Caribbean reef shark
Carcharhinus perezi
Size, compared with you
You: 1.7 m. Caribbean reef shark: 3 m.
Bigger than a car. Grows up to about 3 m.
The Caribbean reef shark is one of the biggest hunters on coral reefs in the western Atlantic. It is more active at night, and it often swims near the edges of reefs where the sea floor drops away.
The weird bit
In 1975 the scientist Eugenie Clark studied the famous "sleeping sharks" in caves off Isla Mujeres, Mexico, and found that they were not really asleep: their eyes followed the divers.
Quick facts
- Where it lives
- Coral reef, Coast and shallows1 to 65 m down
- What it eats
- Reef fish and squid, plus some rays
- How worried are we?
- In danger (Endangered)Assessed in 2019 by the IUCN Red List.