Blacktip sharks feed mainly on a wide range of bony fish including sardines, herring, mullet, jacks and Spanish mackerel. Blacktip sharks are also known to eat the young of other sharks including dusky sharks and some cephalopods (a mollusc class) and crustaceans (lobsters, crabs, shrimp, crayfish and barnacles).

The Blacktip shark is viviparous (the embryo develops inside the body of the mother, as opposed to outside in an egg) and has a yolk-sac placenta with 1 – 10 pups per litter. The gestation period is around 10 to 12 months and females are thought to breed every other year.

The Blacktip shark is classed as ‘Vulnerable’. Its flesh is used fresh, dried or salted for consumption, its hide is used for leather and its liver for oil. It is occasionally taken as a game fish and often by shore anglers. It has not been indicated in unprovoked attacks against humans but is potentially dangerous.