page_title: Porbeagle
section_title: Conservation
hierarchical_section_title: Porbeagle / Human interactions / Conservation
caption_attribution_description: English: Plate 249. The Basking Shark, or Bone Shark. Cetorhinus maximus (L.), Blainville. The Mackerel Shark. Lamna cornubica, (Gmel.) Fleming.
context_page_description: The porbeagle is a species of mackerel shark in the family Lamnidae, distributed widely in the cold and temperate marine waters of the North Atlantic and Southern Hemisphere. In the North Pacific, its ecological equivalent is the closely related salmon shark. The porbeagle typically reaches 2.5 m in length and a weight of 135 kg; North Atlantic sharks grow larger than Southern Hemisphere sharks and differ in coloration and aspects of life history. Gray above and white below, the porbeagle has a very stout midsection that tapers towards the long, pointed snout and the narrow base of the tail. It has large pectoral and first dorsal fins, tiny pelvic, second dorsal, and anal fins, and a crescent-shaped caudal fin. The most distinctive features of this species are its three-cusped teeth, the white blotch at the aft base of its first dorsal fin, and the two pairs of lateral keels on its tail.
  The porbeagle is an opportunistic hunter that preys mainly on bony fishes and cephalopods throughout the water column, including the bottom.
context_section_description: The rapid collapse of porbeagle stocks on both sides of the North Atlantic is often cited as archetypal of the "boom and bust" pattern of most shark fisheries. Factors including a small litter size, long maturation time, and the capture of multiple age classes all contribute to this shark's susceptibility to overfishing. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the porbeagle globally as vulnerable, endangered in the western North Atlantic (including the Baltic), and critically endangered in the eastern North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea.
  The porbeagle is listed on Annex 1 (Highly Migratory Species) of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea  and on Annex 1 of the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS; also known as the Bonn Convention) Migratory Shark Memorandum of Understanding. This species benefits from bans on shark finning instituted by several nations and supranational entities, including Canada, the United States, Brazil, Australia, the European Union, and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. Although the Animals Committee of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora  (CITES) recommended additional conservation actions for the porbeagle, CITES rejected proposals to list the species in 2008 and again in 2010. In March 2013, the porbeagle was listed on Appendix II of CITES, allowing for increased regulation in the international trade of this species.
  In March 2015, The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) responded to a court order to compile information as to whether the shark will be listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
caption: Historical illustration of a basking shark and a porbeagle (under the obsolete name Lamna cornubica), both commercially important species
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