Fr:	Requin gris
Sp:	Tiburon trozo; Tauro plom (Catalunya); Tiburon de Milberto; Tintorera (Tarragona)
It:	Squalo grigio; Vaccotta (Catania); mangialice (Naples)
Ma:	Kelb griz

Scientific names recently used:

Carcharhinus milberti  (Valenciennes in Müller & Henle, 1839)

Diagnosis

A stout, drab-coloured requiem shark with a conspicuously tall first dorsal fin; snout rather short and rounded and an interdorsal ridge.  The 1st dorsal fin, with a slightly rounded or pointed apex, is considerably more prominent and sail-like in mature adults than juveniles, its height 13.6 to 16.5% of TL; origin lies above or anterior to the pectoral axils;  pectoral fins quite large; second dorsal fin moderately large.  The anal fin, of similar size to the 2nd dorsal, has its origin sited directly below or marginally posterior to the 2nd dorsal origin.  Upper-jaw teeth broad and triangular, margins serrated but without cusplets.  Colour mid-brown to grey-brown dorsally, fading to white ventrally with an indistinct, horizontal band of darker pigment invading the white colour on the belly-flanks.  No conspicuous fin-markings although the tips and posterior margins may appear dusky, particularly in younger Mediterranean examples seen by the writer.

Size

To 248cm; Mediterranean specimens typically 100 to 230cm with size at birth 58 to 65cm based on Tunisian examples from the Gulf of Gabes (Capape, 1984).

Status and Distribution

Mediterranean Sea: Rather common in select southern-central areas, particularly off Tunisia; also Libya, Egypt and within the Sicilian Channel.  Occasional off Spain, the Balearics, Gulf of Lyons, Riviera and Cote dıAzur, Sardinia, Corsica and western mainland Italy from Genova southwards; also Malta and the Isole Pelagie;  now appears rare or even absent at the type-locality (Venice; N. Adriatic Sea) and is increasingly scarce elsewhere in northern-central Adriatic waters, although specimens are sporadically caught off Puglia Region, Italy.  Ranges throughout the Eastern basin and Aegean Sea, but commoner in southern parts.

Biology

A coastal shark, often in shallow waters associated with sandy or muddy flats, bays, estuaries and harbours (but not actually within rivers); also further offshore, particularly on banks, near islands, flat reefs and other topographic features in open waters.  Sandbars occur from the surfline down to 200m (caught at this depth, on the bottom, in Sicilian Channel trawls) and to 280m in other regions, but typically in waters less than 100m and frequently patrolling near the seabed.  These sharks predate upon demersal and benthic bony fish such as flounders, gurnards, groupers, morays and other eels, also mackerel, sardines, bonito, bullet tuna, jacks, mullets and other pelagic schooling fish; small sharks such as Squalus  spp., batoids including Dasyatid rays; invertebrates such as squid, cuttlefish, octopi, bivalves, crabs and shrimps.  Viviparous.  Litter size variable, from 3-14 pups and typically 5 -12, correlated to maternal size; a pupping and nursery-zone for these sharks is sited within Tunisiaıs Gulf of Gabès where parturition occurs during the summer months after a gestation period of about one year (Capapé, 1984).  Other earlier gravid females have been reported from Naples (a 150cm example with 15 embryos; Lo Bianco, 1909) and Nice (foetal specimens taken in 1885; Tortonese, 1950).  Mating in Tunisian waters probably occurs through May and June.   Females mature at 170cm and reach 248cm,  males mature at 166cm and attain 225cm.