WildEarth Guardians

Monday, July 12, 2010
Feds Deny Protection for Endangered Porbeagle Shark

Group Will Take Legal Action
Contact: Nicole Rosmarino (505) 699-7404

Denver, CO-July 12. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) turned down a WildEarth Guardians petition requesting listing (protection) for the Porbeagle Shark under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). Guardians will challenge the decision.

“Despite devastatingly low numbers and continued killing of this shark by commercial and recreational fishers, the feds are refusing to take action. The National Marine Fisheries Service - housed within the Department of Commerce - is dodging protection of a commercially valuable fish,” stated Dr. Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians.

Within the U.S., the Porbeagle occurs in waters from Maine to New Jersey. U.S. waters are part of its Northwest Atlantic range, which extends into Canada. The Northwest Atlantic population is separate from others and has declined by as much as 90 percent since 1961 due to fishing. Government biologists in both the U.S. and Canada question whether it can ever recover from its population collapse, yet both countries still allow commercial fishing of the species. WildEarth Guardians requested protection for the Porbeagle Shark across its entire range, as well as specific legal safeguards for the Northwest Atlantic, Northeast Atlantic, and Mediterranean populations.

Today’s decision rests on two key elements: NMFS refused to recognize populations of this shark as isolated from each other and represented major populations as increasing or stable in numbers. However, NMFS’ own website describes Northeast and Northwest Atlantic populations as separate from each other, and the Northern and Southern Hemisphere populations as separated. In addition, the primary report on which NMFS relies to describe populations as stable or increasing, a 2009 international assessment, actually indicates a quite bleak situation and recommends increased fishing restrictions and more precautionary protections. In its finding today, NMFS denied that any factors - fishing, low reproductive rate, isolated of populations, inadequate legal provisions - threaten the Porbeagle Shark’s survival.

“Today’s decision is a serious setback to this imperiled shark and leaves us no option but to take the feds to court,” stated Rosmarino.

This shark is cursed by a lethal combination: it is commercially valuable but has a low rate of reproduction, with the Porbeagle Shark not even reaching mating age until 8 for males and 13 for females. The gestation period for this shark is similar that of humans: 8-9 months.

Canada previously considered federal protection for this species given its precipitous declines, but refused that protection due to economic concerns. By law, the U.S. cannot use the same rationale for denying the Porbeagle protection: ESA listing decisions must be solely based on biology, not economics.

A fascinating trait of the Porbeagle is that it has the ability to keep its body 13-18 degrees F higher than surrounding waters. This trait allows it to inhabit very cold waters. Like other sharks, it plays a key role in marine ecosystems as a top predator. Also similar to other sharks, it is a victim of “finning,” wherein its fins are hacked off and its living body is then tossed overboard to die a lingering death, all for the dollar value of those fins and to make space onboard for other victims.

“We need federal protection for the Porbeagle to protect this shark and help shut down the market for finning, a gruesome practice that needs to be prohibited worldwide,” stated Rosmarino.

In today’s decision, NMFS also rejected a petition from The Humane Society of the United States requesting protection for the shark’s Northwest Atlantic population.

WildEarth Guardians has been at the forefront of endangered species enforcement in the U.S. The group is a formal partner in the United Nation’s Year of Biodiversity (see here), in which “The world is invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity.”

View the 90 Day Finding here (PDF)