---
title: Silky Shark (Carcharhinus falciformis)
scientific_name: Carcharhinus falciformis
common_name: Silky Shark
taxon: Requiem shark
conservation_status: VU - Vulnerable
published: 2024-11-03T21:46:05.190Z
updated: 2026-08-14T11:57:50.926Z
tags: Silky Shark, Carcharhinus falciformis, Requiem shark, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/requiem-shark/silky-shark
---

# Silky Shark (*Carcharhinus falciformis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Requiem shark (*Carcharhinidae*)
- **Size:** up to 3.5 m
- **Depth:** 1-50 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Open water off the reef, near the surface
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** VU - Vulnerable

## How to recognise it

- skin noticeably smooth to the eye, without the usual rough texture
- small first dorsal fin with a curved rear margin
- tiny second dorsal fin drawn out into a long trailing tip
- metallic bronze-gray, appears out of open water rather than off the reef

A slender oceanic shark, usually about 2.5 m (8 ft) and up to 3.5 m (11.5 ft), metallic bronze-gray above and white below, with sickle-shaped pectoral fins and a tiny second dorsal fin drawn out into a long trailing tip. The name is literal: the denticles covering the skin are unusually fine and closely packed, and the animal feels smooth where other sharks feel like sandpaper.

It hunts by ear. Low-frequency pulses - the irregular thumping made by fish struggling or by a feeding frenzy - carry for kilometers underwater, and this shark is tuned to them, homing in from far outside visual range. That sensitivity is why silkies appear within minutes around anything that makes a commotion on the surface, and why they follow schools of tuna, which do the finding for them.

The same instinct is killing the species. Industrial tuna fleets fish around drifting artificial rafts, which attract tuna and everything that follows tuna, and this is the shark that arrives. It is the most commonly caught shark in tropical purse-seine fisheries on Earth, taken in hundreds of thousands per year as bycatch, and it is now Vulnerable with regional declines above 85 percent.

In the water it is curious, persistent and difficult to discourage, and it appears out of blue water rather than off the reef - usually several at once, usually at a safety stop, usually already close before anyone notices.

## Also known as

- **English:** silky shark, Gray reef shark, Sickle silk shark
- **Arabic:** سمك القرش الحريري, القرش الحريري
- **French:** Mangeur d'hommes, Requin soyeux
- **Italian:** Squalo seta
- **German:** Seidenhai
- **Spanish:** jaquetón sedoso, Tiburón aleta de cartón, tiburón lustroso, tiburón piloto
- **Greek:** Λείος καρχαρίνος
- **Turkish:** karayip resif köpekbalığı
- **Portuguese:** Marracho-luzidio, Tubarão-luzidio
- **Dutch:** Zijdehaai
- **Polish:** żarłacz jedwabisty
- **Czech:** žralok hedvábný
- **Japanese:** クロトガリザメ, Kurotogarizame
- **Chinese:** 圓頭鯊, 大沙, 平滑白眼鮫
- **Ukrainian:** Акула сіра шовковиста, Шовкова акула
- **Russian:** Флоридская акула, Широкоротая акула, Шёлковая акула
- **DA:** Silkehaj
- **ET:** Siidhai
- **FI:** Haukkahai
- **HU:** Selyemcápa
- **LT:** floridinis šilkinis ryklys
- **SL:** svilnati morski pes
- **TAH:** tautukau
- **TH:** ปลาฉลามเทา

## Scientific synonyms

- *Aprionodon sitankaiensis* Herre, 1934
- *Carcharhinus atrodorsus* Deng, Xiong & Zhan, 1981
- *Carcharhinus falciformes* (Bibron, 1839)
- *Carcharhinus floridanus* Bigelow, Schroeder & Springer, 1943
- *Carcharhinus floridianus* Bigelow, Schroeder & Springer, 1943
- *Carcharhinus menisorrah* (Valenciennes, 1839)
- *Carcharhinus menissorrah* (Valenciennes, 1839)
- *Carcharias (Prionodon) menisorrah* Valenciennes in Müller & Henle, 1839
- *Carcharias falciformis* Bibron, 1839
- *Carcharias falcipinnis* Lowe, 1839
- *Carcharias menisorrah* Valenciennes, 1839
- *Carcharias pharaonis* Ehrenberg, 1871
- *Carcharins menisorrah* Valenciennes, 1839
- *Carcharius falcipinnis* Lowe, 1839
- *Carcharius menisorrah* Valenciennes, 1839
- *Eulamia malpeloensis* Fowler, 1944
- *Eulamia menisorrah* (Valenciennes, 1839)
- *Gymnorhinus pharaonis* Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1899
- *Prionodon tiburo* (Poey, 1860)
- *Squalus tiburo* Poey, 1860

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Western Indian Ocean

---

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