07-19-2004, 05:35 PM
![[Image: lemonshark.jpg]](http://i.timeinc.net/fieldstream/images_small/lemonshark.jpg)
Lemon shark Negaprion brevirostris. A requiem family shark, the lemon shark grows to 11 feet at maximum, though usually somewhere between 5 and 8 feet. A potentially dangerous shark, it may rest on the bottom in coastal waters in groups of 4 to 6 and become aggressive when in the vicinity of spearfishing. It is commonly yellow-brown, though it may also be muddy dark brown or dark gray, with olive sides and a paler belly. It has a blunt and broad snout which appears rounded from below. The second dorsal fin is almost equal in size to the large first dorsal fin, and the upper lobe of the tail is much larger than the lower.
Lemon sharks are good inshore, light-tackle sportfish which inhabit western Atlantic waters from New Jersey to Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean, and eastern Atlantic waters from Senegal and the Ivory Coast possibly down the African continent; in the eastern Pacific they extend from southern Baja California and the Gulf of California to Ecuador.
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