The blacktip reef shark is a timid species named for the prominent black tips on its fins. Also known as blackfin sharks, they pose little threat to humans and are a common shark encounter for divers on reefs in their home waters.

1. Where do blacktip reef sharks live?
These sharks are common on tropical Indo-Pacific coral reefs in shallow, coastal waters. At the surface, it’s easy to spot their exposed first dorsal fins. They are homebodies. Researchers studying the population off of Palmyra Atoll in the central Pacific found the blacktips living there have a home range of around .21 square miles, among the smallest of any shark species.

2. What is the size of a blacktip reef shark?
They can grow to be about 7 feet, but a blacktip’s average length is a little more than 5 feet. Its maximum weight is about 30 pounds. Baby blacktip reef sharks measure about 16 to 20 inches long. We don’t know how fast a blacktip reef shark can swim, but we do know they’re a fast-swimming shark that is very active.

3. What is the life cycle of blacktip reef sharks?
Blacktip reef sharks are viviparous — producing live pups instead of eggs — and give birth to up to 10 pups each year. The pups reach maturity at an average age of about 4 years old for males and 7 years old for females. Most live to 13 years of age, sometimes longer.

4. Are blacktip reef sharks dangerous?
Timid and skittish, they don’t usually pose a threat to humans; nobody on record has ever been killed by a blacktip reef shark. Their shy behavior does make it difficult to get close to them while scuba diving.

5. Are blacktip reef sharks endangered?
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed the blacktip reef shark as vulnerable, the step before endangered, with a decreasing population.

6. Blacktip shark vs. blacktip reef shark
Blacktip sharks are also known as oceanic blacktips because they spend a lot of time in the open ocean, unlike their smaller cousins which, as their name suggests, live in warmer reef waters. The reef-dwellers have black markings on their pelvic fins the oceanic ones lack.

7. What do blacktip reef sharks eat?
Blacktip reefs prefer eating small fishes, including mullet, jacks and wrasses. They have sometimes been observed hunting cooperatively by “herding” small schools of fish.

8. Do blacktip reef sharks have predators?
Smaller and younger blacktip reef sharks can occasionally become prey for larger shark species.