A short group, and short for a reason: these are not shark destinations. What is recorded here is what turns up on a reef edge or a sand flat in the course of a normal day.
The reef sharks are the whitetip, which can lie on the bottom and keep breathing while the others must swim; the blacktip, on flats that are often too shallow to dive; and the grey reef shark, which has a threat display worth being able to recognise. The nocturnal sharks are the ones a muck diver is more likely to meet: the brownbanded bamboo shark walking through rubble on its fins after dark, the coral catshark wedged inside the reef by day, and the tasselled wobbegong lying under a table coral looking like part of it.
The rays divide by where they lie. The blue-spotted ribbontail ray is usually under a ledge rather than buried, and is routinely confused with the blue-spotted stingray, which is filed with the other fish and does bury. The cowtail stingray is a heavy animal on open sand. The eagle ray and the reef manta are passing animals, met in the water column rather than found on the bottom, and the manta is the one ray here with no sting.
Every one has a page. They are shown as a list rather than as pictures because nothing has been photographed or logged for them yet, and a species with nothing behind it should not sit in front of one that has.
How many of the 63 carry a record at each destination. A species usually carries several, so these do not add up to 63.
All 1316 species in one index, with filters for destination, rarity and hazard.
