Saw my FIRST White Tip Shark Today

[riguerin]

I've only encountered white tip reef sharks in the tropical Pacific ... never in So FL or Caribbean. The geographical distribution of the species found on this site appears to corroborate this :

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/WTReefShark/WTReefShark.html

Here's a couple cruddy close ups that I snapped of white tips in Costa Rica.

 

[HowardE]

Perhaps it was an oceanic, as Kevin first suggested to me (on the boat), but there were 2 witnesses who saw the shark... 1 was a SB member so when he gets back to his computer I'll ask him too... But it looked to me like a pointy dorcel fin. Definitely not a nurse shark which are quite common to see around here. I SWEAR it's not a fish tale... It was at LEAST 6' long like I said in the first post. I also KNOW that it didn't have as curved a dorcel fin as the oceanic reef shark pictured in Kevin's photo/post.

To be perfectly honest from my recollection of the shark which hung around for at least 30 seconds... (long enough for me to signal the other guys to look) - and after looking at as many photos of white tip sharks as I can... It honestly looked more like a silver tip shark (the body and mouth especially) which I know are definitely not seen in this area.

Oh Well... :aeh:

 

[Diesel298]

Take off, eh? Radiation has made me an enemy of civilization. I know I got a fleshy head, but what's up with mutant?

i love that movie

 

[Humuhumunukunukuapua'a]

One of the key things with the Oceanic White Tips is the proportional size of the pectoral fins. They're really long. Their "wingspan" is close to the length of the entire fish.

Oceanics are considered dangerous. I have read several places that one should abort a dive if they are encountered, but that they usually aren't because they are typically far offshore. I think they are the "shipwreck sharks" that killed so many sailors whose boats had gone down in WW2.

The only White Tip reef sharks I have seen were pretty small. But then, any shark looks bigger when it's swimming past you

Way cool, in any event! I'm always happy to see a shark while diving unless I am in my home waters where they get very big and tempermental

 

[HowardE]

Oceanics are considered dangerous. I have read several places that one should abort a dive if they are encountered, but that they usually aren't because they are typically far offshore. I think they are the "shipwreck sharks" that killed so many sailors whose boats had gone down in WW2.

This thought had crossed my mind... especially when it turned and came towards me.

 

[riguerin]

Silver tips are commonly mistaken for white tips. You're right, FL is not normally in their range either. Then again ... could have been a very rare encounter.

 

[riguerin]

The only White Tip reef sharks I have seen were pretty small. But then, any shark looks bigger when it's swimming past you

While somewhat rare, they can get up to 7 ft. I've encountered a few in the 6ft+ range.

 

[HowardE]

After looking at several more photos... It most resembled a caribbean reef shark...with white on top of it's dorcel fin. scubakevdm suggested to me that it could have had some sort of fungus?