The tiger shark has a circumglobal range in subtropical and tropical, warm, temperate oceans, ranging between latitudes of approximately 40°N to 36°S.
The tiger shark has a circumglobal range in subtropical and tropical, warm, temperate oceans, ranging between latitudes of approximately 40°N to 36°S.
In the western Atlantic, the species ranges from the state of Massachusetts in the United States of America to Uruguay, including the Gulf of Mexico, Latin America, islands of the Caribbean, and isolated islands such as Fernando de Noronha. Tiger sharks have been sighted from the eastern coast of North America to the eastern coast of Brazil. In the eastern Atlantic, it is found along the West Africa coast, from Morocco to Angola, including the Canary Islands and the Azores. It has been reported off Libya in the Mediterranean, though whether it is resident or vagrant is unknown.
This shark is distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific. In the Indian Ocean, the tiger shark is found from the east coast of Africa to South Africa, including remote islands such as Reunion and Chagos Archipelago, north to the Red Sea, and throughout the tropical Indian Ocean. In the western and central Pacific, it occurs from Australia north to eastern China, India, and Japan, and throughout Pacific islands including Palau, east to the Solomon, Marshall, and Hawaiian Islands, south to northern New Zealand, as well as French Polynesia and more isolated atolls. In the eastern Pacific, it ranges from southern California to Peru, including the Galapagos and Revillagigedo Islands.
The tiger shark also appears seasonally in cool temperate waters, most likely following warmer currents. The presence of this shark in temperate regions has been reported from the United Kingdom and Iceland in the Atlantic, Alaska in the Northeast Pacific, the southern coasts of New South Wales and Western Australia in Australia, and in South Africa.
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• Sources | (Compagno, 2002; Dicken & Hosking, 2009; Draper, 2011; Driggers III, et al., 2008; Ebert, Fowler, & Compagno, 2013; Ferreira & Simpfendorfer, 2019; Ferreira, et al., 2015; Holmes, et al., 2014; Matsumoto, Saito, & Miyabe, 2004; Kneebone, Natanson, Andrews, & Howell, 2008; Mecklenburg, Mecklenburg, & Thorsteinson, 2002; Pepperell, 1992; Randall, 1992; Tobuni, Benabdallah, Serena, & Shakman, 2016; Wirsing, Heithaus, & Dill, 2007)
