Carcharhinus plumbeus
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Chondrichthyes (Cartilaginous Fishes)
Carcharhiniformes (Ground Sharks)
Carcharhinidae (Requiem Sharks)
Carcharhinus
Carcharhinus plumbeus (Sandbar Shark)
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
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Characters
Fairly stout, short rounded snout, moderately high caudal fin with well-developed ventral lobe. Preoral snout length 1 to 1.1 times internasal width. Anterior nasal flap poorly developed. Upper labial furrow short and inconspicuous. Upper jaw 14 to 15 tooth rows on each side, lower jaw 12 to 15. Anterolateral teeth of upper jaw broad, triangular, strongly serrated, slightly oblique cusps. Gill openings short; longest (third) 2.4% to 3.6% of TL and less than one-third first dorsal fin base. Pectoral and first dorsal fins taper distally. First dorsal fin large—height equal to or greater than distance from snout to first gill slit—and originates above or slightly anterior to axil of pectoral fin. Second dorsal fin less than one-half height of first dorsal fin, origin above or slightly anterior to origin of anal fin. Ridge between dorsal fin bases. Caudal peduncle lacks keel.
Bluish gray, brownish gray, bronze, or brown dorsally and paler to whitish ventrally.
Distribution
Southern Massachusetts to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, the Bahamas, and Cuba
Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Tropical to warm temperate seas in coastal areas. Worldwide distribution.
Biology
Mollusks, crustaceans, elasmobranchs, and a large variety of bony fishes.
Maximum known size is 239 to 300 cm TL
Development is viviparous with a yolk sac placenta. Litters range from 1 to 14. Males mature at 131 to 178 cm TL, females mature at 144 to 183 cm TL, and young range from 56 to 75 cm TL at birth.
Found inshore and offshore, on continental and insular shelves and adjacent deep water (Ref. 244). Common at bays, river mouths and in harbors; avoids sandy beaches and the surf zone, coral reefs and rough bottom, and surface waters (Ref. 244). Coastal-pelagic, but usually bottom associated at 1-280 m (Ref. 58302). Sometimes in oceanic waters (Ref. 9997). Known to make extended seasonal migrations in some parts of its range (Ref. 6871). Feeds mainly on bony fishes, also small sharks, cephalopods, and shrimps (Ref. 5578), rays and gastropods (Ref. 5213). Youngs feed heavily on crustaceans such as blue crabd and mantis shrimp (Ref. 93252). Viviparous (Ref. 50449). Sexual dimorphism is evident in thickness of skin layer of maturing and adult females (Ref. 49562). Females live as long as 21 year; males 15 years (Ref. 27549). Populations are segregated by age. Young readily kept in aquaria (Ref. 244). Utilized for human consumption, for leather and oil (Ref. 244). Marketed fresh, smoked, dried-salted and frozen; fins are valued for soup (Ref. 9987). Used in Chinese medicine (Ref. 12166). Records to 300 cm TL uncertain (Ref. 9997). TL to 300 cm (Ref. 26938). Angling: an inshore fish and a good light-tackle fighter (Ref. 84357).
IUCN Red List Status: Endangered (EN), assessed 2020-12-03. Resilience: Low (rm=0.028; K=0.05-0.09; tm=12-16; tmax=34; Fec=5-12).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: commercial; gamefish.
References
Bigelow and Schroeder 1948a
Springer 1960
Springer 1963
Springer 1967
Clark and von Schmidt 1965
Hoese and Moore 1977
Applegate et al. 1979
Branstetter 1981
Branstetter 1984
Branstetter 1987a
Medved and Marshall 1981
Medved and Marshall 1983
Garrick 1982
Castro 1983
Compagno 1984
C. R. Robins et al. 1986
Bonfil et al. 1990
Compagno, L.J.V. (1984) FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 4. Sharks of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. Part 2 - Carcharhiniformes. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(4/2):251-655. Rome: FAO.
Medved, R.J. and J.A. Marshall (1981) Feeding behavior and biology of young sandbar sharks, Carcharhinus plumbeus (Pisces, Carcharhinidae), in Chincoteague Bay, Virginia. Fish. Bull. 79(3):441-447.
Bass, A.J., P.C. Heemstra and L.J.V. Compagno (1986) Carcharhinidae. p. 67-87. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Compagno, L.J.V., D.A. Ebert and M.J. Smale (1989) Guide to the sharks and rays of southern Africa. New Holland (Publ.) Ltd., London. 158 p.
Castro, J.I. (1993) The shark nursery of Bulls Bay, South Carolina, with a review of the shark nurseries of the southeastern coast of the United States. Environ. Biol. Fishes 38(1-3):37-48.
Compagno, L.J.V. and V.H. Niem (1998) Carcharhinidae. Requiem sharks. p. 1312-1360. In K.E. Carpenter and V.H. Niem (eds.) FAO Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific Vol. 2. Rome: FAO.
Stillwell, C.E. and N.E. Kohler (1993) Food habits of the sandbar shark Carcharhinus plumbeus off the U.S. northeast coast, with estimates of daily ration. Fish. Bull. 91:138-150.
Bowman, R.E., C.E. Stillwell, W.L. Michaels and M.D. Grosslein (2000) Food of northwest Atlantic fishes and two common species of squid. NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-NE 155, 138 p.
Goldshmidt, O., B. Galil, D. Golani, B. Lazar, J. Erez and A. Baranes (1996) Food selection and habitat preferences in deep-sea fishes of the northern Red Sea. Uiblein, F., J. Ott, and M. Stachowtisch (Eds) Deep-sea and extreme shallow-water habitat: affinities and adaptations. Biosystematics and Ecology Series 11:271-298.
Tsikliras, A.C. and D. Dimarchopoulou (2021) Filling in knowledge gaps: Length-weight relations of 46 uncommon sharks and rays (Elasmobranchii) in the Mediterranean Sea. Acta Ichthyol. et Pisc. 51(3):249-255. DOI: 10.3897/aiep.51.65858
Ebert, D.A., S. Fowler and M. Dando (2021) Sharks of the World: A complete guide. Princeton University Press, 607 p. DOI: 10.1515/9780691210872
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