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Whitetip Shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) click here.
Oceanic Whitetip Shark (Carcharhinus longimanus)
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page are copyright protected: © 2010 Kelvin Aitken.
All rights reserved. Students may use this information for
personal research only. Not for commercial use.
Even though the Oceanic Whitetip Shark (Carcharhinus longimanus)
is considered one of the five most dangerous sharks in the
world, it is rarely, if ever, seen by swimmers and snorkelers.
This shark is only found in offshore oceanic waters with temperatures
of over 20°C.
Encounters are usually by anglers over the continental shelf
while searching for game fish or by divers visiting outer
reefs with deep reef walls. They are also often found with
pods of Pilot Whales, following these socially-active mammals
in the hope of picking up scraps of squid or fish.
Oceanic Whitetip Sharks are very distinctive. They have a
typical fusiform whaler profile but with very long paddle-shaped
pectoral fins and a tall dorsal fin, all with broadly rounded
tips marked by a blotch of cream or white. The white markings
on the tips can also be found on the pelvic fins and both
lobes of the tail. These white markings are usually black
on young sharks below 1.3 m. Adults grow to 350 cm. Body colour
ranges from a bronzy grey to a mottled khaki.
Unlike sharks that live over densely populated reefs, the
Oceanic Whitetip must cover a lot of territory to find its
food. When food does become available there is no time for
the shark to check for potential danger as the prey may just
as easily be taken by other predators. For this reason the
Oceanic Whitetip Shark charges in very quickly on any possible
prey, a habit that makes it dangerous to divers or swimmers
and it has been blamed for the deaths of many survivors of
ship or plane disasters at sea.
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