Public Comment DUE JUNE 15TH: List the Tope Shark as an endangered species
Protections for the tope shark under the Endangered Species Act are up for public comment, four years after the Center for Biological Diversity and Defend Them All Foundation petitioned for their urgent protection and two years after those conservation groups had to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service to compel a response after the agency failed to evaluate the petition within the legal time frame.
The NMFS proposes to list two out of six subpopulations of tope shark as threatened under the ESA because of commercial fishing. While the Southern Africa and the Southwest Atlantic populations would be protected, the proposed rule claims that the remaining four populations — the Northeast (NE) Atlantic, NE Pacific, SW Pacific, and Southeast (SE) Pacific — do not meet the definition of a threatened or endangered species and do not warrant listing under the ESA. Conservation groups support the listing of all six populations and urge
The tope shark is also called the school, snapper, or soupfin shark; it is found mainly in temperate coastal waters.
Tope is threatened by commercial fishing as it's targeted for its liver oil, flesh, and fins and is also captured as bycatch by gillnets and trawling lines.
The Northeast Pacific population (which is omitted from protection under this proposed rule) is the only population on a US coast; the waters off of the west coast of the US include important pupping grounds. Tope are ovoviviparous, giving birth to live young in nurseries found in kelp beds in sheltered estuaries. Destruction of coastal habitats has significantly threatened the species' reproduction.
They mature relatively late, have long gestation periods, and produce relatively few offspring, making it difficult to recover from population depletion.
Estimates of global population declines are as high as 88% over the last 3 generations of shark (80 years); the IUCN's Red List lists tope as critically endangered.
The organization Fish Defender notes "a decades-long, systematic pattern of rejection of ESA protections to sharks and rays, which have not been given the same chance as other vertebrates at the nation’s strongest wildlife protections." Culturally, many people find sharks scary and offputting compared to more charismatic animals, and don't consider them as worthy of protection, despite their necessary role in marine ecosystems.
Post a comment here: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/NOAA-NMFS-2022-0048-0008
Photo: https://www.sharksandrays.com/tope-shark/
Center for Biological Diversity https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/international-tope-shark-populations-proposed-for-protection-under-us-endangered-species-act-2026-04-14/
Walker, T.I., Rigby, C.L., Pacoureau, N., Ellis, J., Kulka, D.W., Chiaramonte, G.E. & Herman, K., 2020. Galeorhinus galeus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-2.RLTS.T39352A2907336.en
Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Public Submission https://www.regulations.gov/comment/NOAA-NMFS-2022-0048-0019
Fish Defender, https://fishdefender.org/news/noaa-denies-us-tope-sharks-esa-protections/
