First Record of Severe Hypopigmentation in a Tiger Shark Galeocerdo cuvier from the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean

This study reports the first record of severe hypopigmentation in a tiger shark from the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. The specimen was captured by an industrial bottom-set gillnet fishery within the Lagamar marine complex, southeastern Brazil, a region recently recognized as an Important Shark and Ray Area (ISRA). The individual exhibited a white body coloration, retaining only faint remnants of the species’ characteristic dorsal pigmentation pattern. Owing to the absence of the head, the condition was conservatively interpreted as severe hypopigmentation consistent with leucism. Such extensive pigment loss may reduce the effectiveness of the disruptive coloration typically exhibited by juvenile tiger sharks in heterogeneous coastal habitats. This record expands current knowledge of pigment abnormalities in elasmobranchs and highlights the value of fishery-dependent observations for documenting rare phenotypic traits in marine megafauna.