The Black Tip Reef Shark can be easily identified by their distinct black fins, mainly its dorsal fin and caudal fin. You can also identify them back their gray to grayish brown skin with white belly, and have a pointed snout and oval eyes and rarely grow more than 1.8 meters. Their appearance is very slick, the mouth is at the bottom of the head, and is closed while swimming, making them very fast and streamlined.

The Black Tip Reef Shark are known to be seemingly docile and present little danger to humans as long as they are provoked or feel threatened in their environment and habitat. Their diet consists of mostly small reef fish, as well as small crustaceans and octopus; they have been known to eat land based snakes from mangroves in some areas too.

The population numbers of the Black Tip Shark are unknown, but they are classed as near threatened, as numbers are declining due to fishing and the distribution of their body parts in many countries. However they are still one of the most commonly seen sharks, by divers, snorkelers and swimmers around tropical and subtropical reefs in the Indian and Pacific Ocean.

Female Black Tips can carry up to seven pups with a gestation period of 12 months; the pups are then born and average at 30 to 45cm long. From the day they are born, they eat independently and after 3 to 4 years attain sexual maturity. The average lifespan of the Black Tipped Reef Shark is 12 years.

Black Tip Reef Sharks are generally not very social, they usually are seen alone more frequently than in groups because of their shy nature. But they can sometimes curious divers and divers however. Black tip sharks are one of the few sharks that can jump fully out of the water, this behaviour is called breaching studies believe they are doing this for two reasons to get rid of parasites and try to confuse their prey.

All over the world there are programs where you can watch these sharks in action in their natural environment. The instructors will brief you on how to behave in the water beforehand and teach you a little about their behaviour, this helps everyone understand them more and respect their habitat whilst observing.

Shark watching is an amazing experience and provides a great up close and personal education on shark behaviour and nature. For shark watching in Thailand, then look no further then The Adventure Club based in Phi Phi Islands , they have an excellent programme available and you get to spent 90 mins to 2 hours watching these beautiful creatures.