The Bronze Whaler Shark

  The bronze whaler shark is found throughout the Mediterranean Sea and also around Japan, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Often going by the name of copper sharks or narrowtooth sharks, bronze whalers can grow up to three metres long. There have been many attempts to enclose bronze whalers in aquariums for public viewing. However, specimens of the genus do not adapt well to captivity and have been known to swim repetitively into the glass walls of their tank, damaging both the glass and themselves. It is also common for them to develop fatal infections from other creatures enclosed alongside them.
  Unlike many sharks, bronze whalers commonly form schools of up to and even above a hundred specimens. It is suspected that the reason for their doing so is that they are often preyed upon by larger sharks such as great white, tiger and bull sharks.

The range of the bronze whaler shark. In dark blue
is the confirmed range, in light blue, the suspected
range.

  Bronze whalers generally feed on fish such as tuna and also prey upon octopi and squid, as the majority of requiem sharks do. In addition, they have been known to consume stingrays and dogfish. Bronze whalers are often observed participating in the Sardine Run around South Africa.
  It is unknown how threatened bronze whaler sharks are by fishing, although they are a popular target of illegal finners. Several conservation projects are now underway in order to protect bronze whalers and other threatened species, despite the fact that bronze whaler numbers are uncertain.
  Attacks on humans by bronze whaler sharks are surprisingly more common than other sharks, although still infrequent. It is, perhaps, to be expected as divers commonly observe these sharks in coastal waters worldwide. In addition, those who dare to observe the Sardine Run from close quarters are often bitten accidentally if a feeding frenzy starts. However, some believe that bronze whalers are also the perpetrators of numerous unprovoked attacks and it is possible that they could soon be amongst the top ten most dangerous sharks to humans, based on recent averages. One explanation for this could be that people have mistaken them for other sharks, as they look very alike several other large species. It is also thought that there may have been several unconfirmed attacks following shipwrecks and aeroplane crashes in the ocean where survivors have been forced to remain in the water for indefinite periods.

A bronze whaler shark swimming nearby a school of
mackerel.