Long-tailed thresher shark

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The long-tailed thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus) is a thresher shark inhabiting tropical and temperate waters worldwide. Like all thresher sharks, it has a very long upper caudal (tail) fin, sometimes as long as the body. Its body is brown or grey with a white underside. They are born five feet long and can grow to up to 25 feet in length and 750 pounds. Thresher sharks often hunt in groups or pairs, stunning their prey with their tails before feeding on it. They mostly eat other fish and squid, but have been known to kill seabirds as well.

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Thresher sharks are highly migratory, moving northward in the spring in order to breed. They are oviparous and litters contain two to six pups.

Long-tailed thresher sharks are consumed as a food fish in many countries and prized as a game fish. Their hides are used for leather. They are not considered dangrous to humans at all, but are considered a nuisance to mackerel fishermen, due to their propensity to become tangled in fishing nets. Full grown threshers have no known predators other than humans.

Other common names for long-tailed threshers include thintail thresher, common thresher, fox shark, sea fox, swiveltail, spindletail, and thrasher.

References

"[Alopias vulpinus]." FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. 06 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
[Alopias vulpinus (TSN 159916)]. Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 16 June 2006.
Goldman, K.J. & members of the Shark Specialist Group (2002). [Alopias vulpinus]. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 16 June 2006.

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