Sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus)

Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) for Sandbar Shark:

• Neonates/early juveniles (90 cm): Shallow coastal areas to the 25 m isobath from Montauk, Long Island, NY at 72° W, south to Cape Canaveral, FL at 80.5° W(all year); nursery areas in shallow coastal waters from Great Bay, NJ to Cape Canaveral, FL, especially Delaware and Chesapeake Bays (seasonal-summer); also shallow coastal waters to up to a depth of 50 m on the west coast of Florida and the Florida Keys from Key Largo at 80.5° W north to south of Cape San Blas, FL at 85.25° W. Typical parameters: salinity-greater than 22 ppt; temperatures-greater than 21° C.
  
  

• Late juveniles/subadults (91 to 179 cm): Offshore southern New England and Long Island, all waters, coastal and pelagic, north of 40° N and west of 70° W; also, south of 40° N at Barnegat Inlet, NJ, to Cape Canaveral, FL (27.5° N), shallow coastal areas to the 25 m isobath; also, in the winter, from 39° N to 36° N, in the Mid-Atlantic Bight, at the shelf break, benthic areas between the 100 and 200 m isobaths; also, on the west coast of Florida, from shallow coastal waters to the 50 m isobath, from Florida Bay and the Keys at Key Largo north to Cape San Blas, FL at 85.5° W.
  
  

• Adults (180 cm): On the east coast of the United States, shallow coastal areas from the coast to the 50 m isobath from Nantucket, MA, south to Miami, FL; also, shallow coastal areas from the coast to the 100 m isobath around peninsular Florida to the Florida panhandle at 85.5° W, near Cape San Blas, FL including the Keys and saline portions of Florida Bay.
  
  

• Habitat Areas of Particular Concern: Important nursery and pupping grounds have been identified in shallow areas and the mouth of Great Bay, NJ, lower and middle Delaware Bay, lower Chesapeake Bay, MD and near the Outer Banks, NC, in areas of Pamlico Sound adjacent to Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands and offshore those islands.