---
title: Shortfin Mako Shark (Isurus oxyrinchus)
scientific_name: Isurus oxyrinchus
common_name: Shortfin Mako Shark
taxon: Mackerel sharks
conservation_status: DD - Data Deficient
published: 2024-11-03T23:16:45.645Z
updated: 2026-08-11T20:51:48.306Z
tags: Shortfin Mako Shark, Isurus oxyrinchus, Mackerel sharks, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/mackerel-sharks/shortfin-mako-shark
---

# Shortfin Mako Shark (*Isurus oxyrinchus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Mackerel sharks (*Lamnidae*)
- **Size:** 2.5 - 4.45 m
- **Weight:** 570 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-150 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Very Rare
- **Habitat:** Open ocean, rarely close to reef
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** DD - Data Deficient

## How to recognise it

- metallic blue back with a knife-edge boundary to the white belly
- conical pointed snout and a stiff crescent tail on a keel
- large black eye, no markings on the fins
- in open ocean, rarely near reef

Built like a missile: a metallic blue back, a knife-edge boundary to the white belly, a conical pointed snout and a stiff crescent tail on a narrow keel. Adults run 2.5 to 3.2 m (8 to 10.5 ft), with exceptional females at 3.8 m (12.5 ft) and over 500 kg (1,100 lb). It is the fastest shark in the sea, credited with bursts around 70 km/h (43 mph), and it can clear the surface by several meters.

The speed comes from being warm. This shark runs a counter-current heat exchanger in its blood vessels that traps the heat generated by swimming muscle instead of losing it through the gills, keeping the muscle, the gut and the eyes several degrees above the surrounding sea. Warm muscle contracts faster and recovers faster, and that is the difference between a shark that cruises and one that can run down a tuna - which is exactly what this animal eats.

It is an open-ocean animal that only occasionally comes near a reef, and encounters underwater are exceptional. Where it is met, it is fast, direct and shows no caution at all.

The name comes from Maori, in which mako means shark or shark tooth, and it is one of very few Polynesian words to enter scientific usage. The species is Endangered: high-value meat and fins, a fifteen-year wait to maturity, and a three-year breeding cycle add up the way they always do.

## Also known as

- **English:** Atlantic mako shark, Shortfin Mako, blue pointer, blue porpoise shark
- **Arabic:** (قرش ماكو قصير الزعانف (الذيبة
- **Hebrew:** עמלץ כחול
- **French:** mako à nageoires courtes, Requin taupe bleu, requin-taupe bleu, taupe bleu
- **Italian:** cagnia, cane di mare di Messina, cani di mari
- **German:** Kurzflossen-Mako, Blauhai, Makrelenhai
- **Spanish:** alecrín, dentudo, dientuso azul
- **Greek:** Οξύρρυγχος καρχαρίας, Ρυγχοκαρχαρίας
- **Turkish:** dikburun canavar, mako kopekbaligi, Dikburun
- **Portuguese:** anequin barbatana curta, marrajo criollo, Marracho-azul
- **Dutch:** kortvin makreelhaai, Haringhaai, kortvinmakreelhaai
- **Swedish:** Makrillhaj
- **Polish:** Rekin ostronosy, ostronos atlantycki
- **Japanese:** アオザメ, Aozame, awozame
- **Chinese:** 尖吻鯖鯊, 灰鯖鮫, 煙仔沙
- **Ukrainian:** Акула сіро-блакитна, Акула-мако, сіро-блакитна акула
- **Russian:** акула мако, Короткоперый мако, макрелевая акула
- **AF:** mambone, moro
- **CA:** solraig
- **DA:** Makrelhaj, Sildehaj
- **FI:** Makrillihai
- **LT:** atlantinis pilkšvasis ryklys
- **MLT:** Pixxiplamptu, Pixxitondu
- **MRI:** mako
- **NNO:** makrellhai
- **NO:** makrellhai
- **RO:** Rechin macrou
- **SQI:** Peshkagen tonil, Peshkaqen tonil, peshkaqen turishkurtër
- **SR:** Psina du gonasa, Kucina
- **TAM:** ganumu sorrah

## Scientific synonyms

- *Carcharias tigris* Atwood, 1869
- *Isuropsis dekayi* Gill, 1862
- *Isuropsis glaucus* (Müller & Henle, 1839)
- *Isuropsis mako* (Whitley, 1929)
- *Isurus africanus* Smith, 1957
- *Isurus bideni* Phillipps, 1932
- *Isurus cepedii* (Lesson, 1831)
- *Isurus glaucus* (Müller & Henle, 1839)
- *Isurus guentheri* (Murray, 1884)
- *Isurus mako* Whitley, 1929
- *Isurus oxyrhinchus* Rafinesque, 1810
- *Isurus oxyrhincus* Rafinesque, 1810
- *Isurus oxyrhynchus* Rafinesque, 1810
- *Isurus spallanzani* Rafinesque, 1810
- *Isurus tigris* (Atwood, 1869)
- *Isurus tigris africanus* Smith, 1957
- *Lamna glauca* (Müller & Henle, 1839)
- *Lamna guentheri* Murray, 1884
- *Lamna huidobrii* Philippi, 1887
- *Lamna latro* Owen, 1853
- *Lamna oxyrhina* Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1835
- *Oxyrhina glauca* Müller & Henle, 1839
- *Oxyrhina gomphodon* Müller & Henle, 1839
- *Squalus cepedii* Lesson, 1831

## Range

Canada, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, FAO fishing area 47, FAO fishing area 51, FAO fishing area 57, FAO fishing area 67, FAO fishing area 71, FAO fishing area 77, FAO fishing area 81, FAO fishing area 87, Federal Republic of Somalia, Greece, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, North East Pacific, North Pacific Ocean, Red Sea, Seychelles, Sicily, South Africa, Tanzania, The Coastal Waters of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, Western Indian Ocean

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/mackerel-sharks/shortfin-mako-shark)*
*Updated: August 11, 2026*