Endangered and Threatened Species: 12-Month Findings on a Petition to List the Tope Shark and Proposed Listing of Two Distinct Population Segments of Tope Shark

Defend Them All and the Center for Biological Diversity support the proposed threatened listings for two Tope Shark population segments but argue that the proposal is insufficient for the remaining four segments. They urge the NMFS to list the Northeast Pacific DPS as threatened or endangered and to adopt stronger protective regulations, including a similarity-of-appearance rule for lookalike species.

A graduate student at the University of Washington argues that the agency should list the Northeast Pacific population of tope shark as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The commenter contends that there is insufficient evidence to show the population is increasing and that the lack of baseline data, combined with climate change risks, justifies including this population in the listing.