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Diet: Carnivore
Length:Average size is 5' and the largest known can reach up to 8' max.
Danger to Humans
Very few attacks on people have been attributed to this typ of shark, and it is likely that without a food stimulus or other special circumstances that this species is of little hazard to people.
Appearance
Long and pointed snout. Small eyes. Placement of the first dorsal fin will usually be over or slightly behind the insertion of the pectoral fins.
Coloration
Grey, grey-brown or bluish grey upper body, white ventral surface. Black tips commonly present on pectoral fins, second dorsal fin, and ventral caudal lobe, and sometimes on pelvic fins. The tip of the anal fin is usually not colored. A clearly visible white band on the flanks.
Distribution
Widespread in all tropical and subtropical waters over continental shelves. Western Atlantic: Massachusetts to southern Brazil. Bahamas, the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Eastern Atlantic: Madeira, Mediterranean, Canary Islands to Zaire. Indo-Western Pacific: South Africa, Madagascar, and Red Sea to India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Thailand, China, the Philippines, Java, Borneo, Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia. Central Pacific: Tahiti, Marquesas, Hawaiian Islands. Eastern Pacific: Southern Baja California to Peru, Galapagos Islands.
Biology
The blacktip shark is a common tropical and warm-temperate species of inshore and offshore pelagic waters. Commonly occurs in close inshore waters, off river mouths and estuaries, muddy bays, mangrove swamps, island lagoons and along drop-offs on coral reefs as well as far offshore. Rarely found in water deeper than 30 m.
A very active, fast-swimming species that often occurs in large schools at the surface. It leaps out of the water, and like the related Spinner shark rotates around its axis before dropping back into the sea.
This behavior is thought to be used by the shark while feeding on small schooling fishes. The shark launches itself vertically through the schools, spinning and snapping in all directions, and then breach the surface after the feeding run.
Its social behavior makes it subject to feeding frenzies when a number of sharks compete for a highly concentrated food source.
Feeding
Primarily a fish-eater (sardines, herrings, anchovies) as well as small sharks such as smooth-hounds (Mustelus), sharpnose sharks (Rhizoprionodon), and a variety of young of larger shark species.
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