A juvenile spinner shark in southern New England: A rare visitor or a sign of change?

Abstract

A juvenile spinner shark, Carcharhinus brevipinna, was captured and released in the coastal waters of Rhode Island, USA, where range delineations based on historic records of spinner sharks and the species' congener, the blacktip shark, Carcharhinus limbatus, are plagued by misidentification. The shark in question was within the size range of neonates for C. brevipinna and bore a partially healed umbilical wound. This highlights questions concerning the distribution of nursery habitats for the species along the East Coast of North America and how that may be altered by climate change.