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A small shark growing to about 1.5 m (5 feet), the Black Tip is very common in the vicinity of reefs and cays of Central and North Queensland. It is readily recognised by the inky black tips to all fins.
The body is uniformly greyish brown above, merging to dull white over the lower sides and belly, All teeth are serrated, those of the upper jaw being strongly notched and somewhat offset, while those of the lower jaw are are much more erect, narrow, and almost dagger like. On the flooding tide swarms of up to a dozen of them move on to the shallow reef flat, swimming in only, shin deep water. usually with the black tipped dorsal fin breaking the surface and often to the alarm of the last minute reef fossickers. However. there is no record of their attacking a swimmer or wader; they can easily be frightened off by splashing, though they tend to return fairly quickly to the site of disturbance.
The Black tip is often erroneously accused by line fishermen on the Barrier Reef of hook robbing. While it
is certainly responsible for some losses of hooked fish, its near relative, the Graceful Shark Carcharhinus amblyrhynchoides (Whitley) is more usual1y the culprit.
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