Blacktip Reef SharkCarcharhinus Melanopterus

Location
Indo-Pacific, Red Sea & East Africa to the Hawain Isles & the Tuamotu Archipelago & Suez Canal. Shallow waters on & near costal reefs & occasionally in Brackish waters.

Reproduction
Reproduction is done for one season in the Central and West Pacific & for two seasons in the Indian Ocean.

Courtship features the one or more males following closely behind a female. Reproductive behavior- embrace where the male grasps the female's pectoral fin between his teeth and mates belly to belly.

 Biannual and Biennual reproductive cycles. Gestation occurs within 10 months, producing 2-4 pups.

At birth the pups measure 2.75- 4.3 ft long.

The sharks adult length: M- 7.9- 8.75 ft. long & F7.75- 9.1 ft. long.

Appearance
Their fins have a black tip even at birth. Younger ones have a yellow-brown dorsal side & white on their ventral side. Adults have a brownish-gray dorsal side with a distinguished white belly. The black tips of the first dorsal fin contrasts with a light band below it which extends to their pelvic fins.

Diet
Stingrays, crabs, mantis shrimp and other crustacean, cephalopods, and other mollusks. Travel in small groups or alone. Tactics used by some of this species is to herd a school against shore. Predators consist of larger reef fish.

 Hunted for oil from liver & shark-fin soup.

The conservation status is vulnerable due to high number of killings.

Also commonly found in aquaria.

Skeletal
Sharks are cartilaginous fish unlike most fish they have no bones. This is a fibrous tissue that can actually be quite hard, your nose and ears are made of cartilage for example. Because of this fact it is quite rare to find fossils of sharks, cartilage decomposes, again this is why human skulls have no ears or nose present, however fossils can exist.

Respritory
Again unlike bonefish sharks do not have gill covers, most cannot pump water over their gills and must move to breathe. Another way sharks can breathe is they lie in a gentle current which passes oxygenated water over their gills for them. Many sharks and rays can, however pass water over their own gills, these are usually the bottom dwelling sharks such as Cat sharks, Dogfish, Port Jackson sharks etc

 The esophagus is short and wide, barely from the stomach. A U-shaped stomach leads to a spiral valve in many species.
A spiral valve is the lower portion of the digestive tract. It is internally twisted or coiled to increase the surface area, which increases nutrient absorption.

After the spiral valve, the digestive tract leads to the rectum and to the cloaca. The cloaca is a common opening for the urinary, digestive, and reproductive systems. If a shark eats something terribly upsetting, some species can force their stomach out through their mouth and into the water to empty it out. Some sharks have highly specialized stomachs. If threatened, can rapidly inflate its stomach with air or water just like pufferfish and porcupinefish.

Questions
1. What is a sharks skeleton made of? 2. Name two things that humans use from sharks. 3. How do sharks breath? 4. What is a common fact about what can be found in a sharks stomach? 5. Where do sharks commonly kill tourists? A. Shallow coastal water or B. rivers