The vacuum-cleaner shark. Sucks crustaceans from holes, sleeps stacked under ledges, ignores divers.
Nurse sharks are the laziest sharks on the reef. They spend daylight piled in caves or resting flat on sand, only stirring at night to feed. The Indo-Pacific tawny nurse (Nebrius ferrugineus) reaches 3 metres; barbels on the snout act like sensory antennae for finding prey buried in sand.
They suction-feed through a small mouth, vacuuming up crustaceans, octopus and small fish. The action is comical to watch: head jammed into a hole, gill flares pumping water out the back. Maldives night dives are the best place for active nurse encounters.
Reliable sightings: Maldives (especially the Alimatha night dive, a known nurse shark aggregation), Andaman walls, Phuket and Similan deeper sites, and the Red Sea. Daytime encounters are sleepy. For the action, dive after sunset.
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This species hasn't been logged at any of our partner sites yet, destination + season data will appear here once we've confirmed a reliable spot.
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