Named after its distinct blue colour, the blue shark is one of the most wide-ranging and easily recognizable sharks in the world. It can be found on both Canada’s Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

Fast Facts

Common name: Blue shark

Scientific name: Prionace glauca

Type: Fish

Diet: Carnivore

Group name: Shiver (can also be referred to as a school)

Average weight: 30 to 52 kg

Average height: 1.8 to 2.4 metres

COSEWIC Status: Not at risk (2016)

Did you know? 

Male and female blue sharks spend most of their time living seperatley. The sexes come together briefly once a year for reproduction purposes. Blue sharks also form groups based on their maturity level and sex, linking with those close in age and reproductive phase.

Physical characteristics and behaviour

Blue sharks are deep indigo on their dorsal side (back or “top” of the shark), while their colouration fades to a vibrant blue on their sides to a white belly. The contrast between their back and underbelly is called “colour-shading,” which helps the species camouflage while swimming.

Blue sharks have slender bodies with long snouts and large eyes. Their pectoral fins are extremely large, reaching as long as the distance between the tip of a blue shark’s snout to its last gill slit. Many experts believe they use their pectoral fins to ride ocean currents, as they travel incredibly long distances every year, searching for dense feeding grounds and mating opportunities. Blue sharks are the most migratory sharks, and they undertake yearly migrations, which can sometimes total more than 9,000 kilometres. Their large fins allow them to move with the ocean’s current to conserve energy. 

Unlike pelagic sharks (sharks that live in the open ocean), blue sharks are more social. Groups often come together to feed on large schools of prey. They use their speed to feed on various species, from small bony fish to larger cephalopods like octopuses.

Female blue sharks are known to have significantly thicker skin than male blue sharks, as male sharks initiate mating by biting a female in the area between her two dorsal fins.

Diet

Blue sharks eat a variety of fish and squid, primarily pelagic fish like herring, silver hake, white hake, red hake, cod, haddock, tuna, swordfish, and more. They have also been known to feed on seals, dead whales, and porpoises.

Habitat and distribution

Blue sharks can be found within inshore and offshore waters in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. The blue shark is likely the most common large shark seen in Canadian waters, having been located in southeastern Newfoundland, the Great Banks, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Scotia Shelf and the Bay of Fundy. Blue sharks are one of the widest-ranging sharks and are highly migratory. This means that in the summer, these sharks can even be spotted off the west coast of Vancouver Island as warm water moves northwards.