Took this shot this afternoon, snorkelling off the coast of Niue Island in the Pacific. "Ox" underwater digital camera (automatic). It's a White-tipped Reef Shark, with Remora swimming underneath. Not exactly your Grey Nurse or anything, but I felt pretty brave anyway!
Took this shot this afternoon, snorkelling off the coast of Niue Island in the Pacific. "Ox" underwater digital camera (automatic). It's a White-tipped Reef Shark, with Remora swimming underneath. Not exactly your Grey Nurse or anything, but I felt pretty brave anyway!
Hi Rob,
Oooh, I think you were a bit braver than you thought at the time. I think that might be a silver-tip whaler shark, C. Albimarginatus, not the less aggressive white-tip reef shark, T. obesus. Despite its zoological name, the reef shark is a long slim shark with a longer head forward of the gill slits.
The whaler has a beefier barrel-shaped body, with a shorter wider head. Admittedly it is not always easy to tell from a photo, but how much more exciting if you had known you were hanging out with a whaler.
BTW the grey nurse is a very docile species, not at all dangerous to swimmers. Most of the attacks in Victoria and NSW here in Oz have been made by whaler sharks.
Oooh, I think you were a bit braver than you thought at the time. I think that might be a silver-tip whaler shark, C. Albimarginatus, not the less aggressive white-tip reef shark, T. obesus.
Rob,
By the sounds of it, you should consider teaming up with John Bambury,
who, as was reported in Iceinspace this year, snapped a picture of a harmless
bull snake which after having struck out at the camera, John then recognized
as a actually being a venomous rattle snake.
Oooh, I think you were a bit braver than you thought at the time. I think that might be a silver-tip whaler shark, C. Albimarginatus, not the less aggressive white-tip reef shark, T. obesus. Despite its zoological name, the reef shark is a long slim shark with a longer head forward of the gill slits.
The whaler has a beefier barrel-shaped body, with a shorter wider head. Admittedly it is not always easy to tell from a photo, but how much more exciting if you had known you were hanging out with a whaler.
BTW the grey nurse is a very docile species, not at all dangerous to swimmers. Most of the attacks in Victoria and NSW here in Oz have been made by whaler sharks.
Cheers
Er, thanks Geoff! This is not the sort of news I really wanted to hear ! Fortunately there were other, juicier, tastier people in the water at the time, so maybe things were OK after all . I'll consult some books as soon as I get home - seems my 'study' was not quite up to scratch!
Phew! Seems it is the White-tipped Reef Shark (Triaenodon obesus) and not the Silvertip Shark (Carcharhinus albimarginatus). The reef shark is characterised by a larger second dorsal fin (much smaller in Silvertip), and the white tip in the Silvertip extends down the margins of the fins (not the case with my little fella - mind you, 4-5 feet long!). Behaviour described fits my subject well - it was lurking in a coral cave.
Aha, yes, if it was lurking in a cave on the sand, then a reefie it most likely was. Length of fins is awfully hard to assess from a single photo as the fin can be inclined to the camera.
I thought it would be much more exciting though if you could say it was a whaler. Here is one of a silver tip monstering a diver. It shows the smaller dorsal fin.
