A Whitetip Shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) in the Red Sea
We made this picture off Daedalus reef in the Red Sea in Egypt after waiting several minutes under the dive boat. The oceanic whitetip shark, often called longimanus, (Scientific name: Carcharhinus longimanus) is a pelagic fish. He lives in the open sea throughout the tropics and rarely approaches the coast to attend the drop-offs and passes. It is solitary but may travel in groups. It is found between 0 and 180 meters deep. It is often escorted by pilot fish (Naucrates DUCTOR) as in this photo. he species epithet, longimanus, refers to the size of its pectoral fins (longimanus translates from Latin as "long hands").
The oceanic whitetip shark has many common names in English: Brown Milbert's sand bar shark, brown shark, nigano shark, whitetip whaler, and whitetip shark. C. longimanus has a 'typical', although somewhat flattened requiem shark body, often with a mildly humpbacked aspect. It is bronze, brown, bluish or grey dorsally (the color varies by region), and white ventrally (although it may occasionally have a yellow tint).
Its maximum size is 4 metres (13 ft), although usually it does not exceed 3 metres (10 ft). Its maximum reported weight is 170 kilograms (370 lb). The female is typically larger than the male by 10 centimetres (4 in) with males about 1.8 metres (71 in) and females about 1.9 metres (75 in). C. longimanus feeds mainly on pelagic cephalopods and bony fish. However, its diet can be far more varied and less selective—it is known to eat threadfins, stingrays, sea turtles, birds, gastropods, crustaceans, mammalian carrion, and even rubbish dumped from ships. The bony fish it feeds on include lancetfish, oarfish, barracuda, jacks, dolphinfish, marlin, tuna, and mackerel. Its feeding methods include biting into groups of fish and swimming through schools of tuna with an open mouth.
