# Need help with shark ID



## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

I'm a little confused on what type of shark this is. All I usually catch is Atlantic Sharpnose, but they are usually skinny and slender, this thing was thick and stocky. Anyone got any ideas?


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## solid7 (Dec 31, 2010)

Looks like a spinner. Where did you get it?


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## fishnuttz (Jun 27, 2008)

It's hard for me to tell but I think it's a Sandbar shark


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## solid7 (Dec 31, 2010)

Yeah, it's a bit hard to tell the difference between the brown (sandbar) and spinners. The sandbars usually have longer fins. (which this one doesn't appear to have)

Does the shark have a little black tip on the bottom fork of its tail?


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## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

Caught on Mexico Beach, FL. I didn't notice any markings anywhere on it. No black tips, no spots. Not to say it didn't, but I didn't notice any. And I didn't get a good look at it's teeth either.


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## CarolinaChuck (Jan 11, 2011)

Here is a link that might help:

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/264775/Identifying-sharks-and-rays.pdf

It is Aussie in origin, but maybe of some help-and No, I am not even going to play in this game.

CC


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## originalhooker (Nov 26, 2009)

sandbars will have a defined ridge between dorsal fins,spinners will have a smooth transition from sides to dorsal area. Looks like a male spinner.


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## seajay (Dec 18, 2005)

Its a Spinner, blow up the pic and you can see the distinctive shape at the base of the dorsal.


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## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

Yeah..I researched it more today, I'll go with a Spinner. Thanks for the info.


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## Dr. Bubba (Nov 9, 1999)

small dusky shark. notice fin alignment of the dorsal to pectoral. Also precaudal pit (base of tail).
spinners, on the other hand have distinct black tips like black tips do.


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

Dr. Bubba said:


> small dusky shark. notice fin alignment of the dorsal to pectoral. Also precaudal pit (base of tail).
> spinners, on the other hand have distinct black tips like black tips do.


Yeap,dorsal not inline with pecks like brown-sandbar,not a shark id guy,but looks like a dusky...


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## solid7 (Dec 31, 2010)

Dr. Bubba said:


> small dusky shark. notice fin alignment of the dorsal to pectoral. Also precaudal pit (base of tail).
> spinners, on the other hand have distinct black tips like black tips do.


Yeah, that's why I asked about the black tip, but since that one was caught in the Gulf, it's worth pointing out that the markings aren't always present. (water color? inter breeding?)

The big giveaway with spinner sharks would have been the fight. If he comes popping out of the water like a tarpon, that's your spinner. If you drug him in like a drum, that would be something else...


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## Dr. Bubba (Nov 9, 1999)

Drumdum said:


> Yeap,dorsal not inline with pecks like brown-sandbar,not a shark id guy,but looks like a dusky...


I try to ID em for fun Kenny, since similar species can be so hard to distinguish. I know I'm wrong a lot too. Especially pictures on the interwebs. Solid's right though, if that thing was gettin out of the water a lot, it certainly wasn't no dusky....


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## Tracker16 (Feb 16, 2009)

No idea but he sure is a pretty one. I used to love going to Mexico Beach. Haven't had a chance since the mid 80's. Nice catch


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## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

Dr. Bubba said:


> I try to ID em for fun Kenny, since similar species can be so hard to distinguish. I know I'm wrong a lot too. Especially pictures on the interwebs. Solid's right though, if that thing was gettin out of the water a lot, it certainly wasn't no dusky....


x2 on the hard to distinguish on similar species, especially when they aren't mature yet. It has different features of a couple different species, so I won't know for sure since this is the only pic I got of it. And wasn't leaping out of the water, but he came to the surface a few times before I got him in. A couple times during the fight he tried to run but he wasn't going anywhere with the drag on.



Tracker16 said:


> No idea but he sure is a pretty one. I used to love going to Mexico Beach. Haven't had a chance since the mid 80's. Nice catch


Thanks, he was a beautiful animal for sure. And I'm sure MB hasn't changed much, it looks like it's straight out of the 70's except for a couple new condos.


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## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

Dr. Bubba said:


> small dusky shark. notice fin alignment of the dorsal to pectoral. Also precaudal pit (base of tail).
> spinners, on the other hand have distinct black tips like black tips do.


I read Spinners only start getting blacktips when they are adults.


