Where Whitetip reef shark has been recorded
GBIF occurrence records for Triaenodon obesus, mapped and tabulated by country.
33,607 georeferenced occurrence records with coordinates are published for Triaenodon obesus through GBIF, from 62 countries or marine areas. This page maps those records and lists where they come from. Occurrence records reflect where people have looked as well as where the species lives, so well-surveyed coastlines are over-represented.
- Georeferenced records
- 33,607
- Countries / areas
- 62
- Mapped locations
- 277
- Records sampled for the map
- 3,000
- Inland records omitted
- 25
- Gbif taxonkey
- 2418054
Countries and areas with the most records (GBIF)
Australia — 26,485 records; Ecuador — 1,070 records; United States of America — 831 records; New Caledonia — 557 records; Maldives — 430 records; United States Minor Outlying Islands — 414 records; Indonesia — 389 records; Panama — 372 records; Costa Rica — 348 records; Mexico — 346 records; Fiji — 341 records; Northern Mariana Islands — 249 records; Colombia — 214 records; French Polynesia — 213 records; Philippines — 195 records.
Source: GBIF Occurrence Search (taxonKey 2418054) — https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?taxon_key=2418054&has_coordinate=true (records CC0 / CC BY). Accessed 2026-09-23.
Marine regions with a WoRMS distribution record
Eritrean Exclusive Economic Zone; Mozambican Exclusive Economic Zone; Kenyan Exclusive Economic Zone; Tanzanian Exclusive Economic Zone; Madagascar; Somali Exclusive Economic Zone; Seychellois Exclusive Economic Zone; Mauritian Exclusive Economic Zone; Réunion Exclusive Economic Zone; Comoran Exclusive Economic Zone; Red Sea; Aldabra; Chagos; Djiboutian Exclusive Economic Zone; South Africa (country); Brazilian part of the North Atlantic Ocean; Brazilian part of the South Atlantic Ocean.
Source: WoRMS distribution records (MarineRegions) — https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=214557 (CC BY 4.0). Accessed 2026-09-23.
How to read this map
The map plots a sample of 3,000 of the 33,607 records, deduplicated to a half-degree grid, so dense areas do not merge into one blob. The sample covers 43 of the 62 countries or areas with records; the areas absent from the sample hold 152 records in total (American Samoa, Cook Islands, Nauru, Wallis and Futuna, Mauritius, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Réunion).
25 records plotting inland were omitted: for a marine species those are almost always the holding institution's coordinates rather than a collection site.
Records show where the species has been observed and reported, not a modelled range.
Source: GBIF Occurrence Search (taxonKey 2418054) — https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?taxon_key=2418054&has_coordinate=true (records CC0 / CC BY); WoRMS distribution records (MarineRegions) — https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=214557 (CC BY 4.0); Natural Earth 110m basemap — https://www.naturalearthdata.com/ (public domain). Accessed 2026-09-23.
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