Large-bodied hammerhead sharks are of conservation concern worldwide but protection of their populations requires knowledge of their distribution patterns and their essential habitat use as well as their interactions with human activities.

Juvenile smooth hammerhead sharks, Sphyrna zygaena, are especially threatened. Fin-mounted satellite tags attached to six juveniles sharks off the US mid-Atlantic coast revealed the sharks remained in the shallow waters off southern Long Island, New York during the summer, with some southern movement to the waters off New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland in late summer. During autumn, they moved south through the mid-Atlantic region. During winter and early spring, sharks showed restricted movements, primarily near the southeastern outer banks of Pamlico Sound, North Carolina where, based on fishing activity, protection for the species may be increased a month earlier.