Carcharhinidae

Blue shark

Prionace glauca

Deep blue crossing oceans worldwide

• Blue
• Gray
• White
• Tropical
• Nearshore
• Globally widespread
• Marine fish
• Fusiform
• Large
• Tropical fish

Graceful hydrodynamic contours and brilliant indigo plumage make the blue shark the supreme open-ocean wanderer of pelagic marine realms. Its remarkably slender, spindle-like silhouette displays an intense deep ultramarine dorsal surface that blushes into iridescent sapphire along the flanks and clean white beneath. Long, swept-back, sickle-shaped pectoral fins and an elongated, conical snout minimize drag as it glides tirelessly across offshore ocean gyres. Distributed circumglobally across temperate and tropical deep oceans, it frequents epipelagic and mesopelagic depths from surface waters down to three hundred and fifty meters. Undertaking transoceanic migrations spanning thousands of miles along oceanic thermal currents, it hunts pelagic schooling squid, octopuses, herrings, and mackerels with sharp, triangular, serrated upper teeth designed to grip slippery prey. Highly fecund and viviparous with a yolk-sac placenta, litters frequently exceed fifty pups, and individuals reach recorded maximum total lengths of three hundred and eighty-three centimetres.

Sources: NOAA Fisheries — Blue Shark, Prionace glauca