Spinner shark (Carcharhinus brevipinna)

Scientific name: Carcharhinus brevipinna M?ller & Henle, 1839

Spinner shark (Carcharhinus brevipinna)

The Spinner shark (Carcharhinus brevipinna) is a marine fish of the family Carcharhinidae.

Biology

Found on the continental and insular shelves from close inshore to offshore. Makes vertical spinning leaps out of the water as a feeding technique in which the sharks spins through a school of small fish with an open mouth and then breaks the surface. Feeds mainly on pelagic bony fishes, also small sharks, cuttlefish, squids, and octopi. Viviparous. Forms schools. Highly migratory off Florida and Louisiana and in the Gulf of Mexico. Regularly caught in fisheries where found. Utilized fresh and dried salted for human consumption. Fins probably used in the oriental shark fin trade, and livers for vitamin oil production.

Source: FishBase, licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.

Species facts

Scientific name
Carcharhinus brevipinna
Family
Carcharhinidae (Requiem sharks)
Order
Carcharhiniformes (Ground sharks)
Class
Elasmobranchii (Sharks and Rays)
Maximum length
300
Common length
250
Depth range
0–100 m (0–328 ft)
Environment
Marine; reef-associated; oceanodromous; depth range 0 - 100 m, usually 0 - ? m
Climate
Subtropical
Distribution
Western Atlantic: North Carolina, USA to northern Gulf of Mexico and the Bahamas, then from southern Brazil to northern Argentina. Reported from Cuba. Eastern Atlantic: Spain to Namibia, including the southern Mediterranean Sea. Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea south to South Africa and eastward to Indonesia, north to Japan, south to Australia. Often referred to as Carcharhinus limbatus in the past.
Conservation status (IUCN)
Near Threatened (NT)
Threat to humans
Harmless
Uses
Fisheries: commercial; gamefish: yes
Resilience
Very Low, minimum population doubling time more than 14 years (Fec=3)

Sources

Taxonomy, distribution and biology data: FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds.), licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.

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