Are there sharks in the Caribbean Sea?
Caribbean Sea
Marine biota in the region have representatives of both the Indian and Pacific oceans which were caught in the Caribbean before the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama four million years ago. In the Caribbean Sea there are around 1,000 documented species of fish, including sharks (bull shark, tiger shark, silky shark and Caribbean reef shark), flying fish, giant oceanic manta ray, angel fish, spotfin butterflyfish, parrotfish, Atlantic Goliath grouper, tarpon and moray eels. Throughout the Caribbean there is industrial catching of lobster and sardines (off the coast of Yucatán Peninsula).
Lake Salvador
Young Bull Sharks have been known to prefer low salinity, or brackish water, and in 2015 one was found in the lake. A Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Marine Fisheries Biologist stated that bull sharks are one of the more aggressive shark species worldwide. Biologist manager Shane Granier stated "It’s not necessarily a common occurrence, but it’s not unheard of (to find sharks in the lake),".
Sandbar shark
The sandbar shark, true to its nickname, is commonly found over muddy or sandy bottoms in shallow coastal waters such as bays, estuaries, harbors, or the mouths of rivers, but it also swims in deeper waters (200 m or more) as well as intertidal zones. Sandbar sharks are found in tropical to temperate waters worldwide; in the western Atlantic they range from Massachusetts to Brazil. Juveniles are common to abundant in the lower Chesapeake Bay, and nursery grounds are found from Delaware Bay to South Carolina. Other nursery grounds include Boncuk Bay in Marmaris, Muğla/Turkey and the Florida Keys.
Roughtail catshark
The roughtail catshark or marbled catshark ("Galeus arae") is a common species of catshark, part of the family Scyliorhinidae. It is found at a depth of in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, from North Carolina to Costa Rica. Individuals of different sexes and ages are segregated to some degree. A small species not exceeding in length, the roughtail catshark has a slender body with a marbled color pattern of dark saddles and spots, and a prominent crest of enlarged dermal denticles along the dorsal edge of its caudal fin. This species feeds mainly on shrimp and is oviparous. It is caught incidentally in shrimp trawls, though trawl fisheries within its range mostly do not operate at the depths it inhabits. As a result, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed it under Least Concern.
Blacktip reef shark
The blacktip reef shark is found throughout nearshore waters of the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific. In the Indian Ocean, it occurs from South Africa to the Red Sea, including Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Seychelles, and from there eastward along the coast of the Indian Subcontinent to Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka, the Andaman Islands, and the Maldives. In the Pacific Ocean, it is found from southern China and the Philippines to Indonesia, northern Australia and New Caledonia, and also inhabits numerous oceanic islands, including the Marshall, Gilbert, Society, and Hawaiian Islands and Tuamotu. Contrary to what most sources state, there is a report suggesting that the specimens of this species from Japanese waters might be from Taiwan, however a number of sightings and captures of this species have been reported from the inshore waters of Ishigaki Island of Okinawa Prefecture in southern Japan. A Lessepsian migrant, this shark has colonized the eastern Mediterranean Sea by way of the Suez Canal.
Tawny nurse shark
The tawny nurse shark is widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific region. In the Indian Ocean, it is found from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa northward to the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and India, including Madagascar, Mauritius, the Chagos Archipelago, the Seychelles, and the Maldives. In the western Pacific, it occurs from southern Japan and the coast of China to the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and Indonesia, to as far south as the northern coast of Australia. In the central Pacific, it has been reported from off New Caledonia, Samoa, Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Tahiti. Fossil teeth belonging to this species have been found in the Pirabas Formation of northern Brazil, dating back to the Lower Miocene (23–16 Ma). The presence of these fossils indicates that the range of the tawny nurse shark once extended to the tropical Atlantic Ocean, prior to the formation of the Isthmus of Panama.
Caribbean reef shark
The Caribbean reef shark ("Carcharhinus perezii") is a species of requiem shark, belonging to the family Carcharhinidae. It is found in the tropical waters of the western Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Brazil, and is the most commonly encountered reef shark in the Caribbean Sea. With a robust, streamlined body typical of the requiem sharks, this species is difficult to tell apart from other large members of its family such as the dusky shark ("C. obscurus") and the silky shark ("C. falciformis"). Distinguishing characteristics include dusky-colored fins without prominent markings, a short free rear tip on the second dorsal fin, and tooth shape and number.
Dwarf lanternshark
American ichthyologists Stewart Springer and George H. Burgess described the dwarf lanternshark from specimens collected via trawling by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service research ship "Oregon" in 1964. They dubbed the new species in honor of noted shark biologist Perry W. Gilbert, and published their findings in a 1985 "Copeia" paper. The type specimen is a long female caught in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Colombia. This species is grouped with the velvet belly lantern shark ("E. spinax"), Caribbean lanternshark ("E. hillianus"), fringefin lanternshark ("E. schultzi"), brown lanternshark ("E. unicolor"), broadbanded lanternshark ("E. gracilispinis"), and combtooth lanternshark ("E. decacuspidatus") in having irregularly arranged, needle-shaped dermal denticles.
Carcharias
"Carcharias" species hunt bony fish, small sharks, rays, squids, crabs, and lobsters.
Sand tiger sharks live in water depths ranging from 0 to 190 meters. They are found in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. They are commonly found in surf zones.
Extinct species within this genus lived from the Cretaceous period to the Quaternary period (from 99.7 to 0.012 Ma). Fossils have been found all over the world, especially in the Miocene and Oligocene sediments of Europe, the United States and Australia, in the Eocene of Egypt, Europe and the United States, as well as in the Cretaceous of Australia, Canada, the United States, Europe and Africa. Extinct species include:
Fauna of the United States Virgin Islands
Shark species include the Caribbean reef shark, lemon shark, bull shark, tiger shark, hammerhead shark, silky shark, nurse shark, blacktip shark, and the great white shark. There are many areas of large tropical fish populations, including by Waterlemon Cay in Leinster Bay, which provides habitat for sergeant major, blue chromis, parrotfish, queen triggerfish and queen angelfish. Another island visited for its tropical fish- and bird life is Buck Island, a 19015-acre marine protected district, which offers great diversity of coral.
Crocodile shark
The crocodile shark ("Pseudocarcharias kamoharai") is a species of mackerel shark and the only extant member of the family Pseudocarchariidae. A specialized inhabitant of the mesopelagic zone, the crocodile shark can be found worldwide in tropical waters from the surface to a depth of . It performs a diel vertical migration, staying below a depth of during the day and ascending into shallower water at night to feed. Typically measuring only in length, the crocodile shark is the smallest living mackerel shark. It can be distinguished by its elongated cigar-shaped body, extremely large eyes, and relatively small fins.
Tiger shark
Between 1959 and 2000, 4,668 tiger sharks were culled in an effort to protect the tourism industry. Despite damaging the shark population, these efforts were shown to be ineffective in decreasing the number of interactions between humans and tiger sharks. Feeding sharks in Hawaii (except for traditional Hawaiian cultural or religious practices) is illegal, and interaction with them, such as cage diving, is discouraged. South African shark behaviorist and shark diver Mark Addison demonstrated divers could interact and dive with them outside of a shark cage in a 2007 Discovery Channel special, and underwater photographer Fiona Ayerst swam with them in the Bahamas. At "Tiger Beach" off Grand Bahama, uncaged diving with - and even the handling of - female tiger sharks has become a routine occurrence.
Caribbean sharpnose shark
The maximum reported size for the Caribbean sharpnose shark is 110 cm (43 inches). The average adult size appears to be about 80–89 cm (31.5-35 inches). Both sexes seem to reach maturity at about 65–70 cm (25.6-27.5 inches) in length, and just over 2 years old. The life span is estimated to be about 8–10 years old. This species was once confused as being the same species as the Atlantic sharpnose shark - however difference in vertebra counts indicate that it is a separate species. Reproduction and litter size is similar to those of the Atlantic sharpnose shark.
