Silvertip sharks are amongst the most impressive sharks in the South Ari Atoll. They are usually only found in certain places, often quite deep, and some of them are pretty large. Definitely 2m, maybe even up to 3m. Some sources call them dangerous, because they wouldn’t be shy towards divers. So far I found them always very shy, like all other sharks here too.
The Silvertip shark was described in 1837 by Wilhelm Peter Eduard Simon Rüppell. They belong to the family Carcharhinidae (what means something like rasp like skin), the Requiem sharks. Requiem is a weird word. A requiem can be a mass for the dead, coming from resting. Exactly what these sharks don’t do. Some do though. Fun fact, those species who need to swim in order to breathe use ram ventilation, those who can rest are able to so because they can use buccal or muscular pumping.
Other sources connect requiem to reschignier, to bare teeth.
The genus Carcharhinus is a versatile one. While Silvertips, Grey reef, Bull and Oceanic Whitetip sharks are impressive large predators, there are also many smaller sharks in the genus with around 1m size. For example the Blackspot shark, Hardnose, or the Creek whaler.
And while I was on the hunt for a picmybug story around the Silvertips, I noticed how many funny names you have for sharks.
Most of us, and maybe especially the non diving community, might first think of impressive ones like Great whites, Bullsharks, Megalodon even, or Tigersharks, and Hammerheads.
And in fact, the word shark seems to have evolved from the Dutch/ German word Schurke, meaning rogue or even villain! But out of over 500 species, only about 150 grow bigger than an average person. And it came to my attention that many sharks go under really weird names. So my story are the fun uncles of our shark, lekker funcles!
Some common names for sharks simply describe the coloration in a more or less sound way, like Blue shark, Silvertip, Whitetip or Black tip. Some describe the appearance in a broader sense, like Hammerhead, Whale shark, Tiger shark or Leopard shark. And then there’s a long list of funny names. In the genus Carcharhinus, the closest relatives of our Silvertip, straight pointing at the features without filter are Big-nose shark, Pig-eye shark, and Whitecheek shark. To be honest non of them looks as funny as the name suggests.
Describing behavior is also a thing, be lucky or get some! Graceful shark (has black fin tips!), Nervous shark or Lost shark. They all are existing Carcharhinus species, the Lost shark though might have been extinct when it was described from museum materials in 2019!
But let’s get back to the funcle Schurken, with names well suited for a comic book!
Cookiecutter shark is maybe the most famous funny name, though it bakes cookies from skin and flesh and looks really fierce. Cuter competition could be the Lollipop catshark, if we would promote it better. A good match for the cookies is the milk shark!
Cobbler wobbegong has a nice sound. That must be a muppet, a shaggy bearded catfish.
You wanna blend some other animals in? No problemo: Gecko catshark, Frog shark, Mouse catshark, I’m not making that up, Salamander catshark, Crocodile shark, Straight-tooth weasel shark.
The fruity Lemon shark is not alone, the Bramble shark must look or taste like blackberry. Its rather dark brown.
The meanest names for existing sharks I found:
Dumb gulper shark (even meaner: The Maldives plan to allow fishing of the Gulper shark!) Read more here: Dive magazine
Fat catshark
Cylindrical lanternshark
Long-nose sleeper shark
Big-head spurdog
Fat-spine spurdog
For the young shark fans we have some too:
Ninja lanternshark
Green lanternshark
Pinocchio catshark
Balloon shark
Gummy shark
If you can’t get enough, take these:
Bird-beak dogfish, Long-snout dogfish, Long-nose pygmy shark, Prickly shark, Whitecheek lanternshark, Velvet-belly lanternshark, Short-nose demon catshark.
English 
Deutsch