Nurse shark

Photo: Karl Questel · © all rights reserved

Nurse sharks are benthic predators that spend daylight hours resting in groups beneath ledges and on sandy patches, making Pompidou's protected terraces ideal daytime habitat. At night they hunt octopus, squid, and reef fish by using strong suction feeding — they can generate vacuum pressure sufficient to extract prey from crevices. Their presence in numbers at Pompidou reflects the reserve's no-take status: nurse sharks are highly susceptible to hook capture and disappear quickly from fished reefs.