Carcharhinus longimanus

Dorsal surfaces bronze to greyish. Newborns and small juveniles with black tips to most fins; in specimens over 130 cm TL black tips fade, and first dorsal, pectoral, pelvic and caudal fins develop mottled white tips. Ventral surfaces paler.

Maximum size up to 350 cm TL; birth size 55–77 cm TL.

Circumglobal in all tropical and warm temperate waters.

Oceanic and pelagic from the surface to at least 152 m, usually well offshore and only close to land when continental shelf is narrow.

Feeds primarily on pelagic bony fish and cephalopods, but also stingrays, seabirds, turtles, marine gastropods, crustaceans and marine mammal carrion. The white mottled fins may mimic schools of baitfish, which attract tuna and mackerels. A very dangerous shark which is responsible for many open-ocean attacks after air or sea disasters. Length at maturity is at 175–200 and 168–198 cm TL for females and males respectively. Age at maturity is around 5–7 years for both sexes in Papua New Guinea. Reproductive mode is viviparous with yolk-sac placenta with a gestation period lasting 12 months with no apparent reproductive seasonality. Females probably breed every second year, and give birth to 1–15 pups.

Occasionally caught by shark and tuna longline and tuna gillnet fisheries. Utilised for its fins (high value in adults), meat, skin and cartilage.

FishBase
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species^TM