Spinner shark

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Spinner shark

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Order:	Carcharhiniformes
Family:	Carcharhinidae
Genus:	Carcharhinus
Species:	C. brevipinna

Binomial name

Carcharhinus brevipinna
(Müller & Henle, 1839)

Range of spinner shark

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The spinner shark, Carcharhinus brevipinna, is a requiem shark of the family Carcharhinidae, found in the western Atlantic Ocean between latitudes 40° N and 38° S. Its length is up to about 3 m.

The spinner shark is a slender shark with a long, narrow, pointed snout, long gill slits and small, narrow-cusped teeth. The first dorsal fin is small, there is no interdorsal ridge, and the labial furrows are longer than in any other grey shark. It is found on the continental and insular shelves from close inshore to offshore. It is capable of vertical spinning leaps out of the water as a feeding technique in which the sharks spins through a school of small fish with an open mouth and then breaks the surface. It feeds mainly on pelagic bony fishes, also small sharks, cuttlefish, squids, and octopuses.

It is viviparous. It forms schools, and is highly migratory off Florida and Louisiana and in the Gulf of Mexico. It is regularly caught in fisheries and the flesh is utilized fresh and dried salted for human consumption. The fins are probably used in the oriental shark fin trade, and livers for vitamin oil production.

Coloration is grey above, white below, with a conspicuous white band on its sides. The second dorsal, anal, undersides of pectorals and lower caudal fin lobe are black or dark grey-tipped in subadults and adults, but unmarked or nearly so in small individuals.