Australian Blacktip Shark

About the Australian Blacktip Shark

The Australian blacktip shark (Carcharhinus tilstoni) is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, endemic to northern and eastern Australia. Favoring the upper and middle parts of the water column, it can be found from the intertidal zone to a depth of 50 m (160 ft). Appearance-wise this species is virtually identical to the common blacktip shark (C. limbatus), from which it can be reliably distinguished only by its lower vertebra number and by genetic markers. Generally reaching 1.5–1.8 m (4.9–5.9 ft) in length, it is a fairly stout-bodied, bronze-colored shark with a long snout and black-tipped fins.

Primarily piscivorous, the Australian blacktip shark forms large groups of similar size and sex that tend to remain within a local area. It exhibits viviparity, meaning that the unborn young are provisioned through a placental connection. There is a well-defined annual reproductive cycle with mating occurring in February and March. Females bear one to six pups around January of the following year, after a 10-month gestation period. The Australian blacktip shark is among the sharks most commonly caught by northern Australian commercial fisheries. It is mainly valued for its meat, which is sold as "flake". This species was an important catch of a Taiwanese gillnet fishery that operated from 1974 to 1986, and of the Australian Northern Shark Fishery that continues to the present day. As current fishing levels are not thought to threaten this shark's population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as Least Concern. Wikipedia →