Great Hammerhead

Habitat: Coastal shelves, reef edges, and sand flats; ranges into very shallow water when hunting rays

Verspreidingsgebied: Circumtropical in warm coastal seas: the wider Caribbean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean, northern Australia, and the central Pacific

Gedrag: A solitary, wide-roaming hunter, unlike its schooling scalloped cousin. The exaggerated cephalofoil is packed with electroreceptors and works like a metal detector swept over sand; the tall sickle of a first dorsal fin often shows before the animal itself. Around baited dives it moves with deliberate, unhurried confidence.

Dieet: Rays and skates above all (stingray barbs are routinely found in their jaws), plus other sharks, groupers, and cephalopods

Grootte: doorgaans rond 3.5 m; gedocumenteerd tot 6.1 m (total length; most animals on dive sites run 3–4.5 m).

Stay low and settled on sand-bottom feed dives, avoid blocking its swim path, no touching as it passes, and never freelance with bait. In open water, hold your depth and let it choose the distance.

Critically Endangered: overfishing for the fin trade and severe bycatch mortality have cut global numbers steeply. Encounter tourism in the Bahamas, where sharks are protected, is a genuine conservation asset.