If I mention the “greeneye spurdog,” what kind of beast springs to mind? For most folks, the answer would be a kind of canine, but spurdogs are actually small, deepwater sharks. The greeneye only became identified as a separate species in 2007.
The shark is officially listed as “near threatened” and yet that is really just an informed guess. Science has long known that the animal exists, just not that it was a species distinct from other closely related spurdogs – also known as dogfish – familiar to many from the pickled specimens sometimes used for dissections in high school classrooms. Science teachers used spiny dogfish, which was one of the world’s most common sharks when I was handed one to cut open in class 60 years ago.
Now we know that there are actually two species of what was then thought to be one, the Atlantic and the Pacific. In the northeast Atlantic, the Atlantic spiny dogfish is now listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as “critically endangered” – the price the species has paid for commercial value. Fins are used in a version of shark fin soup, considered a delicacy in parts of Asia. They are also part of European cuisine, worldwide, having often been called “rock salmon” and other misleading names by the duplicitous seafood industry, and are listed as being globally “vulnerable.” Demand for their fins is still high and still growing.
There has been growing public concern about sharks which has led to the introduction of the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act of 2019 in the U.S. Congress (H.R. 737/S. 877). This attention has mostly focused on the larger, well-known species such as great white, mako, hammerhead, and blue sharks, although commercial demand and subsequent over-exploitation includes smaller, less well-known species that should also concern us. There are about 30 species of spurdog overall – a larger number than originally thought since they tend to closely resemble each other. Only through modern, sophisticated analysis has it been found that within larger populations of many kinds of wildlife there are individual, discreet populations that are actually separate and distinct species with limited ranges, conditions that increase their vulnerability to endangerment.
The greeneye spurdog is found only in waters off of Australia and New Zealand, and we really know very little about it. We do know that like sharks generally, they are slow to reproduce, with a gestation period of nearly three years – the longest known of any species of animal. We don’t know how many pups they have.
Wildlife exploiters and free market advocates claim, with minimal justification, that the economic value of wildlife guarantees that an exploitative “industry” will protect animals in order to maintain business. Sharks are among a huge range of species proving otherwise. Greed trumps conservation and sharks are being killed faster than they can reproduce, with reproductive rates not even known for many species.
But, for the greeneye spurdog, there is some good news. The Australian government, recognizing that threat, has limited commercial fishing to no deeper than 700 meters, above where the greeneye is likely to occur. Protection works but, sadly, for many sought after sharks who live a little closer to the surface, such protection still does not exist.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry
