Face-to-face with an oceanic whitetip. Oceanic whitetips can reach 11-13 feet and are found far offshore in the open ocean. You can easily tell them apart from whitetip reef sharks by those oversized, white-tipped pectoral fins. Oceanic whitetips are solitary wanderers built for survival in a place with very little to eat. They can be very curious and even aggressive. When food appears, they’re known to gather in dramatic feeding frenzies. If you’re a scavenger in the open ocean, you kind of have to be bold and take what you can get. Once one of the most common sharks on the planet, their numbers have dropped dramatically from bycatch in tuna fisheries and the fin trade. But last week at CITES, oceanic whitetips, along with whale sharks and manta rays, were granted the highest level of protection, banning all international trade. This win was championed by Panama’s Environment Minister, juancanavarro, a true global leader for our ocean. We salute you, sir! Photos by mitty thewc...