Angelshark
The angelsharks are a group of sharks in the genus Squatina in the family Squatinidae, which are unusual in having flattened bodies and broad pectoral fins that give them a strong resemblance to rays. This genus is the only one in its family and order Squatiniformes. They occur worldwide in temperate and tropical seas. Most species inhabit shallow temperate or tropical seas, but a few species inhabits deeper water, down to . Angel sharks are sometimes called monkfish, although this name is also applied to members of the genus "Lophius".
List of snakes of Trinidad and Tobago
Forty-seven species of snake have been recorded in Trinidad and Tobago, making the snake population of this area the most diverse in the Caribbean. Forty-four of these snake species are found in Trinidad and twenty-one in Tobago. Many of these species are South American, most of which are present in Venezuela. Trinidad and Tobago consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and several smaller islands. The Bocas Islands, which lie between Trinidad and Venezuela, in the Bocas del Dragón ("Dragon's Mouths"), consist of Chacachacare, Monos, Huevos and Gaspar Grande. Several smaller islands lie off Trinidad, but snakes have been recorded on only one of them, Caledonia Island. Snakes have been recorded on one island off Tobago, Little Tobago. Four species are venomous: two coral snake species ("Micrurus" spp.), the fer-de-lance ("Bothrops atrox") and the South American bushmaster ("Lachesis muta"). The common coral ("Micrurus fulvius") is found on at least two of the Bocas Islands: Gaspar Grande and Monos. No venomous snakes inhabit Tobago.
Daggernose shark
The daggernose shark ("Isogomphodon oxyrhynchus") is a little-known species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, and the only extant member of its genus. It inhabits shallow tropical waters off northeastern South America, from Trinidad to northern Brazil, favoring muddy habitats such as mangroves, estuaries, and river mouths, though it is intolerant of fresh water. A relatively small shark typically reaching in length, the daggernose shark is unmistakable for its elongated, flattened, and pointed snout, tiny eyes, and large paddle-shaped pectoral fins.
Sawshark
Sawsharks are found in many areas around the world, most commonly in waters from the Indian Ocean to the southern Pacific Ocean. They are normally found at depths around 40–100 m, but can be found much lower in tropical regions. The Bahamas sawshark was discovered in deeper waters (640 m to 915 m) of the northwestern Caribbean.
Spined pygmy shark
The spined pygmy shark has a wide distribution around the world. In the Atlantic Ocean, it occurs off Bermuda, the United States, Suriname, southern Brazil, and northern Argentina in the west, and off northern France, Madeira, Cape Verde, and the Azores in the east. In the Indian Ocean, this species has only been recorded off Somalia. In the Pacific Ocean, it is found off southern Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. The spined pygmy shark is found at depths of and seldom approaches the surface, unlike the related pygmy shark and cookiecutter shark ("Isistius brasiliensis"). This shark prefers areas of high biological productivity over upper continental and insular slopes. It may also be found over outer shelves, but avoids central ocean basins. The range of this species does not overlap that of the pygmy shark, which has a similar ecology, and is also largely separate from that of the cookiecutter shark.
Whitetip reef shark
The Whitetip reef shark is distributed widely across the entire Indo-Pacific region. It was once thought to have formerly existed in the Atlantic Ocean, based on fossil teeth found in North Carolina dating to the Miocene epoch. However, more recent research indicates that the teeth belonged to a mackerel shark, and that this species has never colonized the Atlantic. In the Indian Ocean, it occurs from northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa to the Red Sea and the Indian subcontinent, including Madagascar, Mauritius, the Comoros, the Aldabra Group, the Seychelles, Sri Lanka, and the Chagos Archipelago. In the western and central Pacific, it occurs from off southern China, Taiwan, and the Ryukyu Islands, to the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and Indonesia, to northern Australia, and is also found around numerous islands in Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, as far as Hawaii to the north and the Pitcairn Islands to the southeast. In the eastern Pacific, it occurs from Costa Rica to Panama, and off the Galápagos Islands.
Culling
Shark culling currently occurs in four locations: New South Wales, Queensland, KwaZulu-Natal and Réunion. Between 1950 and 2008, 352 tiger sharks and 577 great white sharks were killed in the nets in New South Wales — also during this period, a total of 15,135 marine animals were caught and killed in the nets, including whales, turtles, rays, dolphins, and dugongs. From 2001 to 2018, a total of 10,480 sharks were killed on lethal drum lines in Queensland. In a 30-year period, more than 33,000 sharks have been killed in KwaZulu-Natal's shark-killing program — during the same 30-year period, 2,211 turtles, 8,448 rays, and 2,310 dolphins were killed. Authorities on Réunion kill about 100 sharks per year. All of these culls have been criticized by environmentalists, who say killing sharks harms the marine ecosystem.
Goblin shark
The goblin shark has been caught in all three major oceans, indicating a wide global distribution. In the Atlantic Ocean, it has been recorded from the northern Gulf of Mexico, Suriname, French Guiana, and southern Brazil in the west, and France, Portugal, Madeira, and Senegal in the east. It has also been collected from seamounts along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In the Indo-Pacific and Oceania, it has been found off South Africa, Mozambique, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. This species has been recorded from off East Cape to Kaikoura Canyon and from the Challenger Plateau near New Zealand. A single eastern Pacific specimen is known, collected off southern California. This species is most often found over the upper continental slope at depths of . It has been caught as deep as , and a tooth has been found lodged in an undersea cable at a depth of . Adults inhabit greater depths than juveniles. Immature goblin sharks frequent the submarine canyons off southern Japan at depths of , with individuals occasionally wandering into inshore waters as shallow as . On the 19 April 2014 fishermen in Key West, Florida, while fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, caught a goblin shark in their fishing net, only the second one ever to be caught in the Gulf. The shark was photographed and released back into the water.
Sharpnose sevengill shark
The sharpnose sevengill shark is uncommon, but widely distributed in the tropical and temperate regions of all oceans except for the northeastern Pacific Ocean. It is found from North Carolina to Cuba, including the northern Gulf of Mexico, and from Venezuela to Argentina in the western Atlantic. In the eastern Atlantic, it occurs from Morocco to Namibia, including the Mediterranean Sea. It is reported from the Indian Ocean off southwestern India, Aldabra Island, southern Mozambique, and South Africa. In the Pacific Ocean, it is known from Japan to China, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, and northern Chile.
Caribbean reef shark
The Caribbean reef shark feeds on a wide variety of reef-dwelling bony fishes and cephalopods, as well as some elasmobranchs such as eagle rays ("Aetobatus narinari") and yellow stingrays ("Urobatis jamaicensis"). It is attracted to low-frequency sounds, which are indicative of struggling fish. In one observation of a long male Caribbean reef shark hunting a yellowtail snapper ("Lutjanus crysurus"), the shark languidly circled and made several seemingly "half-hearted" turns towards its prey, before suddenly accelerating and swinging its head sideways to capture the snapper at the corner of its jaws. Young sharks feed on small fishes, shrimps, and crabs. Caribbean reef sharks are capable of everting their stomachs, which likely serves to cleanse indigestible particles, parasites, and mucus from the stomach lining.
Tiger shark
Tiger sharks can be seen in the Gulf of Mexico, North American beaches, and parts of South America. It is also commonly observed in the Caribbean Sea. Other locations where tiger sharks are seen include off Africa, China, India, Australia, and Indonesia.
Shark
Kwazulu-Natal, an area of South Africa, has a shark-killing program using nets and drum lines—these nets and drum lines have killed turtles and dolphins, and have been criticized for killing wildlife. During a 30-year period, more than 33,000 sharks have been killed in KwaZulu-Natal's shark-killing program — during the same 30-year period, 2,211 turtles, 8,448 rays, and 2,310 dolphins were killed in KwaZulu-Natal. Authorities on the French island of Réunion kill about 100 sharks per year.
