Carcharhinus falciformis

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Population

Habitat and Ecology

Threats

Conservation Actions

Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	CHONDRICHTHYES	CARCHARHINIFORMES	CARCHARHINIDAE

Scientific Name:

Carcharhinus falciformis

Species Authority

(Müller & Henle, 1839)

Common Name/s:

English

–

Silky Shark

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:	Lower Risk/least concern ver 2.3
Year Assessed:	2000
Assessor/s	Bonfil, R.
Evaluator/s:	Musick, J.A. & Fowler, S. (Shark Red List Authority)
Justification: A common, large, semi-pelagic coastal and oceanic shark of continental shelf and slope waters, discontinuously distributed in all tropical ocean basins. Caught in large numbers as bycatch in oceanic fisheries, but often unreported or misidentified. Landed for meat and fins by multi-species shark fisheries. Reproductive capacity limited (annual rate of population increase estimated as 4%). Despite a lack of population sizes estimates, observations of trends, or indices of abundance for any stock (studies of fisheries impacts are a high priority), the silky shark is considered to be susceptible to over-exploitation by analogy with better known carcharhinids.

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	An oceanic and coastal species found in tropical waters around the globe.
Countries:	Native: American Samoa; Angola; Antigua and Barbuda; Aruba; Australia; Bahamas; Bangladesh; Barbados; Belize; Benin; Brazil; Cameroon; Cape Verde; Cayman Islands; Chile; China; Colombia; Comoros; Congo; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Cook Islands; Costa Rica (Cocos I.); Cuba; Côte d'Ivoire; Djibouti; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; Egypt; El Salvador; Equatorial Guinea; Eritrea; France (Clipperton I.); French Guiana; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Grenada; Guadeloupe; Guam; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Guyana; Haiti; Honduras; Hong Kong; India; Indonesia; Israel; Jamaica; Japan; Jordan; Kiribati; Lebanon; Madagascar; Malaysia; Maldives; Marshall Islands; Martinique; Mauritius; Mexico (Revillagigedo Is.); Micronesia, Federated States of; Montserrat; Mozambique; Netherlands Antilles (Curaçao); New Caledonia; New Zealand; Nicaragua; Nigeria; Northern Mariana Islands; Oman; Palau; Panama; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Philippines; Portugal (Madeira); Puerto Rico; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Samoa; Sao Tomé and Principe; Saudi Arabia; Senegal; Sierra Leone; Somalia; South Africa; Spain (Canary Is.); Sri Lanka; Sudan; Suriname; Taiwan, Province of China; Tanzania, United Republic of; Thailand; Togo; Trinidad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos Islands; United States (Hawaiian Is.); Venezuela; Virgin Islands, British; Virgin Islands, U.S.; Yemen
FAO Marine Fishing Areas:	Native: Atlantic – southwest; Atlantic – western central; Atlantic – eastern central; Atlantic – northwest; Indian Ocean – western; Indian Ocean – eastern; Pacific – western central; Pacific – southwest; Pacific – eastern central; Pacific – southeast

Population [top]

Population Trend:	Unknown

Population Trend:

Unknown

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	C. falciformis occurs offshore, and in oceanic areas in tropical regions. It is found near the edge of continental and insular shelves but has also been recorded far from land in the open sea. It occasionally moves inshore where the water is as shallow as 18 m; in the open ocean it occurs from the surface down to at least 500 m. The silky shark is often found over deepwater reefs and near insular slopes. It is an active, quick-moving, aggressive shark, but defers to the more sluggish but stubbornly persistent oceanic whitetip shark. The species is much more abundant offshore near land than in the open ocean. Primarily a fish-eater, feeding on pelagic and inshore teleosts including sea catfish, mullet, mackerel, yellowfin tuna, albacore, and porcupine fish, but also squid, paper nautiluses, and pelagic crabs (Compagno 1984).
Systems:	Marine

Habitat and Ecology:

C. falciformis occurs offshore, and in oceanic areas in tropical regions. It is found near the edge of continental and insular shelves but has also been recorded far from land in the open sea. It occasionally moves inshore where the water is as shallow as 18 m; in the open ocean it occurs from the surface down to at least 500 m. The silky shark is often found over deepwater reefs and near insular slopes. It is an active, quick-moving, aggressive shark, but defers to the more sluggish but stubbornly persistent oceanic whitetip shark. The species is much more abundant offshore near land than in the open ocean. Primarily a fish-eater, feeding on pelagic and inshore teleosts including sea catfish, mullet, mackerel, yellowfin tuna, albacore, and porcupine fish, but also squid, paper nautiluses, and pelagic crabs (Compagno 1984).

Systems:

Marine

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s):	C. falciformis is caught in large numbers as bycatch in oceanic fisheries. It is also landed for its meat and fins by multi-species shark fisheries. Its reproductive capacity is limited.

Major Threat(s):

C. falciformis is caught in large numbers as bycatch in oceanic fisheries. It is also landed for its meat and fins by multi-species shark fisheries. Its reproductive capacity is limited.

Conservation Actions [top]

Citation:	Bonfil, R. 2000. Carcharhinus falciformis. In: IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 23 November 2008.
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