---
title: Blacktip Shark (Carcharhinus limbatus)
scientific_name: Carcharhinus limbatus
common_name: Blacktip Shark
taxon: Requiem shark
conservation_status: DD - Data Deficient
published: 2024-11-03T22:02:12.105Z
updated: 2026-08-14T11:57:51.022Z
tags: Blacktip Shark, Carcharhinus limbatus, Requiem shark, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/requiem-shark/blacktip-shark
---

# Blacktip Shark (*Carcharhinus limbatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Requiem shark (*Carcharhinidae*)
- **Size:** 1.5 - 2.8 m
- **Weight:** 123 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-30 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Shallow coastal water, bays and lagoons over sand
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** DD - Data Deficient

## How to recognise it

- black tips on pectoral, dorsal and lower tail fins
- clear white band along the flank
- pointed snout and long gill slits
- in loose groups in shallow coastal water

A stocky gray shark of 1.5 to 2 m (5 to 6.5 ft), sometimes larger, with a pointed snout, a white band along the flank and black tips on the pectoral, dorsal and lower tail fins. It is fast, nervous and social, and it moves in loose groups through shallow coastal water rather than along the reef wall.

Like its close relative the Spinner Shark it feeds by charging vertically through schools of small fish and leaving the water, though it turns fewer times in the air. It is a specialist on sardines, herring and other schooling prey, which puts it wherever bait is concentrated and makes it excitable around speared fish. Away from food it keeps its distance.

This species produced the first confirmed case of virgin birth in a shark. A female kept without any male for years produced a pup whose DNA contained nothing but hers, ruling out stored sperm and proving that a shark egg can develop from the mother's genetic material alone. Several species have since been shown to do it. The offspring carry half the genetic diversity of a normal pup, so it is a last resort rather than a strategy, but it means an isolated female is not necessarily a dead end.

Slow reproduction, coastal nurseries and heavy fishing across the range leave it Vulnerable.

## Also known as

- **English:** blacktip shark, Common Blacktip Shark, Oceanic Blacktip Shark
- **Arabic:** قرش ذو الزعانف السوداء, قرش أسود الطرف, قرش الساحل
- **Hebrew:** כריש שחור-שוליים
- **French:** Mangeur d'hommes, Requin blanc, Requin bordé
- **Italian:** Squalo pinne nere, Squalo orlato
- **German:** kleiner Schwarzspitzenhai, kleiner atlantischer Schwarzspitzenhai, Großer Schwarzspitzenhai
- **Spanish:** jaquetón manchado, tiburón macuira, tiburón volador
- **Greek:** Μελανόακρος καρχαρίνος
- **Turkish:** kopek baligi, köpek balığı, camgoz
- **Portuguese:** Corta-garoupa, Galha-preta, Marracho-de-pontas-negras
- **Dutch:** Zwartpunthaai
- **Polish:** Zarlacz czarnopletwy, żarłacz czarnopłetwy
- **Czech:** žralok černocípý
- **Japanese:** カマストガリザメ, Kamasutogarizame
- **Chinese:** 黑邊鰭真鯊
- **Ukrainian:** Акула сіра чорнопера, Акула чорнопера
- **Russian:** Чернопёрая акула
- **DA:** Sorttippet haj
- **FI:** Mustapilkkahai
- **HU:** feketevégű cápa
- **ID:** Hiu sirip hitam
- **LT:** mažasis juodapelekis ryklys
- **SR:** Psina ljudozder
- **TAH:** oihe
- **TH:** ปลาฉลามหูดำเล็ก

## Scientific synonyms

- *Carcharhinus aethalorus* (Jordan & Gilbert, 1882)
- *Carcharhinus natator* Meek & Hildebrand, 1923
- *Carcharhinus pleurotaenia* (Bleeker, 1852)
- *Carcharias abbreviatus* Klunzinger, 1871
- *Carcharias aethalorus* Jordan & Gilbert, 1882
- *Carcharias ehrenbergi* Klunzinger, 1871
- *Carcharias limbatus* Valenciennes, 1839
- *Carcharias maculipinna* Günther, 1868
- *Carcharias microps* Lowe, 1841
- *Carcharias muelleri* Steindachner, 1867
- *Carcharias phorcys* Jordan & Evermann, 1903
- *Carcharias pleurotaenia* Bleeker, 1852
- *Carcharinus limbatus* (Valenciennes, 1839)
- *Eulamia aethalorus* (Jordan & Gilbert, 1882)
- *Eulamia pleurotaenia* (Bleeker, 1852)
- *Gymnorhinus abbreviatus* (Klunzinger, 1871)

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin, Mozambique, North Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/requiem-shark/blacktip-shark)*
*Updated: August 14, 2026*