Silky shark
The silky shark has a cosmopolitan distribution in marine waters warmer than . In the Atlantic Ocean, it is found from the U.S. state of Massachusetts to Spain in the north, and from southern Brazil to northern Angola in the south, including the Mediterranean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. It occurs throughout the Indian Ocean, as far south as Mozambique in the west and Western Australia in the east, including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. In the Pacific Ocean, the northern extent of its range runs from southern China and Japan to southern Baja California and the Gulf of California, while the southern extent runs from Sydney, Australia, to northern New Zealand to northern Chile. Based on life history differences, four distinct populations of silky sharks have been identified in ocean basins worldwide: in the northwestern Atlantic, in the western and central Pacific, in the eastern Pacific, and in the Indian Ocean.
Proscylliidae
The finback catsharks are a small family, the Proscylliidae, of ground sharks. They can be found in warm seas worldwide and are often the most numerous and common shark in tropical regions. They are generally less than 1 m in length, and are slow-moving predators that feed on bony fish and small invertebrates. Although some bear live young, the majority lay eggs with almost fully developed young; these egg cases, known as "mermaid's purses", are unique in appearance to each species.
The harlequin catshark ("Ctenacis fehlmanni") has some unique characteristics that set it aside from the others. Its large mouth, small teeth and large pharynx with gill raker papillae make it unique among the family Proscyllidae. They are found in the tropical outer continental shelves of the western Indian Ocean, off the coast of Somalia. They are oviparous, laying paired eggs in which their embryos feed solely on yolk.
Chain catshark
The chain catfish is found in the Northwest Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, ranging from George's Bank in Massachusetts, to Nicaragua and Barbados. In the Mid-Atlantic Bight, the chain catshark is found along the outer continental shelf and upper slope. The shark occupies depths of ; in the northern part of its range it is mainly found between and in the southern areas generally deeper than . Due to the shark’s depth distribution, it has been suggested that the shark does not perform large-scale migrations.
Tiger shark
Although sharks rarely bite humans, the tiger shark is reported to be responsible for a large share of fatal shark-bite incidents, and is regarded as one of the most dangerous shark species. They often visit shallow reefs, harbors, and canals, creating the potential for encounter with humans. The tiger shark also dwells in river mouths and other runoff-rich water. While the tiger shark is considered to be one of the sharks most dangerous to humans, its bite rate is low. It ranks second on the list of number of recorded bites on humans, behind only the great white shark. Typically, three to four shark bites occur per year in Hawaii, but they are rarely fatal; one notable survivor of such an attack is surfing champion Bethany Hamilton, who lost her left arm at age 13 to a tiger shark in 2003. This bite rate is very low, considering thousands of people swim, surf, and dive in Hawaiian waters every day. Human interactions with tiger sharks in Hawaiian waters have been shown to increase between September and November, when tiger shark females are believed to migrate to the islands to give birth.
School shark
The school shark has a widespread distribution and is found mainly near the seabed around coasts in temperate waters, down to depths around . It occurs in the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, where it is uncommon and the Southwest Atlantic where it occurs between Patagonia and southern Brazil. It also occurs around the coast of Namibia and South Africa. It is present in the Northeast Pacific where it occurs between British Columbia and Baja California, and in the Southeast Pacific off Chile and Peru. It also occurs round the southern coasts of Australia, including Tasmania, and New Zealand.
Blacktip shark
The blacktip shark has a worldwide distribution in tropical and subtropical waters. In the Atlantic, it is found from Massachusetts to Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and from the Mediterranean Sea, Madeira, and the Canary Islands to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It occurs all around the periphery of the Indian Ocean, from South Africa and Madagascar to the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent, to Southeast Asia. In the western Pacific, it is found from the Ryukyu Islands of Japan to northern Australia, including southern China, the Philippines and Indonesia. In the eastern Pacific, it occurs from Baja California to Peru. It has also been reported at a number of Pacific islands, including New Caledonia, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Hawaii, Revillagigedo, and the Galápagos.
Indio Maíz Biological Reserve
Among the amphibian family, there are brightly colored poison dart frogs like Oophaga pumilio. Abundant reptiles including iguanas, and snakes such as Lachesis muta and Bothriechis schlegelii. Fish like tarpon are common. The world's only freshwater shark, Nicaragua shark, known elsewhere in the world as the bull shark or Zambesi shark is also present in the San Juan River which borders the reserve. However, Nicaragua has recently banned freshwater fishing of the Nicaragua shark because of population declines.
Caribbean reef squid
The Caribbean reef squid is found throughout the Caribbean Sea as well as off the coast of Florida, commonly in small schools of 4-30 in the shallows associated with reefs. The habitat of the Reef Squid changes according to the squid's stage of life and size. New hatchlings tend to reside close to the shore in areas from 0.2–1 meters below the surface on or under vegetation. Young small squid typically congregate in shallow turtle grass near islands and remain several centimeters to two meters from the surface to avoid bird predators. Adults venture out into open water and can be found in depths up to 150 m. When mating, adults are found near coral reefs in depths of 1.5–8 m. The Caribbean reef squid is the only squid species commonly sighted by divers over inshore reefs in the Florida, Bahamas and Caribbean region.
Copper shark
The copper shark is the only member of its genus largely found in temperate rather than tropical waters, in temperatures above . It is widely distributed but as disjunct regional populations with little to no interchange between them. In the Atlantic, this shark occurs from the Mediterranean Sea to Morocco and the Canary Islands, off Argentina, and off Namibia and South Africa (where there may be two separate populations), with infrequent records from Mauritania, the Gulf of Guinea, and possibly the Gulf of Mexico. In the Indo-Pacific, it is found from the East China Sea to Japan (excluding Hokkaido) and southern Russia, off southern Australia (mostly between Sydney and Perth but occasionally further north), and around New Zealand but not as far as the Kermadec Islands; there are also unconfirmed reports from the Seychelles and the Gulf of Thailand. In the eastern Pacific, it occurs from northern Chile to Peru, and from Mexico to Point Conception, California, including the Gulf of California. The copper shark is common off parts of Argentina, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, and rare elsewhere; in many areas its range is ill-defined because of confusion with other species.
Pigeye shark
The pigeye shark is a largely solitary animal, though occasionally several individuals may be found at the same location. In the Mozambique Channel, it outnumbers the bull shark on the east side while the opposite is true on the west side, suggesting there may be competitive exclusion between these similar species. Parasites documented from the pigeye shark include the myxosporean "Kudoa carcharhini", the copepods "Pandarus smithii" and "P. cranchii", and the tapeworms "Callitetrarhynchus gracilis", "Cathetocephalus" sp., "Floriceps minacanthus", "Heteronybelinia australis", "Otobothrium australe", "O. crenacolle", and "Protogrillotia" sp. Young pigeye sharks are potentially vulnerable to predation by larger sharks. The natural mortality for juveniles in Cleveland Bay has been measured at no more than 5% per year; this rate is comparable to that in juvenile bull sharks, and is much lower than in juvenile blacktip sharks ("C. limbatus") or lemon sharks ("Negaprion brevirostris").
Blue shark
The blue shark is an oceanic and epipelagic shark found worldwide in deep temperate and tropical waters from the surface to about . In temperate seas it may approach shore, where it can be observed by divers; while in tropical waters, it inhabits greater depths. It lives as far north as Norway and as far south as Chile. Blue sharks are found off the coasts of every continent, except Antarctica. Its greatest Pacific concentrations occur between 20° and 50° North, but with strong seasonal fluctuations. In the tropics, it spreads evenly between 20° N and 20° S. It prefers water temperatures between , but can be seen in water ranging from . Records from the Atlantic show a regular clockwise migration within the prevailing currents.
Grey reef shark
The grey reef shark ("Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos", sometimes misspelled "amblyrhynchus" or "amblyrhinchos") is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae. One of the most common reef sharks in the Indo-Pacific, it is found as far east as Easter Island and as far west as South Africa. This species is most often seen in shallow water near the drop-offs of coral reefs. The grey reef shark has the typical "reef shark" shape, with a broad, round snout and large eyes. This species can be distinguished from similar species by the plain or white-tipped first dorsal fin, the dark tips on the other fins, the broad, black rear margin on the tail fin, and the lack of a ridge between the dorsal fins. Most individuals are less than long.
