Fish Defender

Approved reforms are tepid and superficial.

Despite widespread outcry, extensive rulemaking workshops, and overwhelming public commentary against Florida Wildlife Commission’s program issuing permits to capture endangered and prohibited species for the aquarium trade, FWC has approved final rules making only superficial changes to its Special Activity License program, which will have little effect on the state’s unique policy of permitting aquarium corporations to capture marine megafauna.

In workshops, proposals included options to halt the trade of marine life listed under the Endangered Species Act or prohibited to take under Florida law. The vast majority of public comments supported these proposals, but the agency chose none of the above.

Instead, FWC’s new rules tout the prohibition of manta exports — which was already illegalized under international law at CITES this winter. To the agency’s credit, it did take positive steps to reduce manta capture permits and prohibit exports of ESA-listed wildlife, however these changes affect very few species or permits issued by the agency.

These new rules do little for mantas and nothing to address Florida’s enormous captivity pipeline for endangered sharks revealed in public records. Despite a few tepid reforms, FWC has chosen to continue writing billion-dollar aquarium corporations exemptions for wildlife protections anyone else in Florida must follow, and horrific scenes like the manta capture that drew outrage across the internet will continue in Florida waters when no one is watching.

FWC drops its nuclear option to prevent shark fishing bans from spreading across the state.

The agency intends to take back all local shark fishing laws, which have stood since 2008.

Today, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) published its final determination on whether to list the tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus) under the Endangered Species Act — three years late. The petition proposing this listing was filed in a detailed report by the Center for Biological Diversity and Defend Them All Foundation, who had to sue to force the agency to evaluate it after the legally mandated time frame expired.

Assessors granted Threatened status to just two of six distinct population segments, notably excluding the Northeast Pacific — the only population on a US coast. The listing of the Southern Africa and Southwest Atlantic populations has little regulatory impact, as the foreign listings primarily impact imports and exports, for which fins, the primary product taken from these animals, are already illegal. Meanwhile, the denial of ESA status to West Coast topes gives a green light to fishermen and coastal developers to keep killing them and polluting their breeding grounds.

Leading experts at the IUCN Shark Specialist Group classify the tope shark as critically endangered globally. These sharks pup only once every three years, gathering in a few known coastal kelp beds imperiled by warming seas. Tope sharks may seem common to those who know these sites, but historical data indicate 88% of the world’s tope sharks have been lost in just three generations.

This determination continues a decades-long, systematic pattern of rejection of ESA protections to sharks and rays, which have not been given the same chance as other vertebrates at the nation’s strongest wildlife protections.

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