Blacktip shark
Carcharhinus limbatus
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Size, compared with you
You: 1.7 m. Blacktip shark: 2.8 m.
Person-sized. Grows up to about 2.8 m.
The blacktip shark is a fast, energetic shark that lives in warm coastal seas and has dark tips on its fins. Mothers give birth in shallow nursery areas where the babies are safer.
The weird bit
Blacktip sharks sometimes leap out of the water and spin three or four times before splashing back down, often as they shoot up through a school of small fish.
Quick facts
- Where it lives
- Coast and shallows, Rivers and estuaries, Coral reef0 to 140 m down
- What it eats
- Schooling fish such as menhaden and herring, plus rays and small sharks
- How worried are we?
- In trouble (Vulnerable)Assessed in 2020 by the IUCN Red List.