No photo available
Pelagic thresher
Alopias pelagicus
Valid name (FishBase; confirmed in Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes and WoRMS, October 2026).
- English
- Pelagic thresher
- Scientific
- Alopias pelagicus
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Sharks
- Maximum size
- Up to about 4.3 m (total length); commonly 2.8 m
- Depth and habitat
- Open ocean, near the surface and in mid-water, recorded from 0 to 300 m (usually 0 to 150 m)
- IUCN status
- EN · EndangeredEndangered (EN), assessed 2018CITES Appendix II
Description
A slim thresher shark with an enormously long, strap-like upper tail lobe almost as long as its body, which it whips through schools of small fish to stun them. It is dark blue above and white below, with no white patch over the pectoral fin bases. It lives mostly in the open ocean but approaches reefs and seamounts to be cleaned. It is listed as Endangered.
In the Maldives
Sharks are fully protected in the Maldives (since 2010).
Sources
- fishbase.se /summary/Alopias-pelagicus.html
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Pelagic_thresher_shark_(Alopias_pelagicus)_(cropped).jpg
Dhivehi name source: No Dhivehi name found in MRS 1997 (available chapters), FishBase (country: Maldives) or Dhivehi Wikipedia.