Whitetip Reef Sharks

Whitetip reef sharks are the easiest shark to photograph in tropical Asia. They spend daylight piled up under coral overhangs, sometimes three or four to a ledge, indifferent to divers gliding past. The species is unmistakable: slender body, white tips on the first dorsal and upper tail fin, blunt rounded snout.

At night they switch to coordinated pack-hunting between reef channels, jamming heads into crevices to flush out sleeping fish. A scheduled night dive at Sipadan, Maldives or Komodo is the best way to see this behaviour without disturbing them.

Reliable across our Indo-Pacific destinations: Maldives atolls, Andaman walls, Bali (Tulamben and Crystal Bay), Komodo, Sipadan and Phi Phi. Bring a torch for night dives; you'll hear the corals crack before you see the sharks.