Spinnner and Blacktip Difference

[Mo Redd]

I just found another way to tell a spinner shark from a blacktip shark, which is important if you intend to keep one. I've heard that the small blacktip is good eating. I don't know about the spinner's table value, but the important thing is the Florida regulations on keeping one. The limit is one shark per person, and the minimum size for spinners is 54 inches fork length. The blacktip juvenile can be kept at any length. The difference stated in most places is that the spinner has pectoral fins forward from the front of the dorsal fin, and the blacktip is less forward or the dorsal can even originate over the axil (a depression like a human's armpit) of the pectoral. I didn't think it would be easy to make this distinction so I was pleased to find another way to separate the two:

"Spinner sharks are easily identified by the jet black pigment on the dorsal surface of the pectoral fin and the somewhat posterior position of the dorsal fin relative to the pectorals. This separates it from the blacktip shark, that also jumps out of the water and spins, therefore, often mistaken for a spinner shark. The spinner also has black pigment on its anal fin that the blacktip does not have. Both sharks are common, though the blacktip is more abundant than the spinners inshore. Surfers appear to call both species "spinners" more often based on their behavior, but shark fishery captures from the beach catch more blacktips than spinners."

So if you intend to keep a small one to take home make sure it's a blacktip not a spinner. Having black on the pectoral and anal fins (the last fin before the tail) indicates a spinner not a blacktip. A reverse of what I would have thought.