A slender shark with a long, narrow, pointed snout, long gill slits and small, narrow-cusped teeth; first dorsal fin small; no interdorsal ridge; labial furrows longer than in any other grey shark. Grey above, white below, with a conspicuous white band on sides; second dorsal, anal, undersides of pectorals and lower caudal-fin lobe black or dark grey-tipped in subadults and adults, but unmarked or nearly so in small individuals.

Biology

Length: It reaches a maximum size of 304 cm total length (Weigmann 2016), males mature at 170–220 cm TL and females mature at 160–222 cm TL with regional variation in these parameters; smaller sizes-at-maturity are noted for the North Atlantic and Arabian Seas and the larger sizes-at-maturity for Australia, Taiwan, and South Africa. Size-at-birth of 48–80 cm TL. 

Gestation period: Unknown

Litter size: 3-15

Life expectancy: Estimated generation length 12.6 years

Diet: Feeds mainly on pelagic bony fishes, also small sharks, cuttlefish, squids, and octopi.

Habitat and distribution

Habitat: The Spinner Shark is coastal and pelagic in warm temperate and tropical waters on continental and insular shelves. It is a highly migratory species that occurs more frequently in inshore rather than offshore waters and has nursery grounds in shallow, near-shore waters.

Distribution: The Spinner Shark occurs in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and the Indo-West Pacific Oceans; it has not been recorded from the Northeast, Eastern Central, and Southeast Pacific Oceans.

Depth: 0-200 m

Known landing centres: Sassoon docks, Royapuram fishing harbour, Cuddalore fishing harbour, Nagapattinam fishing harbour, Junglighat, Burmanallah, Wandoor, Dignabad, Cochin fisheries harbour, Veraval, Mangrol, Porbander, and Okha

Commercial value

The species is used for the meat, fins, liver oil, skin, and cartilage. The meat is valuable and sold both fresh domestically and dried and exported. Spinner Shark fins accounted for 1.2% of fin samples in Hong Kong and 7.9% of the fins traded from United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Hong Kong.

Threats

The Spinner Shark is caught globally as target and retained bycatch of industrial, small-scale, and recreational fisheries using a range of gears, including trawl, longline, and gillnet. It is also taken in beach protection programs that target large sharks. Under-reporting of the Spinner Shark is likely due to misidentification with the Blacktip Shark (C. limbatus). At-vessel mortality (AVM) was estimated as 56% in a commercial prawn trawl fishery and 4–97% in commercial longline fisheries. The longer soak times in the longline fisheries had a much higher AVM.

References

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