Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/tope-shark/
Tope sharks are found in temperate, shallow waters along coastlines around the world, from North America to Australia to the Mediterranean, but the entire West Coast of the United States is prime tope shark territory, and those sharks are in trouble.
Also known as the “soupfin” shark, tope shark populations have declined by 88% globally in the past 80 years because of the fishing industry, according to The Center for Biological Diversity. Many tope sharks have become bycatch or entangled in gillnets.
Tope sharks are found in temperate, shallow waters along coastlines around the world.
“These sharks are spiraling toward extinction because of shark fin soup and a disregard for how many are killed as bycatch in other fisheries,” said Kristin Carden, a Center scientist. “Tope sharks need protections in offshore fishing grounds as well as in their nearshore pupping grounds. The federal government has to move quickly to safeguard these incredibly imperiled animals and their West Coast habitat.”
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature classifies the tope shark as critically endangered. The species is highly threatened with extinction because of commercial overfishing for liver oil, meat and fins, as well as bycatch and habitat degradation.
Tope sharks need protections in offshore fishing grounds as well as in their nearshore pupping grounds.
“Sharks are essential to a healthy ecosystem in the ocean,” said Lindsey Zehel, executive director for the Defend Them All Foundation told KLCC. “It will have detrimental effects and a cascading downward spiral for ocean ecosystems everywhere, if the loss of predatory species like sharks become a reality.”
There has not been a U.S. stock assessment or fishery management plan developed for tope sharks, so their status in the United States is largely unknown.
Tope sharks are killed for shark fin soup, and killed as bycatch in other fisheries.
Adult tope sharks reach up to 6 and a half feet long and nearly 100 pounds, SharkSider reports. Tope sharks are late to mature at about 12.5 years, and can live up to 60 years in the wild.
“The tope shark’s presence is integral to healthy ecosystems; as a top predator, extinction of the species would have disastrous effects on the coastal food chain balance,” Zehel said.
The National Marine Fisheries Service announced in 2022 that the tope shark may warrant protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and must decide whether to list the species by February 2023.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature classifies the tope shark as critically endangered.
“We’ve had campaigns that ban sharkfinning. People are generally aware these days about the impacts of that practice on a species. But it’s not just the fishing that’s the problem,” Zehel said. “There’s contaminants in our waters, habitat destruction up and down the coast. The species is in real trouble and they’re not alone.”
Support the decision of the National Marine Fisheries Service to classify the Tope shark as endangered and designate critical habitat essential to the survival and recovery of this important native species.
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Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog
