Bronze whaler  (Carcharhinus brachyurus)

Description

Named for its bronze, or sometimes greyish-bronze upperside, this is a large, fairly slender shark with a moderately long and slightly pointed snout. The underside is white, and most of the fins have inconspicuous darker edges and dusky to black tips. Both the large, pointed first dorsal fin and the long pectoral fins are sickle-shaped. Often, a prominent white band runs down the flanks (3). Its common name ‘whaler’ arose in the nineteenth century, due to their habit of congregating around the carcasses of harpooned whales hanging along the side of whaling boats (4).

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