Smalltail Shark

About the Smalltail Shark

The smalltail shark is a species of requiem shark found off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South and Central America. It is often found in muddy bottoms near estuaries, usually in shallow water.

Smalltails are small. They’re usually about 90 cm/2 ft 11 in long, although some individual can reach up to 110 cm/3 ft 7 in in length. They have a long pointed nose and a trinagular first dorsal fin. They’re usually plain grey.

They are opportunistic hunters and will eat anything they can catch, but their main prey items are bony fishes.

They give birth to 2 to 9 live young after a 12-month gestation period. Viviparous: giving birth to live young that develop inside the mother’s body, rather than hatching from eggs.

These sharks are caught as by-catch and retained for food throughout their range.

This shark inhabits muddy inshore areas and estuaries to a depth of 84 m and is captured in artisanal gillnets and in commercial trawl fisheries. The meat is likely to be consumed for subsistence or sold locally in most places. The probability of catching this shark over time has declined in all parts of its range from 1970 to 2015, with particularly drastic declines in the southern Gulf of Mexico and off South America. In northern Brazil, this species is still captured in shrimp trawls and gillnet fisheries in Amapá and Pará, but numbers have declined significantly, and it is now rare in Maranhāo. Catch rates decline from 2.87 kg per hour to 0.43 kg per hour in the 2000s, equivalent to a population reduction of 85% over three generation lengths (27 years). Records are becoming increasingly rare across eastern and southern Brazil, where this species has not been recorded for more than 15 years from the eleven states between Ceará (in the northeastern Brazil), to Paraná (in the southeastern Brazil). Demographic modelling suggests the fishing mortality far exceeded population growth rates and a population reduction of >90% over three generations was estimated for the core distribution of this species. Due to the intense and largely unmanaged nature of fisheries in the region, the decreasing probability of catches, the relative lack of recent records in many parts of its range, and alarming declines in other elasmobranchs in the core of its range (northern South America), it is suspected that this shark has undergone a population reduction of >80% over the past three generation lengths (27 years) due to levels of exploitation, and the Smalltail Shark is assessed as Critically Endangered A2d. 

Listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This listing means international trade in the species is strictly monitored and regulated to ensure it does not threaten their survival. 

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