Carcharhinus albimarginatus  (Rüppell, 1837)

Silvertip shark
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Carcharhinus albimarginatus
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Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes (gen., sp.) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Elasmobranchii (sharks and rays) > Carcharhiniformes (Ground sharks) > Carcharhinidae (Requiem sharks)
Etymology: Carcharhinus: Greek, karcharos = sharpen + Greek, rhinos = nose (Ref. 45335).

Environment / Climate / Range Ecology

Marine; reef-associated; depth range 1 - 800 m (Ref. 6871), usually 20 - ? m (Ref. 30874).   Tropical; 29°N - 31°S, 31°E - 77°W (Ref. 55177)

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm 200.0, range 160 - 200 cm
Max length : 300 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 2334); common length : 200 cm NG male/unsexed; (Ref. 30874); max. published weight: 162.2 kg (Ref. 40637)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 0; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 0. First dorsal fin and pectoral fins angular, and not expanded; upper teeth triangular; interdorsal ridge present (Ref. 1602, 5578). Dark grey or grey-brown above, white below; all fins with conspicuous white tips and posterior margins (Ref. 9997).

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Introductions | Faunafri

Western Indian Ocean: Red Sea and East Africa, including Madagascar, Seychelles, Aldabra Group, Mauritius and the Chagos Archipelago. Western Pacific: off southern Japan to northern Australia and French Polynesia (Ref. 9997). Eastern Central Pacific: southern Baja California, Mexico to Colombia, including the Cocos, Galapagos and Revillagigedo islands.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

An inshore and offshore shark found over or adjacent to continental and insular shelves and offshore banks (Ref. 244). Prefers offshore islands, coral reefs and banks (Ref. 244). Benthopelagic (Ref. 58302). Feeds mainly on benthic and midwater fishes (including scombrids), also rays, cephalopods (Ref. 244, 1602), and small sharks and occasionally cephalopods (Ref. 37816). Viviparous (Ref. 50449). Up to 11 young, size 50 to 60 cm, are born after a gestation period of 12 months (Ref. 1602, 37816). Potentially dangerous (Ref. 9997). Presumably taken by fisheries in areas where it occurs (Ref. 9997). Caught irregularly by shark and tuna longline and tuna gillnet fisheries. Utilized for its fins (high value in adults), meat, skin and cartilage (Ref.58048). Probably utilized fresh and dried-salted for human consumption (Ref. 9997).

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator : Compagno, Leonard J.V. | Collaborators

Compagno, L.J.V., 1984. FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 4. Sharks of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. Part 2 - Carcharhiniformes. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(4/2):251-655. Rome: FAO.

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 90363)

  Near Threatened (NT) 

Threat to humans

  Traumatogenic (Ref. 4690)




Human uses

Fisheries: commercial; gamefish: yes
FAO(Publication : search) | FisheriesWiki | Sea Around Us

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Internet sources

BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes (gen., sp.) | DiscoverLife | Faunafri | Fishtrace | GenBank(genome, nucleotide) | GOBASE | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | iSpecies | National databases | PubMed | Scirus | SeaLifeBase | Tree of Life | uBio | Wikipedia(Go, Search) | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates of some properties based on empirical models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82805):  PD50 = 0.5000   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00251 (-0.15899 - 0.16401), b=3.23 (3.14 - 3.32), based on LWR estimates for species & genus-BS (Ref. 93245).
Trophic Level (Ref. 69278):  4.2   ±0.7 se; Based on diet studies.
Resilience (Ref. 69278):  Very Low, minimum population doubling time more than 14 years (Fec=1).
Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  High to very high vulnerability (74 of 100) .
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Medium.