Great Hammerhead

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

Phạm vi phân bố: Circumtropical in warm coastal seas — the wider Caribbean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean, northern Australia, and the central Pacific

Hành vi: 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.

Chế độ ăn: Rays and skates above all — stingray barbs are routinely found in their jaws — plus other sharks, groupers, and cephalopods

Kích thước: thường vào khoảng 3.5 m; ghi nhận đến độ sâu 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.