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## Dr. Bubba (Nov 9, 1999)

@wood said:


> I read Spinners only start getting blacktips when they are adults.


That could be. In that same vein, many species have black tips when they are very young that eventually fade away.
Either way, your shark is rather broad bodied considering it's size, which still makes me say dusky.
They can get to be 15 ft long!


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## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

Dr. Bubba said:


> That could be. In that same vein, many species have black tips when they are very young that eventually fade away.
> Either way, your shark is rather broad bodied considering it's size, which still makes me say dusky.
> They can get to be 15 ft long!


That's what makes me think this shark will be a very big boy one day, it was fat for only being a little over 3 ft or so. Bigger around than a pro football.


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## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

Well I left a hook and 5 inches of bright green leader dead center in its bottom lip. So maybe I'll catch it again to get a good ID.


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## sunburntspike (Oct 4, 2010)

Dr. Bubba said:


> small dusky shark. notice fin alignment of the dorsal to pectoral. Also precaudal pit (base of tail).
> spinners, on the other hand have distinct black tips like black tips do.


we have a winner!


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## OceanMaster (Dec 22, 2011)

> The big giveaway with spinner sharks would have been the fight. If he comes popping out of the water like a tarpon, that's your spinner. If you drug him in like a drum, that would be something else...


Blacktips will launch and get airborne as well! I've had many jump vertical and greyhound as well when hammering the first 50 yards of the run after the hook slammed home.


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## OceanMaster (Dec 22, 2011)

> The big giveaway with spinner sharks would have been the fight. If he comes popping out of the water like a tarpon, that's your spinner. If you drug him in like a drum, that would be something else...


Blacktips will launch and get airborne as well! I've had many jump vertical and greyhound as well when hammering the first 50 yards of the run after the hook slammed home.

This is a spinner shark. Spinners and blacktips look similar and not all young blacktips have black tip marks. Spinners, the front dorsal fin edge is behind the pectoral fins. On blacktips, the front dorsal fin is over the pectoral fins.


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## solid7 (Dec 31, 2010)

OceanMaster said:


> Blacktips will launch and get airborne as well! I've had many jump vertical and greyhound as well when hammering the first 50 yards of the run after the hook slammed home.


You may be right, but there was never any doubt that this guy is no blacktip.

I've never successfully landed a spinner. (sure seen a lot of them, though) The ones I hook into are usually in about the 6' range, but these are some seriously badass fighters.... Being that I don't do a lot of dedicated sharking, I don't go geared up for them. I try when I hook them, but I usually don't have a chance.


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## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

A guy on another forum sent the pic to his buddy, who is a marine biologist with NOAA. The guy swears it is a young Bullshark, he claims to have a ton of diving experience with sharks. So I'm interested to see what the biologist says.


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## solid7 (Dec 31, 2010)

I'd call BS on that one....

By "BS", I mean NOT a Bull Shark


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## justinstewart (Nov 23, 2007)

looks like a blacknose to me. kinda hard to tell from the pic though.

a lot of the info you read about sharks online is incorrect or misleading. I had to catch a few hundred and really start paying attention to them to start figuring it out. most fisheries guys can't tell them apart. 

a blacknose looks exactly like a small blacktip, and i bet more than 80% of the people on this forum couldn't tell the difference. they just hear about blacktips all the time and everything is a blacktip or a spinner. or if your are in hatteras, it's a dusky or a sandbar.


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## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

justinstewart said:


> looks like a blacknose to me. kinda hard to tell from the pic though.
> 
> a lot of the info you read about sharks online is incorrect or misleading. I had to catch a few hundred and really start paying attention to them to start figuring it out. most fisheries guys can't tell them apart.
> 
> a blacknose looks exactly like a small blacktip, and i bet more than 80% of the people on this forum couldn't tell the difference. they just hear about blacktips all the time and everything is a blacktip or a spinner. or if your are in hatteras, it's a dusky or a sandbar.


lol..that's funny you say that, because I have no clue what type of shark it is. There are so many different features to look at and determine this or that. And you get 20 different posts from 20 different people saying "That is a _____ shark". There are only about 5 different sharks it could be, but no one really knows which one.


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## solid7 (Dec 31, 2010)

I just tried to guess which one it was, based on the likelihood in the range. Sure, it could be a blacknose - that's a damn close relative to a spinner. And my analysis, by the way, wasn't based on just the limited knowledge of 2 or 3 shark names. Notice I asked where it was caught? I know Florida surf fishing pretty well...

