PETITION TO LIST THE Dusky Shark (Carcharhinus obscurus) UNDER THE U.S. ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT Dusky shark. Andy Murch/Elasmodiver.com © Petition Submitted to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Acting through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrati

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Murch; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.368.5281; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/petitions/dusky_shark_listing_petition.pdf

WildEarth Guardians petitions the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service 1 (NMFS) to list the dusky shark (Carcharhinus obscurus) rangewide or the Northwest Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico distinct population segment as a “threatened ” or “endangered ” species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The dusky shark is a large, wide-ranging warm-water shark that has been exploited without limit for its meat, fins, and cartilage, particularly since the late 1970s (SEDAR 2011a at 3). As a large shark, averaging 11.8 feet (3.6 meters) in length and inhabiting both coastal and pelagic waters, the dusky is particularly susceptible to the commercial fishing and finning that have caused its decline. In fact, experts have identified the substantial increase in fishing pressure as the “single greatest threat to all sharks ” (Baum et al. 2005 at 10, 27-29). Fishing pressure, even under the most conservative models, threatens a third of all shark species (Morgan 2010 at 2-3), and may have already reduced the dusky shark to “the edge of collapse ” (Romine et al. 2009 at 277). Dusky sharks are vulnerable to population decline due to their low rates of growth and reproduction (Musick et al. 2007 at 4). Sharks are significantly more imperiled than other fish