Sandbar Shark

About the Sandbar Shark

Sandbar Sharks can be found worldwide in warm temperate waters. They can be found in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific Ocean.

Their body colour can vary from bluish, grey-brown or bronze with a white underside. Sandbar sharks have a moderately long, rounded snout, high, triangular, saw-edged upper teeth and an inter-dorsal ridge. Its first dorsal fin is triangular and very high. It has very long pectoral fins.

Biology and Behaviour

Sandbar sharks are most commonly found at bays, river mouths and in harbours. They avoid beaches, surf zones, coral reefs and rough bottom and surface waters.

Like many sharks, sandbar sharks feed on bony fishes. They will also eat other small sharks, cephalopods, shrimp, rays and gastropods.

Young sandbar sharks feed on crustaceans such as blue crabs and mantis shrimp.

There is a distinct difference between a female and male Sandbar Shark which can be seen through the thickness of their skin. The thickened skin may serve as protection from the ‘bites’ the female species receive from the males and in the rugged conditions of the rock and coral environment where they live.

Pups are born from February to April in Northeastern Taiwan.

Females reach sexual maturity around the age of 13 at the length of 154.9 cm (61 in), while males tend to reach maturity at the age of 12 with an average length of 151 cm (59.4 in). Female Sandbar Sharks can fully grow to 200 to 250 cm (78.7 to 98.4 in), and males grow to 180 cm (70.9 in).  

Sandbar sharks are natural prey to Tiger Sharks and rarely Great White Sharks.

Reproduction and Lifespan

Sandbar sharks are viviparous, meaning live birth, with a gestation period of 12 months. They can give birth from one to 14 pups.

Females can typically live up to 21 years while males are a bit lower at 15 years. The oldest reported age for sandbar sharks is 34 years.

Conservation and Tourism

They are popular sharks for aquariums. 

Sandbar sharks are targeted by the U.S. commercial shark fisheries because of their large fins. In 2008, the National Marine Fisheries Services banned all commercial landings of sandbar sharks because of the 2006 stock assessment by System Electronic Document Assessment Retrieval (SEDAR). 

The species is captured as target and bycatch in artisanal, industrial, and recreational fisheries and is retained for the high value meat and fins, unless regulations prohibit retention. Species-specific population trend data reveal population reductions of >50% and >80% in the United States and South Africa, respectively over the past three generation lengths (60–78 years), and stock assessments in Australia indicate a reduction of 60% over the past three generation lengths (78 years). It is also suspected to have declined by 50–79% in the Mediterranean and the Arabian Seas region over the past three generation lengths (60–78 years). All of these declines are attributed to fisheries exploitation. There are signs of population recovery in areas where management measures are in place, such as the United States, South Africa, and Australia. In the Southwest Atlantic and West Africa, where species-specific information is lacking, there are high levels of unmanaged fisheries exploitation, and it is suspected that the Sandbar Shark has also declined in those areas. Overall, it is suspected that the Sandbar Shark has undergone a population reduction of 50–79% over the past three generations lengths (60–78 years) due to levels of exploitation, and it is assessed as Endangered A2bd.

The species is used for its valuable meat and fins and to a lesser extent for its skin and liver oil (Last and Stevens 2009, Ebert et al. 2013). The proportion of Sandbar Shark fins in the Hong Kong shark fin trade appears to have declined from 2.4% to 0.2% from 2002 to 2015 (Clarke et al. 2006, Fields et al. 2018). The species is displayed in public aquaria (Ebert et al. 2013).

Sandbar specific management measures are in place in a few countries. In the United States Atlantic waters, the Sandbar Sharks became a prohibited species in 2008 (outside of the shark research fishery) under the Atlantic Fishery Management Plan for Consolidated Highly Migratory Species. Prohibited species must be released immediately with minimum injury and without removing them from the water (SEDAR 2017). In Australia, the Sandbar Shark is under comprehensive management plans in both Western Australia and New South Wales, the main jurisdictions where it has been caught in recent years (McAuley et al. 2014). In 2006, the Western Australian Government introduced changes in commercial fisheries to reduce mortality, particularly of Sandbar Shark and Dusky Shark (Carcharhinus obscurus), including a maximum size limit, additional controls on the use of longlines, and extension of spatial closures to protect the adult component of the stocks (McAuley et al. 2005, Molony et al. 2013). In New South Wales, there is a 500 kg weekly trip limit and a 160 t total allowable catch for large shark species, including Sandbar Shark (Broadhurst et al. 2014).

In Turkey, Sandbar Shark fisheries are prohibited (Ferretti et al. 2016). In South Africa, this species may be present in the Aliwal Shoal, St. Lucia, and Maputalands Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) which provide refuge from commercial, but not recreational fishing which is permitted in the MPAs. With regard to the KwaZulu-Natal shark nets, the KZNSB has reduced fishing effort in order to reduce captures of all exploited species. Elsewhere, there are no species-specific measures. Many countries in the Arabian Seas region have banned targeted fishing for sharks (e.g. Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Kuwait), but incidental catches occur in other fisheries. Seasonal bans on shark fishing are in place in Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE, Qatar, and Oman have banned trawling in their waters (since 1980, 1993 and 2011, respectively) while Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and India have seasonal trawl bans that might benefit the species. However, incidental catches occur in other fisheries (e.g. gillnets).

To conserve the population and to permit recovery, a suite of measures will be required which may include species protection, spatial management, bycatch mitigation, and harvest and trade management measures (including international trade measures). Effective enforcement of measures will require ongoing training and capacity-building (including in the area of species identification). Catch monitoring is needed to help understand population trends and inform management.

CITES Appendix II listing adopted in 2023.  This means that while the species is not necessarily threatened with immediate extinction, international trade is strictly monitored, controlled, and regulated via permits to ensure their survival.

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Sandbar Shark Gallery