Blackspot shark
The blackspot shark is native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where it is found on the continental shelves and shallow water around islands from the surf line to depths of about . It is not usually found in estuaries and may be intolerant of low-salinity water. In the Indian Ocean, it is found along the east coast of Africa from South Africa and Madagascar to Kenya. It is present in the water around the Seychelles and Mauritius, and further east, it is present around the coasts of Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka. In the western Pacific Ocean, it is found along the coasts of Thailand, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, New Guinea, and northern and western Australia. In South Africa, the species seems to be resident, but some increase in numbers occurs during the summer.
Lost shark
The lost shark ("Carcharhinus obsolerus"), previously known as the false smalltail shark, is a very rare species of requiem shark (family Carcharhinidae). It is known only from the Western Central Pacific Ocean, in the southern South China Sea. Only three specimens of this species are known, found in Borneo, Vietnam, and Thailand, all of which are over 80 years old. The specimens were originally tentatively assigned as belonging to the smalltail shark ("C. porosus"), but a number of subtle morphometric differences revealed that they belonged to a new "Carcharinus" species, referred to as "Carcharinus" sp. A. It differs from other "Carcharinus" species by the relative position of the second dorsal and anal fins, as well as its low vertebral count.
Lemon shark
The lemon shark is targeted by commercial and recreational fishermen along the U.S. Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean due to its prized meat, fins, and skin. Lemon shark skin may be used for leather and its meat can be consumed and is believed to be a delicacy in many cultures. Concern exists that over-fishing has led the lemon shark populations in the western north Atlantic and eastern Pacific Ocean to decline.
Tiger shark
The tiger shark is a member of the order Carcharhiniformes, the most species-rich order of sharks, with more than 270 species also including the small catsharks and hammerhead sharks. Members of this order are characterized by the presence of a nictitating membrane over the eyes, two dorsal fins, an anal fin, and five gill slits. It is the largest member of the Carcharhinidae family, commonly referred to as requiem sharks. This family consists of mostly slender but powerful mid- to large-sized sharks and includes some other well-known sharks, such as the blue shark ("Prionace glauca"), lemon shark ("Negaprion brevirostris"), and bull shark ("Carcharhinus leucas").
Sicklefin lemon shark
The sicklefin lemon shark ("Negaprion acutidens") or sharptooth lemon shark, is a species of requiem shark belonging to the family Carcharhinidae, widely distributed in the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific. It is closely related to the better-known lemon shark ("N. brevirostris") of the Americas; the two species are almost identical in appearance, both being stout-bodied sharks with broad heads, two dorsal fins of nearly equal size, and a plain yellow-tinged coloration. As its common name suggests, the sicklefin lemon shark differs from its American counterpart in having more falcate (sickle-shaped) fins. This large species grows up to long. It generally inhabits water less than deep in a variety of habitats, from mangrove estuaries to coral reefs.
Whale shark
The whale shark inhabits all tropical and warm-temperate seas. The fish is primarily pelagic, living in the open sea but not in the greater depths of the ocean, although it is known to occasionally dive to depths of as much as . Seasonal feeding aggregations occur at several coastal sites such as the southern and eastern parts of South Africa; Saint Helena Island in the South Atlantic Ocean; Gulf of Tadjoura in Djibouti, Gladden Spit in Belize; Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia; Kerala,Lakshadweep, Gulf of Kutch and Saurashtra coast of Gujarat in India; Útila in Honduras; Southern Leyte; Donsol, Pasacao and Batangas in the Philippines; off Isla Mujeres and Isla Holbox in Yucatan and Bahía de los Ángeles in Baja California, México; Maamigili island, Maldives; Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia; Cenderawasih Bay National Park in Nabire, Papua, Indonesia; Flores Island, Indonesia; Nosy Be in Madagascar; off Tofo Beach near Inhambane in Mozambique; the Tanzanian islands of Mafia, Pemba, Zanzibar; Gulf of Tadjoura in Djibouti, the Ad Dimaniyat Islands in the Gulf of Oman and Al Hallaniyat islands in the Arabian Sea; and, very rarely, Eilat, Israel and Aqaba, Jordan. Although typically seen offshore, it has been found closer to land, entering lagoons or coral atolls, and near the mouths of estuaries and rivers. Its range is generally restricted to about 30° latitude. It is capable of diving to depths of at least , and is migratory. On 7 February 2012, a large whale shark was found floating off the coast of Karachi, Pakistan. The length of the specimen was said to be between , with a weight of around .
Raccoon
Raccoons are common throughout North America from Canada to Panama, where the subspecies "Procyon lotor pumilus" coexists with the crab-eating raccoon ("Procyon cancrivorus"). The population on Hispaniola was exterminated as early as 1513 by Spanish colonists who hunted them for their meat. Raccoons were also exterminated in Cuba and Jamaica, where the last sightings were reported in 1687. When they were still considered separate species, the Bahamas raccoon, Guadeloupe raccoon and Tres Marias raccoon were classified as endangered by the IUCN in 1996.
Silky shark
The silky shark is one of the three most common pelagic sharks along with the blue and oceanic whitetip sharks, and counts among the most numerous large oceanic animals in the world with a population of at least tens of millions. Compared to the other two species, it is less strictly pelagic with the greatest numbers found in offshore waters associated with land, where food is more readily obtained than farther out in the truly open ocean. The silky shark is an active, inquisitive, and aggressive predator, though it will defer to the slower but more powerful oceanic whitetip shark in competitive situations. When approaching something of interest, it may seem inattentive, sedately circling and sometimes swinging its head from side to side. However, it can respond with startling swiftness to any shift in its immediate surroundings. This shark is often found around floating objects such as logs or tethered naval buoys.
Whale shark
The shark is seen by divers in many places, including the Bay Islands in Honduras, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Maldives close to Maamigili (South Ari Atoll), the Red Sea, Western Australia (Ningaloo Reef, Christmas Island), Taiwan, Panama (Coiba Island), Belize, Tofo Beach in Mozambique, Sodwana Bay (Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park) in South Africa, the Galapagos Islands, Saint Helena, Isla Mujeres (Caribbean Sea), La Paz, Baja California Sur and Bahía de los Ángeles in Mexico, the Seychelles, West Malaysia, islands off eastern peninsular Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Oman, Fujairah, Puerto Rico, and other parts of the Caribbean. Juveniles can be found near the shore in the Gulf of Tadjoura, near Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa.
There is currently no robust estimate of the global whale shark population. The species is considered endangered by the IUCN due to the impacts of fisheries, bycatch losses, and vessel strikes, combined with its long lifespan and late maturation. In June 2018 the New Zealand Department of Conservation classified the whale shark as "Migrant" with the qualifier "Secure Overseas" under the New Zealand Threat Classification System.
Shark
Several regions now have shark sanctuaries or have banned shark fishing — these regions include American Samoa, the Bahamas, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Guam, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau.
Cookiecutter shark
Inhabiting all of the world's major tropical and warm-temperate oceanic basins, the cookiecutter shark is most common between the latitudes of 20°N and 20°S, where the surface water temperature is . In the Atlantic, it has been reported off the Bahamas and southern Brazil in the west, Cape Verde, Guinea to Sierra Leone, southern Angola, and South Africa in the east, and Ascension Island in the south. In the Indo-Pacific region, it has been caught from Mauritius to New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand, including Tasmania and Lord Howe Island, as well as off Japan. In the central and eastern Pacific, it occurs from Fiji north to the Hawaiian Islands, and east to the Galápagos, Easter, and Guadalupe Islands. Fresh wounds observed on marine mammals suggest this shark may range as far as California in warm years.
Grand Bahama
The tiger shark is a species of shark that is found on Grand Bahama Island, that gets its name from the vertical stripes that lines its body. They are often found near canals, harbors and shallow reefs.
Red-tailed black shark
The red-tailed black shark ("Epalzeorhynchos bicolor"; syn. "Labeo bicolor"), also known as the redtail shark and redtail sharkminnow, is a species of freshwater fish in the carp family, Cyprinidae. It is endemic to the Thailand and currently critically endangered, but common in aquaria, where it is prized for its deep black body and vivid red or orange tail. The red-tailed black sharks seen in the aquarium trade today are all captive bred.
