Sandbar shark
Carcharhinus plumbeus
Size, compared with you
You: 1.7 m. Sandbar shark: 2.5 m.
Person-sized. Grows up to about 2.5 m.
The sandbar shark is a big, stocky shark with a very tall triangle-shaped fin on its back. It lives in warm and mild coastal waters, and young ones grow up in shallow bays.
The weird bit
Sandbar shark mothers carry their pups for about a year, and females return to the same places to give birth every two or three years. Young sharks spend their early life in shallow nursery areas such as Chesapeake Bay.
Quick facts
- Where it lives
- Coast and shallows, Rivers and estuaries0 to 500 m down
- What it eats
- Fish, rays, crabs and shellfish found near the sea floor
- How worried are we?
- In danger (Endangered)Assessed in 2020 by the IUCN Red List.