April Elasmobranch of the Month: Sandbar Shark

Author Bee Smith

The sandbar shark is pretty down to earth for a shark… or should I say, down to the seafloor!

• Key Features & Appearance

If there is a shark species that embodies a typical shark, it is probably the sandbar shark. They are a medium-sized shark, reaching around 6ft/1.8m, with females growing larger than males at up to 8ft/2.4m. They have the classic shark colouring: countershading, with a dark grey top and a white underside. Their scientific name, plumbeus, means ‘made of lead,’ referring to their dark grey colour. However, despite looking like a typical shark, they can be easily recognised by their large, triangular dorsal fin. 

• Habitat & Distribution

Sandbar sharks have a circumglobal distribution in tropical and temperate waters. As their common name ‘sandbar’ suggests, they are typically found close to the ocean floor over sandy or muddy bottoms. They are often found in shallow coastal waters like bays, estuaries, harbours, and river mouths, but can also be found in deeper waters. They are known to make seasonal migrations in some parts of their range and exhibit sexual segregation.

• Diet

Sandbar sharks are opportunistic bottom-feeders and primarily hunt at night. Their diet mainly consists of bottom-dwelling prey, including bony fish, small sharks, rays, cephalopods, and crustaceans. 

• Reproduction

Sandbar sharks are viviparous, meaning that embryos develop inside the mother and are nourished via a yolk-sac placenta. They take a long time to reach sexual maturity at around 12-13 years and have long lifespans of around 30 years or more. 

• Threats

Sandbar sharks are heavily targeted by commercial fisheries for their valuable meat and fins. They are particularly targeted for their fins due to their high fin-to-carcass ratio. They also suffer from bycatch in both industrial and artisanal fisheries. In addition, they are targeted by recreational fisheries, but fortunately, they are very resilient to catch and release and exhibit high survival rates if released.

• Status

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) categorises the sandbar shark as ‘Endangered’ due to a global population decline of 50-79% in the past three generations as a result of exploitation by fisheries. Regionally, their populations have declined by 50% in US waters, over 80% in South Africa, and 60% in Australia.  Furthermore, in the Mediterranean, the species was once commonly seen, but is now rarely observed, and a similar trend has occurred in Taiwan, where it once represented 10% of the shark catch but has since dwindled due to high fishing mortality.

• Fun Fact

Though sandbar sharks look like what most people would think of as a typical shark - a shallow water species with a torpedo-shaped body and grey and white countershading - in reality, the majority of shark species are deep-sea sharks with slender, elongated, dark bodies that are less than 1m long. So, in fact, sandbar sharks aren’t a typical shark; a typical shark is a little shark that lives in the deep sea!

• Works Cited

Abel, D.C., Maycock, S.A. and Hook, A. (2025) Shark: The illustrated biography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Kneebone, Jeff & White, Connor & Collatos, Caroline & Whitney, Nicholas. (2024). High survivorship of sandbar sharks (Carcharhinus plumbeus) following catch and release in a growing land-based fishery in Massachusetts. Fishery Bulletin. 122. 1-12. 10.7755/FB.122.1-2.1.

Portnoy, David & McDowell, Jan & Heist, Ed & Musick, John & Graves, John. (2010). World phylogeography and male‐mediated gene flow in the sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus. Molecular ecology. 19. 1994-2010. 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04626.x.

Rigby, Cassie & Derrick, Danielle & Matt, Dicken & Harry, Alastair & Pacoureau, Nathan & Simpfendorfer, Colin. (2021). Carcharhinus plumbeus-Sandbar Shark. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021. 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-2.RLTS.T3853A2874370.en.