Species introCountry intro
Galapagos Shark - Carcharhinus galapagensis
The Galapagos Shark - Carcharhinus galapagensis has moderately large first dorsal fin begins above inner margin of pectoral fin; tip pointed to somewhat rounded. Body brownish gray above, white below. They can grow up to 3.7 meters length.
This Galapagos Shark was seen during a night dive, we saw more of them during day time, where they are more 'relax'. They hunt during night time.
It was only after our first night dive that the guides showed us footages captured a few weeks before us, where a Galapagos Sharks was hunting among White Tip Sharks and during a 'feeding frenzy' session when one of the White Tip Shark was 'aggressively' inserting its head into crevices of corals and was in a vertical position, this Galapagos Shark swam to it and bite it! In less than 15 seconds, the 1.5 meters White Tip Shark disappeared into the mouth of the Galapagos Shark! That was kind of scary, thinking we were not aware how aggressive this Galapagos Sharks can be!
The Galapagos shark is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, found worldwide. This species favors clear reef environments around oceanic islands, where it is often the most abundant shark species. A large species that often reaches 3.0 m, the Galapagos reef shark has a typical fusiform "reef shark" shape and is very difficult to distinguish from the dusky shark and the grey reef shark.
