One of the most common sharks seen by divers is the rather innocuous reef whitetip shark. It is small, usually 5 feet (about 1.5m) or less and quite slender. While they usually show little fear of divers, they are rarely aggressive, except perhaps in the presence of speared fish. These mostly eat fish, and we have seen them squirming their heads into holes or between coralheads to get at hiding prey. They are reported to feed primarily at night, when they also have a disturbing tendency, when blinded by a diver's flashlight, to swim directly into the source of the light.
Missing its dorsal fin's white tip. The male claspers are clearly visible behind the anal fin of the next two animals.
This one has a split dorsal, looking like a double white tip.
In the early 1970s, several divers found a couple of these consistently resting in a small cave on a nearby pinnacle, and started bringing food out for them. Soon there were seven or eight small whitetips living in that cave, and they would come to greet divers. The shark below is one of those sharks. It had picked up a hook in its mouth, and soon after, all the whitetips vacated the cave.
This closeup of the eye also shows the sandpapery skin texture of the whitetip.
Created 1 October 2013