The Sharks— Part Two 327 



The Small Black-Tipped shark feeds on smaller fishes, such as men- 

 haden in the Atlantic and sardines in the Pacific, and Sting rays, whose 

 stingers are often found imbedded in the sharks' jaws. A relatively small 

 shark, rarely growing to 7 or 8 feet, the Small Black-Tipped is itself 

 sometimes a meal for the larger oceanic sharks such as the Tiger shark. 



The conspicuously black-tipped fins of this shark are seen in tropi- 

 cal and sub-tropical seas. In the western Atlantic, it ranges from the 

 Gulf of Mexico and southern Brazil to North Carolina and sometimes 

 to New York and southern New England. In the eastern Atlantic, it is 

 found off" tropical West Africa, in the waters around the Cape Verde 

 Islands, and around Madeira. In the eastern Pacific, it is found from 

 Lower California to Peru. This or a very similar species has also been 

 reported off China, India, and Madagascar, and in the Red Sea. 



Dark gray, dusky bronze, or ashy blue above, its trim body is pure 

 white or yellowish white below, with a band of dark upper color ex- 

 tending backward along each side, and the pale color of its lower parts 

 extending forward. Its pectoral fins are black-tipped. The dorsal and 

 anal fins and the lower lobe of the tail fin are black-tipped in the young, 

 but the color usually fades with age. Its eye has been described as cat- 

 like: greenish yellow bisected by a black band. 



Large Black-Tipped Shark 



{Carcharhinus maciiUpinms Poey, 1865) 



On May 31st, 1944, Mary Ann Shands, aged 15, was swimming in 



waist-deep water off Mayport, Florida, near Jacksonville. Suddenly, 



something slashed the calf of her leg. She looked down and saw a shark, 



which darted away. Its fins were tipped with black. 



Subsequent investigation by Stewart Springer of the U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service established beyond a doubt that the attacker was a 

 Large Black-Tipped shark only 5^2 to 6% feet long. Its size and species 



^^rHa, 



Small Black-tipped shark (Eulamia [Carcharhinus] limhatus). 



Courtesy, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology 