Nervous shark
The nervous shark is found over continental and insular shelves off northern Australia from Shark Bay in the west to Moreton Bay in the east, as well as off Papua New Guinea and around the Solomon Islands. It is among the most common sharks in Darwin Harbor, the Gulf of Carpentaria, and Shark Bay. This species generally inhabits shallow inshore waters, to a depth of at least . It seems to particularly favor mangrove-lined areas with sandy-muddy bottoms and avoids areas with dense seagrass cover.
Caribbean reef shark
Normally shy or indifferent to the presence of divers, the Caribbean reef shark has been known to become aggressive in the presence of food and grows sufficiently large to be considered potentially dangerous. As of 2008, the International Shark Attack File lists 27 attacks attributable to this species, 4 of them unprovoked, and none fatal.
Frilled shark
Rather uncommon, the frilled shark has been recorded from a number of widely scattered locations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In the eastern Atlantic, it occurs off northern Norway, northern Scotland, and western Ireland, from France to Morocco including Madeira, and off Mauritania. In the central Atlantic, it has been caught at several locations along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, from north of the Azores to the Rio Grande Rise off southern Brazil, as well as over the Vavilov Ridge off West Africa. In the western Atlantic, it has been reported from waters off New England, Georgia, and Suriname. In the western Pacific, it is known from southeastern Honshu, Japan, to Taiwan, off New South Wales and Tasmania in Australia, and around New Zealand. In the central and eastern Pacific, it has been found off Hawaii and California in the US, and northern Chile. The frilled sharks off southern Africa were described as a different species, "C. africana", in 2009.
Shark fin trading in Costa Rica
Since the late 1980s populations of northwest Atlantic coastal and oceanic shark have dropped by an average of 70%, and in 2003 the World Conservation Union (IUCN) estimated that tens of millions of sharks are finned and discarded at sea every year. However, estimates are muddy given the fact that the sharks and their fins cross-cut different fishing markets (not to mention that the vast majority of sharks are exploited in the Pacific coast of Costa Rica as opposed to the Atlantic coast). The major environmental problem facing Costa Rican waters by mass shark finning is that the fishermen involved in the practice of killing sharks for their fins pay no attention to the age, gender, size, or even the species of shark. Young shark may be killed off, drastically affecting the ability to breed. A further biological complication is that sharks are naturally slow to breed and mature, which makes the possibility of extinction for many shark species in Costa Rican waters becoming increasingly ominous.
2010 Sharm El Sheikh shark attacks
Sharks are commonly seen near Sharm El Sheikh but attacks on humans are very rare, particularly by the two species implicated in the 2010 attacks. Only nine attacks by oceanic whitetips had been reported worldwide in the last 430 years and only one had been previously fatal. However, oceanographic researcher Jacques Cousteau described the oceanic whitetip as "the most dangerous of all sharks". Despite the greater notoriety of the great white shark and other sharks habitually found nearer the shore, the oceanic whitetip is responsible for more fatal attacks on humans than all other species combined, as a result of predation on survivors of shipwrecks or downed aircraft. Such incidents are not included in common shark-attack indices for the 20th and 21st centuries, and as a result of this, the oceanic whitetip does not have the highest number of "recorded" incidents; only 5 recorded attacks as of 2009. The chairman of the Shark Trust, a British charity dedicated to shark conservation, commented: “It is probable that the tragic attacks were triggered by a specific activity or event... Attacks on humans by sharks are extremely rare and this species would normally not be found close to shore on bathing beaches.” Mohammed Salam of the South Sinai Conservation organisation, a government body responsible for environmental protection in the area, said that "usually these kinds of sharks don't attack human beings but sometimes they have trouble with their nervous system and they accidentally go after people."
Caribbean reef shark
A heavy-bodied shark with a "typical" streamlined shape, the Caribbean reef shark is difficult to distinguish from other large requiem shark species. It usually measures long; the maximum recorded length is and the maximum reported weight is . The coloration is dark gray or gray-brown above and white or white-yellow below, with an inconspicuous white band on the flanks. The fins are not prominently marked, and the undersides of the paired fins, the anal fin, and the lower lobe of the caudal fin are dusky.
Shark finning
"The overfishing of sharks [has] serious effects for the entire marine food chain in some ecosystems. [...] [A] study found that removing sharks from a reef environment in the Caribbean had a trickling effect on other species. Without sharks, carnivorous fish that the sharks usually fed on thrived. The carnivorous fish, in turn, preyed on parrotfish that kept the corals clean. In time, the reefs changed from one dominated by coral to one overrun by algae."
Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916
Shark sightings increased along the Mid-Atlantic Coast following the attacks. On July 8, armed motorboats patrolling the beach at Spring Creek chased an animal they thought to be a shark, and Asbury Park's Asbury Avenue Beach was closed after lifeguard Benjamin Everingham claimed to have beaten off a long shark with an oar. Sharks were spotted near Bayonne, New Jersey; Rocky Point, New York; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Jacksonville, Florida; and Mobile, Alabama, and a columnist from "Field & Stream" captured a sandbar shark in the surf at Beach Haven. Actress Gertrude Hoffmann was swimming at the Coney Island beach shortly after the Matawan fatalities when she claimed to have encountered a shark. "The New York Times" noted that Hoffman "had the presence of mind to remember that she had read in the "Times" that a bather can scare away a shark by splashing, and she beat up the water furiously." Hoffman was certain she was going to be devoured by the "Jersey man-eater", but later admitted she was "not sure ... whether she had her trouble for nothing or had barely escaped death."
Dominica
The Caribbean Sea offshore of the island of Dominica is home to many cetaceans. Most notably a group of sperm whales live in this area year-round. Other cetaceans commonly seen in the area include spinner dolphins, pantropical spotted dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. Less commonly seen animals include killer whales, false killer whales, pygmy sperm whales, dwarf sperm whales, Risso's dolphins, common dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins, humpback whales and Bryde's whales. This makes Dominica a destination for tourists interested in whale-watching.
Dwarf catshark
The dwarf catshark ("Scyliorhinus torrei") is a catshark, belonging to the family Scyliorhinidae. It is found off the coast of southern Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba and is also known as the whitespotted catshark and Cuban catshark.
Caribbean reef shark
A profitable ecotourism industry has arisen around this species involving organized "shark feeds", in which groups of reef sharks are attracted to divers using bait. Some US$6,000,000 is spent annually on shark viewing in the Bahamas, where at some sites a single living Caribbean reef shark has a value between US$13,000 and US$40,000 (compared to a one-time value of US$50–60 for a dead shark). This practice has drawn controversy, as opponents argue that the sharks may learn to associate humans with food, increasing the chances of a shark attack, and that the removal of reef fishes for bait may damage the local ecosystem. Conversely, proponents maintain that shark feeds contribute to conservation by incentivizing the protection of sharks and educating people about them. Thus far, there has been little evidence that shark feeds have increased the risk of attack in the surrounding area. Shark feeding has been outlawed off the coast of Florida, but continues at other locations in the Caribbean.
Finetooth shark
In North American waters, the finetooth shark is common and found from North Carolina to the northern Gulf of Mexico, and very occasionally straying as far north as New York. In Central and South American waters, it is rare, but may occur more widely than presently known, having been reported off Trinidad and Guyana, infrequently from the Caribbean Sea, and off southern Brazil from São Paulo to Santa Catarina. The northwestern Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and South America populations are distinct, with little interchange between them. Old records exist of this species in the eastern Atlantic off Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, but these likely represent misidentifications of spinner sharks ("C. brevipinna").
