IThe male leaves quite evnident traces of the mating. In order to fertilize the female, it has to get hold of her: he bites her leaving on her body traces of his teeth.

The preliminary surevey carried out last year confirmed the seasonal presence in a Turkish bay of a high number of sandbar sharks (Carcharhinus plumbeus, a kind of grey reef shark). As many as fifty of them of both sexes were photo-identified.
The presence of gravid females and of unmistakeable signs of mating indicate that this bay is the only known nursery area of sandbar sharks in the Mediterranean sea, one of the few known for the whole world. Nowhere else in the world conditions are better for studying the sharks directly in their own environment.
Fourteen days of free-diving in the bay allowd us to collect a wealth of data, photographs and underwater movies of the sharks. The most important part of the preliminary campaign was the photo-identification of the sharks. Based on cuts, scars and blemishes that characterize every specimen we could positively identify 50 individuals, named GoldenDot, Scarface, Broken Fin. Video images proved invaluable for environmental studies.
This expedition was conducted under the aegis of Osservatorio Mediterraneo. For the past six years Osservatorio Mediterraneo has been collecting sightings of sharks, cetaceans, turtles and monk seals from divers, sailors and fishermen,and relays them to the scientists. The Turkey shark was the fourth scientific paper to be published after these reports.
The team will be back in Turkey this coming May to confirm the seasonal presence of the sharks in the bay, to carry out the photo-ID and to apply satellite tags to follow the migration routes of these sharks around the Mediterranean Sea.