Enviros suing feds over vanishing shark

Sharks: not always the assassins of the sea.

photo credit: Courtesy Michael Meier, Gillclub.
The tope shark, also called a soupfin shark, snapper shark and school shark.

Two environmental groups are suing federal officials for blowing a year-and-a-half past a deadline over consideration of protections for a shark species living off of our coast.

The plaintiffs say the deadline, set by the feds themselves, lapsed in February of last year.

David Derrick is a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that filed suit.

"Unfortunately, the agencies have a lot on their plate and it's not uncommon for them to miss deadlines, but it's our job to hold their feet to the fire , so while a missed deadline isn't rare, it's still not acceptable," Derrick said.

The federal Marine Fisheries Service had started a 90-day period to consider listing the tope shark, also called the school shark or soupfin shark, as threatened or endangered back in April of 2022.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature categorizes the tope shark as critically endangered.

Along with being unintentionally caught, tope sharks are also sought by fishers for a number of reasons.

"They have been come to be called the soupfin shark because they are a very small sized shark that likes to stay in near shore waters," said Lindsey Zehel, of the Defend Them All Foundation, the other party to the suit.

The species diverges from the public perception of sharks as voracious killers. "It's a shark that swims in schools, which is pretty rare, and it's a charismatic species people would like, it's six feet long it's harmless to people, and it's found right here in our backyard, in waters off the west coast," Derrick said

The groups say that 90 percent of tope sharks have vanished since 1944.

"At this point, we just want the agency to acknowledge that the tope shark is an imperiled species, and that action needs to be taken. That more complex question, about what mitigation measures will help save the tope shark while allowing other fisheries to go forward, could be what's causing the agency to take so long to decide on the petition," Derrick surmised.