How to Spot a Spitting Shark

The spitting shark belongs to the family of nurse sharks. In fact, it also commonly goes by the name, tawny nurse shark. Rarely harmful to humans, spitting sharks occasionally bite when provoked. Even so, they are docile sharks, often allowing divers to handle them.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Look for spitting sharks in tropical inshore waters, particularly in intertidal waters and from the surf zone to 230-feet deep. Primarily nocturnal, they live near or on lagoon bottoms, edges of coral reefs, off sandy beaches and tend to prefer shelter in reef caves and crevices.

2. Watch for them in their range including the western Pacific, from Australia to Tahiti, and the western Indian Ocean, from South Africa to the Maldives.

3. Search for a large brownish shark, averaging 7 to 8 feet, but some grow up to 11 feet. Depending on their particular habitat, spitting sharks' coloring is tan to dark grayish brown.

4. Examine the spitting shark for long barbels on its mouth, which is far in front of its eyes. Of its two angular dorsal fins, the first is much larger than the second is and sits over the pelvic fin base.

5. Identify spitting sharks by their small, cusped teeth. On the rare occasion they bite humans, they clamp their mouths tightly onto skin and hold on.

6. Notice the spitting shark's social nature. They tend to form resting groups of two to six or more together in their preferred shelter. They even pile on top of each other when resting.

7. Note their diet and feeding habits. They are bottom foragers, who suck up their prey into their small mouths. They eat corals, crabs, lobsters, squid, octopus, sea urchins and reef fish.

Tips & Warnings

• Spitting sharks are similar in size, color and shape to nurse sharks, but you can distinguish the two by the nurse shark's pointed pectoral fins.