Comment from Towers Saint Amand, TerryAnn
TerryAnn Towers Saint AmandSupportIndividual
Summary: TerryAnn Towers Saint Amand, a member of the public, supports strong protections for tope sharks and urges NOAA to apply the precautionary principle in its evaluations. The commenter argues that because sharks are slow-growing and vulnerable to multiple stressors, conservation actions should prioritize biodiversity protection over waiting for complete scientific certainty.
I support strong protections for tope sharks and urge NOAA to apply the precautionary principle when evaluating this species and its distinct population segments.
Sharks are slow-growing animals that often mature late, produce relatively few young, and can take decades to recover from population declines. These biological traits make them especially vulnerable to overfishing, bycatch, habitat degradation, and environmental change. Waiting for complete certainty before acting can result in irreversible losses, particularly for species that may already be experiencing long-term declines.
Tope sharks play an important ecological role as predators in marine ecosystems. Healthy shark populations contribute to the stability and resilience of ocean food webs. Their decline can have effects that extend far beyond a single species.
I encourage NOAA to carefully consider cumulative pressures, including commercial and recreational fishing mortality, bycatch, climate-driven changes in ocean conditions, prey availability, habitat disturbance, and the growing range of human impacts on marine environments. These stressors rarely occur in isolation and may interact in ways that increase risk to vulnerable populations.
Where significant uncertainty exists, conservation decisions should err on the side of protecting biodiversity rather than assuming populations will remain stable. Recovering a species after severe decline is often far more difficult, costly, and uncertain than preventing that decline in the first place.
As a member of the public who values healthy oceans and functioning ecosystems, I support science-based conservation measures that provide meaningful protection for tope sharks and their habitats. Future generations should inherit oceans that still contain the full diversity of species that evolved there, not oceans diminished because protective action was delayed until after populations had already fallen beyond easy recovery.
Thank you for considering my comments.
TerryAnn Towers Saint Amand