Dusky shark
The range of the dusky shark extends worldwide, albeit discontinuously, in tropical and warm-temperate waters. In the western Atlantic Ocean, it is found from Massachusetts and the Georges Bank to southern Brazil, including the Bahamas and Cuba. In the eastern Atlantic Ocean, it has been reported from the western and central Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and possibly elsewhere including Portugal, Spain, Morocco, and Madeira. In the Indian Ocean, it is found off South Africa, Mozambique, and Madagascar, with sporadic records in the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and perhaps the Red Sea. In the Pacific Ocean, it occurs off Japan, mainland China and Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia, and New Caledonia in the west, and from southern California to the Gulf of California, around Revillagigedo, and possibly off northern Chile in the east. Records of dusky sharks from the northeastern and eastern central Atlantic, and around tropical islands, may in fact be of Galapagos sharks. Mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite evidence suggest that Indonesian and Australian sharks represent distinct populations.
Sawshark
The Bahamas sawsharks ("Pristiophorus schroeder") have very little information on them. Studies are being done daily to learn more about the deep sea dweller. They are located near Cuba, Florida, and the Bahamas (hence their name) where they dwell in the depths of 400–1000 m. As far as their appearance they can be identified by their snouts with teeth which appear as a saw, as well as their length, they are averaged at 80 cm in length.
Saw sharks and sawfish are cartilaginous fish possessing large saws. These are the only two fish that have a long blade-like snout. Although they are similar in appearances, saw sharks are distinct from sawfish. Sawfish are not sharks, but a type of ray. The gill slits of the sawfishes are positioned on the underside like a ray, but the gill slits of the saw shark are positioned on the side like a shark. Sawfish can have a much larger size, lack barbels, and have evenly sized teeth rather than alternating teeth of the saw shark. Clear difference is that a sawfish has no barbels and a saw shark has a prominent pair halfway along the saw. The saw shark uses these like other bottom fish, as a kind of antennae, feeling the way along the ocean bottom until it finds some prey of interest. Both the saw shark and the sawfish utilize the electroreceptors on the saw, ampullae of Lorenzini, to detect the electric field given off by buried prey.
Negaprion
Negaprion is a genus of requiem sharks in the family Carcharhinidae. It contains the two extant species of lemon sharks: the lemon shark ("N. brevirostris") of the Americas, and the sicklefin lemon shark ("N. acutidens") of the Indo-Pacific. Both species are large, slow-moving, bulky sharks inhabiting shallow coastal waters, and can be identified by their short, blunt snouts, two dorsal fins of nearly equal size, and uniform yellowish brown or gray coloration.
Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica
Several species of sharks live within the gulf; these species include the Whale Shark, Scalloped Hammer-Head, and Rays. Along with sharks, other large fish such as Needle Fish, Dorados, and Marlins also live in the gulf. While Needle Fish are protected, Marlins and Dorados are popular targets for sport fishing.
Lemon shark
The lemon shark ("Negaprion brevirostris") is a species of shark from the family Carcharhinidae. Lemon sharks can grow to in length. They are often found in shallow subtropical waters and are known to inhabit and return to specific nursery sites for breeding. Often feeding at night, these sharks use electroreceptors to find their main source of prey: fish. Lemon sharks enjoy the many benefits of group living such as enhanced communication, courtship, predatory behavior, and protection. This species of shark gives birth to live young, and the females are polyandrous and have a biennial reproductive cycle. Lemon sharks are not thought to be a large threat to humans.
Galápagos catshark
The species was first discovered in 1995 on an expedition to the Galápagos Islands led by John McCosker from the California Academy of Sciences. The purpose of the expedition was to film a documentary about the Galápagos Islands for the Discovery Channel, which aired in 1996. Douglas Long was the first to notice the new shark species while he was processing the fish samples that were collected during the expedition. Though not yet formally described, the name Galápagos catshark was used in non-scientific shark literature for several years prior to the published description. The species was formally described as a new species in an article by McCosker, Long and Carole Baldwin which was published in Zootaxa in March 2012. As the authors did not propose a common name in their original publication, and also because there are several species of catshark from the Galápagos Islands, the name Jaguar catshark was subsequently proposed, and later used in print. The scientific name is after underwater photographer and cinematographer Al Giddings, and the common name is in reference to the spotted pattern characteristic of the species, as well as its resemblance to the mythical jaguar shark in the Wes Anderson movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
Pigeye shark
Large and formidably toothed, the pigeye shark is regarded as potentially dangerous to humans, though it has not been implicated in any attacks. This species is caught infrequently on longlines and in gillnets, and is used for meat and fins. As a predator, though, the shark can accumulate ciguatera toxins produced by dinoflagellates within its tissues. In November 1993, some 500 people in Manakara, Madagascar, were poisoned, 98 of them fatally, after eating meat from a pigeye shark. This was the first recorded mass ciguatera outbreak caused by a shark, as well as the first with a significant death toll. The IUCN has listed the pigeye shark overall as Data Deficient, while noting that its rarity may render it susceptible to overfishing. In KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, small numbers of pigeye sharks are caught in shark nets set up to protect beaches. The catch rate and the average size of sharks caught both decreased between 1978 and 1998, leading to concerns that the local population may be depleted. Thus, the IUCN has given this species a regional assessment of Near Threatened in the southwestern Indian Ocean.
List of sharks
Sharks belong to the superorder Selachimorpha in the subclass Elasmobranchii, in the class Chondrichthyes. The Elasmobranchii also include rays and skates; the Chondrichthyes also include Chimaeras. The first sharks appeared in the oceans over 440 million years ago.
Galapagos shark
The Galapagos shark is found mainly off tropical oceanic islands. In the Atlantic Ocean, it occurs around Bermuda, the Virgin Islands, Madeira, Cape Verde, Ascension Island, Saint Helena and São Tomé Island. In the Indian Ocean, it is known from Walter's Shoal off southern Madagascar. In the Pacific Ocean, it occurs around Lord Howe Island, the Marianas Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Kermadec Islands, Tupai, the Tuamotu Archipelago, the Hawaiian Islands, the Galapagos Islands, Cocos Island, the Revillagigedo Islands, Clipperton Island, and Malpelo. There are a few reports of this species in continental waters off the Iberian Peninsula, Baja California, Guatemala, Colombia, and eastern Australia.
Smalltail shark
The known range of the smalltail shark extends from the northern Gulf of Mexico to southern Brazil, excluding the Caribbean islands (aside from Trinidad and Tobago). Its center of abundance is along the northern Brazilian coast, off Pará and Maranhão, where it is the most common shark. This species has not been reported east of the Mississippi River in the past 50 years, despite historical evidence of a nursery area off Louisiana. The smalltail shark can usually be found close to the bottom in inshore waters no deeper than . Off northern Brazil, its environment is characterized by tides up to high and reaching 7.5 knots; the salinity fluctuates between 14 ppt in the rainy season and 34 ppt in the dry season, and the temperature ranges from . It favors estuarine areas with muddy bottoms.
Shark attack
Most of the oceanic whitetip shark's attacks have not been recorded, unlike the other three species mentioned above. Famed oceanographic researcher Jacques Cousteau described the oceanic whitetip as "the most dangerous of all sharks". Modern-day statistics show the oceanic whitetip shark as seldom being involved in unprovoked attacks. However, there have been a number of attacks involving this species, particularly during World War I and World War II. The oceanic whitetip lives in the open sea and rarely shows up near coasts, where most recorded incidents occur. During the world wars, many ship and aircraft disasters happened in the open ocean, and because of its former abundance, the oceanic whitetip was often the first species on site when such a disaster happened.
Shark attack
As of June 28, 1992, Recife in Brazil began officially registering shark attacks on its beaches (mainly on the beach of Boa Viagem). Over more than two decades, 62 victims were attacked, of which 24 died. The last deadly attack occurred on July 22, 2013. The attacks were caused by the species bull shark and tiger shark.
What shocks about the shark attacks in Recife is that so many of them are fatal - 21 of the 56, a death rate of about 37%. This is much higher than the worldwide shark attack fatality rate, which is currently about 16%, according to Florida State Museum of Natural History.
