Underrated Chondrichthyan 2018: silvertip shark

The Fins United Initiative is excited to bring back the loved "Underrated Elasmobranch Spotlight" series through TFUI officer Jess Myers. Learn about the Chondrichthyans not shown on the big screen through her beautiful artwork!

​We’ve heard of black tips, oceanic white tips, black and white tip reef sharks. The first shark in our underrated chondrichthyans spotlight has the coolest ‘tips’ of them all – the silvertip shark (Carcharhinus albimarginatus).

This species can be found cruising around reefs in the western Indian and Pacific oceans. While their fin tips aren’t truly silver, they stand out from the other ‘tip sharks’ because the outer edge of their fins are lined with white. Their scientific name perfectly describes this feature, “abli” meaning white, and “marginatus” meaning within a border in Latin. 

Silvertips are known to be more aggressive than most sharks, this can be seen in their bold diet choices – from reef fish to open ocean fish like wahoo and tuna, eagle rays, octopuses, and even other sharks! They’ll even swipe food from a large group of feeding sharks!
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 Due to bycatch and direct fishing, the silvertip is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

WHAT UNDERRATED CHONDRICHTHYAN DO YOU THINK SHARK WEEK SHOULD SHOWCASE?