Fr:	Requin borde
Sp:	Tiburon macuira
It:	Carcarino minore pinna nera

Diagnosis

A streamlined but rather stocky shark with a long and pointed snout, no interdorsal ridge and somewhat long gill-slits.  The dorsum from snout to 1st dorsal fin rises steeply.   The 1st dorsal fin is tall (8.2 - 13.8% of TL), with a sharply pointed or  acute tip; its origin above or just posterior to the pectoral fin origin.  Anterior margins of the pectoral fins measure 17.2 to 22.2% of TL.  The anal fin is slightly larger than the 2nd dorsal fin.  Colour mid-grey above; white ventrally with a very conspicuous grey band, intruding on the white upper belly,  running horizontally from above the pectoral fins rearward to above the pelvic fin origins.  The  lower caudal fin and pectoral fins (especially on ventral apexes) often with black tips; other fins may have tips that appear dusky but not distinctly marked, becoming paler  with increasing maturity until all fins appear unmarked other than upon very close inspection.

Size

To 2.5 m TL; commonly to 2.3 m; length at birth 38 to 72 cm, generally ca. 60 cm.

Status and Distribution

Mediterranean Sea Occasional to frequent within described range.  Generally restricted to southern and eastern coastal waters, from Tunisia to Israel; occasional bycatch in southwestern Sicily and Malta but much rarer here than C. brevipinna,  with which it may be readily confused.  Sporadically reported from more northern Mediterranean regions.  In eastern areas, it ranges at least as far north as the Dodecanese (the author has examined a small juvenile example captured off Rhodes in 1990) and was apparently the species photographed and filmed subsurface by famous diver-cinematographer Hans Hass off Santorini (Cyclades) in the early 1940's, suggesting a wider distribution in at least southern Aegean waters.   Some old foetal specimens are preserved at the Univ. Messina laboratory at Ganzirri, apparently locally collected; no recent records, however, known from that locality and indeed very few whatsoever from adjoining Ionian and Tyrrhenian waters.

Biology

A coastal and offshore species, sometimes in schools, usually in shallower warm waters from the surface to about 30 metres but generally encountered midwater, with an affinity for bays and gulfs and close to islands and offshore banks, often over sandy, rocky or muddy substrate. Possibly seasonally migratory in the region, as in other parts of the world.  Blacktips are fast swimming, active sharks that feed upon a variety of pelagic and demersal bony fish including sardines, mullets, mackerel, jacks, groupers and soles; small sharks such as Mustelus  spp.; batoids including Raja  spp. and Dasyatid rays; also cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish and octopus) and large crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters; they will readily congregate in highly motivated, hyper-stimulated "frenzies" to scavenge discard from fishing-boats.  Like the closely-related spinner shark C. brevipinna, blacktips will also occasionally  leap from the surface during feeding-runs upon fish shoals.  Viviparous,  litter size from 1 to 10 pups, usually 5 to 6; gestation period 10-12 months with parturition probably occurring in the spring-summer.  Females mature at 120 - 190cm TL; males between 135 - 180cm.