WASHINGTON— The highly imperiled shortfin mako shark was denied federal protection today by NOAA Fisheries, which stated that a listing under the federal Endangered Species Act is “not warranted.” In June 2022 Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity threatened to sue the agency for failing to meet its statutory deadline to make this decision.

“We are disappointed in NOAA’s decision not to provide much-needed federal protections for the shortfin mako,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. “The shortfin mako shark is the world’s fastest-swimming shark, but it can’t outrace the threat of extinction.”

Defenders of Wildlife filed a listing petition under the Act in January 2021. NOAA Fisheries issued a positive 90-day finding that listing may be warranted in April 2021, meaning a final determination was due no later than January 2022. The law requires Fisheries to determine if listing is warranted within 12 months of receiving a petition on which it has made a positive 90-day finding. The finding is nearly a year late.

“The federal government has ignored the shortfin mako shark’s steep population decline in the North Atlantic, and scientists expect that the shark’s numbers will get even worse in the next decade,” said Catherine Kilduff, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Shortfin makos have low reproduction rates, and they’ll have a tough time recovering without help. This decision was made on a wing and a prayer that future international fishing limits will save the shortfin mako from extinction, which is far from a sure thing.”

The shortfin mako is a highly migratory species whose geographic range extends throughout the world’s tropical and temperate ocean waters. The species faces a barrage of threats, especially overfishing from targeted catch and bycatch, and is valued highly for its fins and meat.

Overfishing has resulted in steep population declines in the North Atlantic and South Atlantic and slightly more moderate declines in the North Pacific and the Indian Ocean. In the North Atlantic, scientists estimate that, even if fishing ceased today, it would take 50 years for the population to recover. The threat of overfishing is compounded by ocean pollution, climate change and other risk factors driving the species toward extinction.

In 2019 the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the shortfin mako as “endangered” on its Red List of Threatened Species. Also in 2019 makos were included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to monitor and limit trade.

In 2021 the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, an intergovernmental organization responsible for managing tuna populations, announced a two-year ban on retaining, shipping or landing North Atlantic shortfin mako sharks, preventing fishers from retaining and selling these sharks even when they are unintentionally caught.

The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned in 2021 for listing shortfin mako under Mexico’s Standard NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010, the nation’s list of species at risk. The Mexican fishing industry catches thousands of both species every year. No decision has been made yet on that petition.

As an apex predator, the shortfin mako is an integral part of the marine food web, regulating the many species below it. Its steep decline will likely cause oceanic ecosystems to suffer. As a long-lived, slow-reproducing species, the shortfin mako cannot quickly rebound from the substantial population losses it has already experienced.