Wanna know for sure if it was one of the only 2 types of sharks us dumbasses down here know about? Come on over to my neighborhood. There are so many sharks ripping up the surf right now, it's ridiculous... Doubt you'll get skunked on a trip out, if you know even the slightest thing about sharkin'


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## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

I'm not trying to get anyone pissed off, let's all agree to disagree. At least with everyone's help I can narrow it down to a few different species. Next one I catch I will definitely take more pics and check out all of the features before releasing it. Thanks for everyones info, I'm sure your knowledge is vastly greater than mine since I'm still new to shark fishing. I look to catch many more in the future.


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## solid7 (Dec 31, 2010)

Nobody is pissed... You won't see many of us get pissed. When someone does, though, it's as much fun as a barrel of monkeys.

**** talkin' abounds here on P&S, but try not to take it too seriously - you're too new to know which ones of us are the real troublemakers around here.


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## AbuMike (Sep 3, 2007)

It's a Dusky. Caught on a spinning reel because they cast farther. Was there braided line and circle hooks involved in this?


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## Samblam (May 22, 2011)

solid7 said:


> Nobody is pissed... You won't see many of us get pissed. When someone does, though, it's as much fun as a barrel of monkeys.
> 
> **** talkin' abounds here on P&S, but try not to take it too seriously - you're too new to know which ones of us are the real troublemakers around here.


you need to watch out for this guy right here


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

justinstewart said:


> looks like a blacknose to me. kinda hard to tell from the pic though.
> 
> a lot of the info you read about sharks online is incorrect or misleading. I had to catch a few hundred and really start paying attention to them to start figuring it out. most fisheries guys can't tell them apart.
> 
> a blacknose looks exactly like a small blacktip, and i bet more than 80% of the people on this forum couldn't tell the difference. they just hear about blacktips all the time and everything is a blacktip or a spinner. or if your are in hatteras, it's a dusky or a sandbar.


 Granted,I do not id sharks that well.. But,to say obx is always sandbars or duskys??? I can tell the difference between a hammer,sandtiger,sharpnose,and bull.. Just four more examples of what us poor dumb obx guys can id....  Still say it's a dusky.. 

Mike,no doubt there was braid involved,but a conventional is the way to go...


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## solid7 (Dec 31, 2010)

Samblam said:


> you need to watch out for this guy right here


Come on now... I could be bipolar or something. That's a very serious condition. 

You all should be showing me love and compassion, not castigating and oppressing me!


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## Dr. Bubba (Nov 9, 1999)

y'all sure know what some doggies are too...

The only way to know for sure is the teeth. Maybe next time you can talk one of your (gullible)friends into leaning in reeeeaaall close and getting some photos of that!


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## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

AbuMike said:


> It's a Dusky. Caught on a spinning reel because they cast farther. Was there braided line and circle hooks involved in this?


What's a circle hook?


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## @wood (Apr 23, 2012)

Dr. Bubba said:


> y'all sure know what some doggies are too...
> 
> The only way to know for sure is the teeth. Maybe next time you can talk one of your (gullible)friends into leaning in reeeeaaall close and getting some photos of that!


Kind of like Joe Dirt when he puts his head in the gator's mouth, will that work?


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## Dr. Bubba (Nov 9, 1999)

@wood said:


> Kind of like Joe Dirt when he puts his head in the gator's mouth, will that work?


Since I could be considered "cinematically challenged", aside from Jaws and The Good/Bad/Ugly, I had to google up your reference.

Just tell your friend how important it is and to do "anything it takes".


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## CarolinaNemo (Dec 11, 2008)

X2 on the blacknose. Here are a few shots to compare:

Blacktip: 











Blacknose: 



















Notice the faint black smudge on the nose in the last pic.


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

Shut me down on dusky comment,never caught a blacknose... Definatly no shark id kinda fella....


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## sunburntspike (Oct 4, 2010)

i recant my earlier I.D and will second(or third) the black nose,the first posted picture upon careful inspection shows that ash smudge on the nose


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## Dr. Bubba (Nov 9, 1999)

sunburntspike said:


> i recant my earlier I.D and will second(or third) the black nose,the first posted picture upon careful inspection shows that ash smudge on the nose


me too!
good call JS!


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