Comment from Denise Pirnia

I agree with Sharon Young of HSUS. We believe that evidence provided by petitioners, evidence cited here and elsewhere, support the need to list this species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. There is has been a precipitous decline of the species worldwide. It is still deemed “overfished” with “overfishing occurring” in the Northwest Atlantic. International protective measures taken by ICCAT (and by the NMFS in implementing the recommendations of ICCAT) will not prevent fishing by non-ICCAT fisheries. The petition for protection of the species that was co-sponsored by the U.S. was not adopted by CITES. Any additional protection of this species that may be imposed by the NMFS is undefined and delayed to some unspecified future date, since the scoping process for amending management has only closed within the last few weeks. Regulatory measures are not sufficient either domestically or internationally. The HSUS supports listing this species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and I do as well.