Latin name: Carcharhinus melanopterus

A Marvel of Adaptation!

• It is wonderfully adapted to hunting and evolving in water environments. Its fusiform body is hydrodynamic, which allows it to reach a speed of 37 km/hr. Its teeth are constantly renewed, ensuring that they are always as sharp as knives!

• Its skin is not covered with scales but with dermal denticles, a structure more similar to teeth that considerably reduces problems linked to underwater turbulence.

• Aggression occurrences related to the blacktip reef shark are rare as only 11 unprovoked attacks have been reported by the ISAF (The International Shark Attack File) since 1959.

• In Hawaii, some families consider this shark to be an aumakua, or guardian spirit, often of ancestors.

• This shark is vulnerable to overfishing since its gestation period is long, the female gives birth to only 2 to 4 young, and the mortality rate for young sharks is of about 75%