Blacknose shark
The blacknose shark inhabits the continental and insular shelves off the eastern coast of the Americas, as far north as North Carolina and as far south as southern Brazil, including the Bahamas, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. They frequent coastal waters over beds of seagrass, sandy flats, and shell or coral rubble. This species is spatially segregated by size and sex. Generally, only young sharks are encountered in shallow water, as the adults prefer depths greater than and is most common at . Blacknose sharks in the South Atlantic Bight (off the Atlantic coast of the southern United States) migrate northward in the summer and southward (or possibly offshore) in the winter; a similar migration occurs for sharks in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tiger shark
The tiger shark is often found close to the coast, mainly in tropical and subtropical waters throughout the world. Its behavior is primarily nomadic, but is guided by warmer currents, and it stays closer to the equator throughout the colder months. It tends to stay in deep waters that line reefs, but it does move into channels to pursue prey in shallower waters. In the western Pacific Ocean, the shark has been found as far north as Japan and as far south as New Zealand. It has also been recorded in the Mediterranean, but so far only on two occasions, firstly off Spain and then off Sicily.
Galapagos shark
The Galapagos shark is often the most abundant shark in shallow island waters. In their original description of this species, Snodgrass and Heller noted that their schooner had taken "several hundred" adult Galapagos sharks and that "thousands" more could be seen in the water. At the isolated Saint Peter and Paul Rocks along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the resident Galapagos sharks have been described as "one of the densest shark populations of the Atlantic Ocean". At some locations they form large aggregations, though these are not true schools.
Tiger shark
The tiger shark is a solitary mostly nocturnal hunter. It is notable for having the widest food spectrum of all sharks, with a range of prey that includes crustaceans, fish, seals, birds, squid, turtles, sea snakes, dolphins, and even other smaller sharks. It also has a reputation as a "garbage eater", consuming a variety of inedible, man-made objects that linger in its stomach. Though apex predators, tiger sharks are sometimes taken by groups of killer whales. It is considered a near threatened species due to finning and fishing by humans.
Natural history of Trinidad and Tobago
Whale sharks (the largest of all fishes) have been observed around the oil rigs in the southern part of the Gulf of Paria. Hammerhead sharks are commonly caught by fishermen and shark flesh is unfortunately considered a delicacy among the human population of both islands.
Caribbean reef shark
Based on morphological similarities, Jack Garrick in 1982 grouped this species with the bignose shark ("C. altimus") and the sandbar shark ("C. plumbeus"), while Leonard Compagno in 1988 placed it as the sister species of the grey reef shark ("C. amblyrhynchos"). A phylogenetic analysis based on allozyme data, published by Gavin Naylor in 1992, indicated that the Caribbean reef shark is the sister taxon to a clade formed by the Galapagos shark ("C. galapagensis"), dusky shark ("C. obscurus"), oceanic whitetip shark ("C. longimanus"), and the blue shark ("Prionace glauca"). However, more work is required to fully resolve the interrelationships within "Carcharhinus".
Night shark
The night shark is a deepwater species that has been reported from as far down as , though it occasionally ventures to within of the surface. Off the southeastern United States, it is usually caught at a depth range of . Off northeastern Brazil, the night shark is most commonly found near the summits of seamounts ranging from to deep. Off West Africa, it occurs at depths of , where the temperature is 11–16 °C (52–61 °F), the salinity is 36 ppt, and the dissolved oxygen level is 1.81 ml/l. Annual variation in Cuban catch rates may indicate a seasonal migration.
Cookiecutter shark
Virtually every type of medium- to large-sized oceanic animal sharing the habitat of the cookiecutter shark is open to attack; bite scars have been found on cetaceans (including porpoises, dolphins, beaked whales, sperm whales and baleen whales), pinnipeds (including fur seals, leopard seals and elephant seals), dugongs, sharks (including blue sharks, goblin sharks, basking sharks, great white sharks, megamouth sharks and smalltooth sand tiger sharks), stingrays (including deepwater stingrays, pelagic stingrays and sixgill stingrays), and bony fishes (including billfishes, tunas, dolphinfishes, jacks, escolars, opahs, and pomfrets). The cookiecutter shark also regularly hunts and eats entire squid with a mantle length of , comparable in size to the shark itself, as well as bristlemouths, copepods, and other prey of more modest dimensions.
Parasitic attacks by the cookiecutter shark leave a round "crater wound", averaging across and deep. The prevalence of these attacks can be high; off Hawaii, nearly every adult spinner dolphin bears scars from this species. Diseased or otherwise weakened animals appear to be more susceptible; in the western Atlantic, there are records of emaciated beached melon-headed whales with dozens to hundreds of recent and healing cookiecutter shark wounds, while such wounds are rare on nonemaciated beached whales. The impact of parasitism on prey species, in terms of resources diverted from growth or reproduction, is uncertain.
Crocodile shark
The crocodile shark is almost circumtropical in distribution. In the Atlantic Ocean, it is known from off Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Angola, South Africa, and Saint Helena Island, though it has not yet been reported from the northwestern Atlantic. In the Indian Ocean, it occurs in the Mozambique Channel and possibly the Agulhas Current and the Bay of Bengal. In the Pacific, it occurs from Japan, Taiwan, and the Korean Peninsula in the northwest, southward to Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand, and eastward to the western coast of the Americas from Baja California to Chile, including the Marshall, Phoenix, Palmyra, Johnston, Marquesas, Line, and Hawaiian Islands in between.
Mammals of the Caribbean
The large proportion of extinctions can be attributed to the isolated and therefore somewhat less competitive nature of the islands' ecosystems, and to the fact that carnivorans never colonized most of the region. These factors made the islands' native fauna particularly vulnerable to disruption by humans and the invasive species they introduced. (The large predator niches of the Caribbean islands were formerly occupied by endemic outsize hawks, falcons, caracaras, teratorns and owls—e.g. "Titanohierax", "Gigantohierax", "Buteogallus borrasi", "Caracara tellustris", "Oscaravis olsoni", "Ornimegalonyx" and "Tyto pollens"—all of which are now extinct. Cuban crocodiles also have more terrestrial habits than other extant crocodilians.)
Blacktip shark
The blacktip shark ("Carcharhinus limbatus") is a species of requiem shark, and part of the family Carcharhinidae. It is common to coastal tropical and subtropical waters around the world, including brackish habitats. Genetic analyses have revealed substantial variation within this species, with populations from the western Atlantic Ocean isolated and distinct from those in the rest of its range. The blacktip shark has a stout, fusiform body with a pointed snout, long gill slits, and no ridge between the dorsal fins. Most individuals have black tips or edges on the pectoral, dorsal, pelvic, and caudal fins. It usually attains a length of .
Pigeye shark
Though widely distributed in the tropical and subtropical marine waters of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania, the pigeye shark does not appear to be common anywhere. Existing records are patchy, and the full extent of its range may be obscured by confusion with the bull shark. In the eastern Atlantic, it is found off Cape Verde and Senegal, and from Nigeria to Namibia; there is a single Mediterranean record from off Crotone, Italy. It occurs all along the continental periphery of the Indian Ocean, from eastern South Africa to the Arabian Peninsula (including Madagascar, the Seychelles, and Mauritius), to Southeast Asia and northern Australia. Its range extends into the Pacific, northward to the Philippines and southern China, and eastward to New Guinea and some Micronesian islands. Tagging and genetic data indicate that pigeye sharks, particularly juveniles, are not strongly migratory and tend to remain in a local area. The longest recorded distance covered by an adult is .
Whitespot ghost shark
The whitespot ghost shark lives in the southeast Pacific Ocean, in the waters of the Galapagos Islands, and has only been observed or caught in four different areas of the islands. Although unconfirmed, it is probable that the species are endemic to the islands, particularly due to the number of fish which are known to be endemic there. The species does not have any major threats, due to its habitat being very difficult to fish in and because no fisheries in its range operate in waters as deep as the species lives. Its range is protected due to being a part of the Galápagos Marine Reserve, which covers an area of and makes fishing industrially forbidden, although artisanal fishing is still permitted. People who violate these regulations often do not receive prosecution, and the rules are not strongly enforced. It is listed as data deficient by the IUCN, requiring further information about its population before giving it an assessment.
