The pirate of the open ocean. It is a shark that looks like it belongs on a flag. Heavy and stocky, with a thick rounded body. It has a short blunt snout and those distinctive white-tipped fins that give it the name. The first dorsal fin is large and rounded like a sail. The pectoral fins are long and paddle-shaped. The colour is dark bronze-grey on the back. This fades to pale white on the belly. A shark that looks like it belongs on a pirate flag. A design that raises questions. Slow and methodical. The oceanic whitetip cruises the open ocean waiting for an opportunity. It is famously bold and curious. It approaches boats, divers and anything else that looks interesting. This boldness makes it dangerous. It has been implicated in a number of attacks on shipwreck survivors. This earns it a reputation as the most dangerous shark in the open ocean. Not because it is the biggest or the fastest. But because it never gives up. A shark that does not know when to quit. Your grandparents' generation remembers oceanic whitetips as common. They were a regular sight on the tuna grounds. Now they are rare. Decades of longline fishing have hammered their populations. Their bold, curious nature makes them easy to catch. Their fins are highly valued in the shark fin trade. Populations have collapsed across much of their range. A shark that was too curious for its own good. To see an oceanic whitetip now is to see a survivor. It is the fish that used to rule the open ocean. Now it hangs on by its white-tipped fins. It hopes the longliners go somewhere else tomorrow. The longline sets. The whitetip approaches, curious, bold. The hook catches. The shark is pulled up. It does not know why. It was just curious. Curiosity killed the shark.