The whitetip reef shark is widespread and relatively abundant and there is no legislation against fishing this animal (3). The whitetip reef shark project of Hawaii is currently researching this shark's life history, movement patterns and habitat utilisation in the hope that this will help in the future management of populations (7). The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) have been working for years on an International Plan of Action for the conservation and management of sharks throughout the world (IPOA-SHARKS) (8). However, the vast size of the oceans where the whitetip reef shark resides and the difficulty of law enforcement in many areas make the task of managing the conservation of this beautiful shark extremely difficult (9).