Caribbean reef octopus
The Caribbean reef octopus does not seem to have any specialized or outstanding predators. It is preyed on mostly by sharks, stingrays and some other predatory fish.
Caribbean reef shark
Juvenile Caribbean reef sharks are preyed upon by larger sharks such as the tiger shark ("Galeocerdo cuvier") and the bull shark ("C. leucas"). Few parasites are known for this species; one is a dark variegated leech often seen trailing from its first dorsal fin. Off northern Brazil, juveniles seek out cleaning stations occupied by yellownose gobies ("Elacatinus randalli"), which clean the sharks of parasites while they lie still on the bottom. Horse-eye jacks ("Caranx latus") and bar jacks ("Carangoides ruber") routinely school around Caribbean reef sharks.
Caribbean lanternshark
The Caribbean lanternshark ("Etmopterus hillianus") is a shark of the family Etmopteridae found in the eastern and western Atlantic at depths between 180 and 720 m. Its length is up to 50 cm.
Nurse shark
The nurse shark ("Ginglymostoma cirratum") is an elasmobranch fish within the family Ginglymostomatidae. They are directly targeted in some fisheries and considered as bycatch in others. The conservation status of the nurse shark is globally assessed as being data deficient in the IUCN List of Threatened Species owing to the lack of information across its range in the eastern Pacific Ocean and eastern Atlantic Ocean. They are considered to be a species of least concern in the United States and in The Bahamas, but considered to be near threatened in the western Atlantic Ocean because of their vulnerable status in South America and reported threats throughout many areas of Central America and the Caribbean.
Prickly shark
The prickly shark ("Echinorhinus cookei") is one of the two species of sharks in the family Echinorhinidae (the other one is the bramble shark), found in the Pacific Ocean over continental and insular shelves and slopes, and in submarine canyons. Bottom-dwelling in nature, it generally inhabits cool waters deep, but it also frequently enters shallower water in areas such as Monterey Bay off California. This stocky, dark-colored shark grows up to long, with two small dorsal fins positioned far back on its body and no anal fin. It is characterized by a dense covering of thorn-like dermal denticles, hence its common name.
Porbeagle
The porbeagle has an almost global amphitemperate distribution, i.e. it is absent from the tropics; in the North Pacific, its niche is assumed by the salmon shark. It is found mostly within 30–70°N and 30–50°S latitudes. In the North Atlantic, the northern limit of its range extends from the Newfoundland Grand Banks off Canada, through southern Greenland, to Scandinavia and Russia; the southern limit of its range extends from New Jersey and Bermuda, through the Azores and Madeira, to Morocco. It is found in the Mediterranean Sea, but not the Black Sea. Normally, North Atlantic sharks only stray as far south as South Carolina and the Gulf of Guinea, but pregnant females from the western North Atlantic population are known to range into the Sargasso Sea, almost as far as Hispaniola, to give birth. In the Southern Hemisphere, the porbeagle apparently occupies a continuous band bound in the south by the Antarctic Convergence, and extending as far north as Chile and Brazil, the Western Cape province of South Africa, Australia to southern Western Australia and southern Queensland, and New Zealand. The porbeagle is thought to have colonized the Southern Hemisphere during the Quaternary glaciation (beginning around 2.6 Mya), when the tropical climate zone was much narrower than it is today.
EcoOcean
Throughout the Mediterranean, shark populations have dwindled by more than 90%, but in recent years an amazing phenomenon has been witnessed along the Israeli coast - dozens of sharks now gather near the power stations and fish cages in the deep sea. Israel is the only country in the Mediterranean where sharks and stingrays are protected by law. It is the case that although fishing of these species is prohibited, illegal fishing does continue. EcoOcean actively engages in and lobbies for better enforcement of the law and other measures to protect both sharks and stingrays. In 2015, EcoOcean published an Action Plan for the protection of sharks and stingrays in the Mediterranean Sea of Israel. The association assists in shark research and engages in efforts to raise awareness of the importance of protecting sharks and stingrays.
Spinner shark
Some uncertainty exists in the distribution data for the spinner shark due to confusion with the blacktip shark. In the Western Atlantic Ocean, it occurs from North Carolina to the northern Gulf of Mexico, including the Bahamas and Cuba, and from southern Brazil to Argentina. In the Eastern Atlantic, it occurs from off North Africa to Namibia. In the Indian Ocean, it is found from South Africa and Madagascar, to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, to India and nearby islands, to Java and Sumatra. In the Pacific Ocean, it occurs off Japan, Vietnam, Australia, and possibly the Philippines. Parasitological evidence suggests that Indian Ocean spinner sharks have passed through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea, becoming Lessepsian migrants.
Prickly shark
The prickly shark is widely distributed around the Pacific Ocean. In the western and central Pacific, it has been reported off Japan, Taiwan, Victoria and Queensland in Australia, and New Zealand, as well as around the islands of Palau, New Caledonia, Tonga, Hawaii, and possibly the Gilberts. In the eastern Pacific, it is known to occur from Oregon to El Salvador (including the Gulf of California), around the Cocos and Galapagos Islands, and off Peru and Chile. This species generally seems to be uncommon; an exception is in Monterey Canyon off California, where sharks of both sexes are abundant throughout the year.
Ginglymostoma
Ginglymostoma is a genus of shark in the family Ginglymostomatidae. This fish lives in Brazil, the United States, Colombia, Ecuador, Cape Verde, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of the Congo, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, France, Spain, Nicaragua, Saint Lucia, Guatemala, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana, Grenada, Suriname, French Guiana, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, Martinique, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos Islands, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Anguilla, Virgin Islands, Venezuela, Saint Martin, Sint Eustatius, Bonaire, Barbados, Bermuda, Aruba, Mexico, Cayman Islands, and Peru. There are two members in the genus. Members of this genus eat small fish and crustaceans, and are commonly quite lethargic unless provoked. members of this genus have the ability to suck in water in order to remove snails from their shells in a manner that can be described as 'vacuum-like'.
Ocean City, Maryland
In Ocean City, there have been several shark sightings. More and more sharks have been spotted close to shore on beaches in Delaware and Ocean City. Some biologists believe that this may be a result of the fishermen who are attempting to catch sand sharks through bait that they have placed in the ocean. Besides sand sharks, there have been sightings of Tiger Sharks as well. On August 1, 2014, a 12.8-foot-long, 1,000-pound tiger shark was spotted in the middle of the Isle of Wight Bay, located in Ocean City. The female shark was nicknamed Septima by scientists, and has traveled over thousands of miles along the East Coast since being tagged in South Carolina. However, though there has been an increase in shark sightings, there haven’t been any recorded fatalities from shark attacks in Ocean City, Maryland. North Ocean City in recent years has seen more deer sightings and red foxes as well as development has increased on the barrier island as well.
Sand tiger shark
The sand tiger shark can be found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and in the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. In the Western Atlantic Ocean, it is found in coastal waters around from the Gulf of Maine to Florida, in the northern Gulf of Mexico around the Bahamas and Bermuda, and from southern Brazil to northern Argentina. It is also found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea to the Canary Islands, at the Cape Verde Islands, along the coasts of Senegal and Ghana, and from southern Nigeria to Cameroon. In the western Indian Ocean, the shark ranges from South Africa to southern Mozambique, but excluding Madagascar. The sand tiger shark has also been sighted in the Red Sea and may be found as far east as India. In the western Pacific, it has been sighted in the waters around the coasts of Japan and Australia, but not around New Zealand.
Nurse shark
The nurse shark has a wide but patchy geographical distribution along tropical and subtropical coastal waters of the Eastern Atlantic, Western Atlantic, and Eastern Pacific. In the Eastern Atlantic it ranges from Cape Verde to Gabon (accidental north to France). In the Western Atlantic, including the Caribbean, it ranges from Rhode Island to southern Brazil, and in the East Pacific from Baja California to Peru.
Blue shark
The blue shark ("Prionace glauca") is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, that inhabits deep waters in the world's temperate and tropical oceans. Preferring cooler waters, blue sharks migrate long distances, such as from New England to South America. The species is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN.