Tope Shark

About the Tope Shark

The Galeorhinus Galeus, also known as the School Shark, Tope Shark, Snapper Shark, and Soupfin Shark, is a hound shark of the Triakidae family, and the only member of the genus Galeorhinus.

Biology:

The School Shark is a small, shallow-bodied shark with an elongated snout. The largemouth is crescent-shaped and the teeth are of a similar size and shape in both jaws. This species is dark bluish grey on their upper (dorsal) surfaces and white on their bellies (ventral surface). Juveniles have black markings on their fins. Mature sharks range from 135 to 175 cm (53 to 68.9 in) TL for males and 150 to 195 cm (59 to 76.8 in) Tl for females. These animals are very long-lived and are estimated to live up to 60 years, although estimates vary with region and aging methods used.

Reproduction:

Their reproduction is aplacental viviparity, which is a type of birth where embryos develop inside eggs that hatch inside the mother’s body. with average litters of 20 to 35 pups, produced in spring or early summer after the gestation period of 12 months. The young vary in length at birth between 26 and 40 cm (10 and 15.7 in) TL, depending on the region.

Habitat:

This species is most abundant in the cold to warm temperate continental seas, from the surf line and very shallow water to well offshore. It occurs in the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Seas, where it is uncommon and Southwest Atlantic where it occurs between Patagonia and southern Brazil. It also occurs around the coast of Namibia and South Africa. It is present in the Northeast Pacific where it occurs between British Columbia and Baja California, and in the Southeast Pacific off Chile and Peru. it also occurs around the southern coasts of Australia, including Tasmania, and New Zealand.

Behavior:

The school shark is a migratory species. Animals tagged in the United Kingdom have been recovered in the Azores, the Canary Islands, and Iceland.

The species feeds mainly on teleost fish, most often on bottom-associated species although pelagic fish are also taken. Cephalopods, mostly squid and octopus, are also important in their diet. Feeding is done both in open water and near the sea base as sardines and squid are pelagic animals, while the remainder is benthic species.

Conservation: 

In Australia there are management measures in fisheries where stock is more depleted including limited entry for the use of gill nets and longlines since 1984, and for all fishing sectors, TAC since 2000.

In Australia, the species was listed as Conservation Dependent in 2009 on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), and there is a species-specific School Shark Rebuilding Strategy and other management measures to reduce catch (DEE 2009, AFMA 2015, Woodhams and Curtotti 2018). These measures in southern Australia include: all live-caught Tope to be released, limited entry for the use of gillnets and longlines, total allowable catch, gear restrictions, and permanent and seasonal closures for nursery and breeding areas (Walker 1999, Walker and Gason 2007, Woodhams and Curtotti 2018). Spatial closures to the Shark Gillnet Sector were implemented in all Victorian coastal waters (within 3 nautical miles of shore) since 1988, and in South Australia implemented since 2003 (Penney et al. 2014). The Commonwealth South-East and South-West Marine Park Networks implemented since 2013 provide refuge for Tope. 

In the El Rincon area of Argentina where gravid females occur, a restriction has been established for the fishing fleet during the months in which these sharks approach the shore.

 In the Northeast Atlantic, European Union vessels are prohibited to land Tope captured on longlines over a large part of its northern European range in International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) waters (ICES 2019). In the United Kingdom, since 2008, it has been prohibited to fish for Tope other than using rod and line (with anglers fishing using rod and line from boats not allowed to land their catch) with bycatch of Tope caught in other commercial gears limited to 45 kilograms per day (ICES 2019). In the Mediterranean Sea, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) in 2012 banned retention and mandated careful release for Tope and 23 other elasmobranch species listed on the Barcelona Convention Annex II.

In the Southwest Atlantic, seasonal no-take areas provide some protection to Tope. Like other large sharks, Tope is protected by regional, national, and provincial legislation in Argentina whereby all sharks larger than 160 cm TL (the largest Tope in Southwest Atlantic is 155 cm TL) must be discarded alive and cannot be landed in any Argentinean port (Undersecretariat of Fisheries, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2009). The Province of Buenos Aires prohibits the landing of Tope in recreational fisheries (Ministry of Agrarian Affairs, Province of Buenos Aires 2007). However, enforcement is difficult and large sharks are still landed.There are some regulations in place for Tope. In 2020, Tope was listed on Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), which obligates Parties to work regionally toward conservation, specifically through the CMS Memorandum of Understanding for Migratory Sharks.

In New Zealand, Tope are managed under the Quota Management System with Individual Transferable Quotas (Finucci et al. 2019). They are also included in recreational bag limits of 20–30 fish per day.

In the northeast Pacific, Tope was designated as Special Concern by COSEWIC in 2007 and was listed under Canada’s Species at Risk Act, Schedule 1 as Special Concern in 2009. Careful mandatory release in Canada since 2011 and 100% observer cover to monitor release has resulted in a very low level of mortality. A management plan for Tope was created by Fisheries and Oceans Canada in 2012, calling for more research on the species’ ecology and biology in Canadian waters, in addition to ongoing improvements to bycatch information.

Further research is required on population size and trends, and catch rates should be monitored.

Tope is used for its meat and fins, and historically for the liver oil.  It is caught globally as target and bycatch in industrial and small-scale demersal and pelagic gillnet and longline fisheries, and to a lesser extent in trawl and hook-and-line fisheries. Tope is often retained for the meat and fins but is discarded or released in some areas, in line with regional management measures. Steep subpopulation and stock reductions of >80% over the past three generation lengths (79 years) have occurred in the Southwest Atlantic, southern Africa, and Australia. In the Northeast Atlantic, the subpopulation is estimated to have undergone a reduction of 76% over the past three generation lengths (79 years). The New Zealand stock is estimated to have undergone a reduction of 30–49% over the past three generation lengths (79 years). In the Northeast Pacific, a dramatic decline in the subpopulation occurred in the early 1940s, with no recovery until 1997–2004 when localized management led to a localized increase in abundance. The consistent steep subpopulation reductions across most of the analyzed subpopulations and stocks together with the lack of movement between the subpopulations are cause for serious concern. Management in Australia, probably aided by the immigration of large mature animals from New Zealand, appears to have stabilized that stock since 2000. The subpopulation in the Northeast Atlantic has been stable in recent years, possibly due to management measures, and there is some recovery in part of the Northeast Pacific. Release of this species is mandatory since 2011 off Canada. Release is mandatory in European Union waters for line-caught Tope. The global population is estimated to have undergone a reduction of 88% with the highest probability of >80% reduction over the last three generations (79 years) due to levels of exploitation, and Tope is assessed as Critically Endangered A2bd.

CITES Appendix II listing adopted at CoP20 in December 2025 coming into effect in 2027.  This means that while the species is not necessarily threatened with immediate extinction, international trade is strictly monitored, controlled, and regulated via permits to ensure their survival.

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Tope Shark Gallery