Finetooth Shark - Distribution and Habitat

Distribution and Habitat

In North American waters, the finetooth shark is common and found from North Carolina to the northern Gulf of Mexico, and very occasionally straying as far north as New York. In Central and South American waters, it is rare but may occur more widely than presently known, having been reported off Trinidad and Guyana, infrequently from the Caribbean Sea, and off southern Brazil from São Paulo to Santa Catarina. The northwestern Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and South America populations are distinct, with little interchange between them. There are old records of this species in the eastern Atlantic off Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, but these likely represent misidentifications of spinner sharks (C. brevipinna).

An inhabitant of coastal habitats, the finetooth shark is often found near beaches and in bays and estuaries. It ranges no deeper than 10 m (33 ft) deep in the summer and 20 m (66 ft) deep in the winter. Historically it was known to venture into rivers in the Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas, though most of paths into this area are now blocked by dams. The northwestern Atlantic population of this species is strongly migratory: juveniles, followed by adults, arrive off South Carolina from late March to early May, when the water temperature rises above 20 °C (68 °F). They remain until September to mid-October, at which point the water temperature drops and they move south to Florida. The movements of other populations are unknown.