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What To Look For:
A stout shark with a very long curving caudal fin, about as long as its
entire body.
Color:
Dark grey, bluish or greenish above, white below.
Size:
Adult males range from 10.5 ft (3.2 m) to at least 13.8 ft (4.2 m), adult
females 12.3 to 18 ft (3.76 to 5.5 m). Maximum total length is 18 ft,
possibly 20 ft (6. m).
Teeth:
Small, broad-based blade-like teeth. Its tooth formula is: 19/26-2-19/26
and 21/27-2-21/27.
Habitat:
Coastal over the continental and insular shelves, and epipelagic from
land in temperate to tropical seas. Found from the surface to depths of
1200 ft.
Distribution:
Circumglobal in warm seas.
Biology:
• Prey:
Mostly small schooling fishes including mackerels, bluefishes, clupeids,
needlefishes, lancefishes and lanternfishes. Also feeds on squid, octopus
and pelagic crustaceans, and occasionally seabirds.
• Reproduction:
Ovoviviparous. Embryos are ovophagous and consume smaller siblings. Litter
size ranges between 2 and 4 (usually 2). Size at birth 3.7 to 4.9 ft (1.14
to 1.50 m).
Behaviour:
• Feeding:
A thresher shark herds and stuns prey with its long, whiplike tail, and
sometimes it vaults completely out of the water Thresher sharks are often
caught on longlines by being tail-hooked.
Disposition:
Small specimens have been seen underwater by divers (at the surface or close
to the bottom) and have circled them at the limit of visibility without
displaying aggression.
• Danger To Humans:
Probably not normally dangerous. There are two unconfirmed attacks on boats
by this species. Two other species in the family, A. supercilious and A.
pelagicus, have never been implicated in attacks on humans.
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