is very underfunded and inadequate, making it possible that exploita on may be occurring at present or in the future.

The Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago developed draft NPOA – Sharks in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. However, for Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, these are still in draft form due to a combination of factors including lack of political will. For the Dutch Caribbean, spatial management measures have been implemented. The Yarari Marine Mammal and Shark Sanctuary was created in 2015 for Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba in the Caribbean Netherlands. In November 2011, the Kingdom of the Netherlands ratified the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks (MoU Sharks) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species.

In the Southwest Atlantic, this species is listed in the Brazilian Ordinance of Ministry of the Environment Nº 445, which restricts all harvest and trade of species listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered on the Brazilian National Red List (Feitosa et al. 2018). This legislation came into force in December 2014, however, it was suspended for all of 2015 and the first half of 2016 due to pressure from the fishing industry (Begossi et al. 2017). The ordinance faces increasing industry pressure, including a court challenge to suspend the legislation again, by the Secretaria Nacional de Aquicultura e Pesca (SAP), who brought forward their contention that the Brazilian National Red List was designed specifically for terrestrial species (Spautz 2019). In the Eastern Pacific, there are no species-specific protections or conservation measures in place for Bonnethead Shark in the Pacific portion of its range.

To conserve the population and to permit recovery, a suite of measures will be required which may include species protection, spatial management, bycatch mitigation, and harvest and trade management measures (including international trade measures). Effective enforcement of measures will require ongoing training and capacity-building (including in the area of species identification). Catch monitoring is needed to help understand population trends and inform management.