Canada's federal government on Oct. 9 proposed adding the porbeagle shark to its legal list of endangered species, more than 22 years after the country's independent wildlife science committee first concluded the cold-water shark was at risk of disappearing from Canadian waters.

The proposal, announced by Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson and published in the Canada Gazette on Oct. 10, would list the porbeagle as endangered under the Species at Risk Act. It is one piece of a package covering 15 aquatic species and populations, including Atlantic basking sharks, two populations of winter skate, and both Atlantic and North Pacific spiny dogfish.

The decision matters beyond Canada. The porbeagle's Northwest Atlantic population is a shared stock that ranges from Canadian waters into the Gulf of Maine, and U.S. regulators still classify it as overfished. A Canadian listing would not change U.S. fishing rules, but it would tighten how the country holding most of this population handles sharks caught by accident.

A Listing Decision Two Decades in the Making

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, known as COSEWIC, designated the porbeagle endangered in May 2004 and confirmed that status in a May 2014 reassessment, according to the committee's 2014 status report. The report states that the 2004 assessment did not lead to legal protection because of economic losses tied to eliminating the directed fishery.

Those reasons were spelled out in a 2006 federal order declining to list the shark. The government concluded then that listing would end the directed porbeagle fishery, bar the sale of sharks caught incidentally in other fisheries, and cost the fishing industry an estimated $0.8 million to $1.8 million in Canadian dollars over 20 years. Ottawa chose to keep managing the species under the Fisheries Act with lower catch limits.

COSEWIC identifies fishing as the largest threat to porbeagles in the Northwest Atlantic. Its 2014 report says overfishing in the 1960s and again in the 1990s drove two successive population collapses, and that most of the Northwest Atlantic population lives in Canadian waters. The species matures late and produces few young, so recovery is slow even after fishing pressure drops.

Inside the Proposed Order and Its Costs

The regulatory impact statement attached to the proposal tells a very different economic story than the 2006 decision. Canada no longer has a directed commercial porbeagle fishery, and officials now estimate that listing the porbeagle and two winter skate populations would cost Canadian businesses about $11,000 in lost profit over 10 years, or roughly $1,500 a year.

From 2020 through 2022, eight fishing enterprises landed porbeagle, and those landings made up less than 1% of their total landed value, the notice says. Officials expect to authorize incidental catch through existing fishing licenses, but porbeagles caught as bycatch could no longer be kept and sold. Retention in Indigenous food, social and ceremonial fisheries could still be allowed under conditions set in a future recovery strategy.

Once listed, it would become illegal to kill, harm, harass, capture or trade porbeagles without authorization, and the government would have to prepare a recovery strategy and an action plan.

Support has never been unanimous — during 2018 consultations, 122 of 151 respondents backed listing, but fishing industry groups and the provincial governments of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Quebec opposed it. Newfoundland and Labrador reaffirmed its opposition during a 2023 check-in.

Thompson framed the proposal as an invitation for input from coastal communities. "People who live and work on the water see what is changing," she said in the department's announcement.

An Audit That Documented Delays for Fished Species

The porbeagle's long wait fits a pattern federal auditors flagged four years ago. A 2022 audit by Canada's environment commissioner found that the fisheries department's approach "contributed to significant listing delays and decisions not to list species with commercial value."

Of the 12 aquatic species the auditors examined, none of the five with significant commercial value had been listed, a group that included Atlantic cod and Atlantic bluefin tuna, while all seven without significant commercial value had been. The audit found the listing process took an average of 3.6 years and was finished within the required time frame for only five of 44 species.

When the report was tabled in October 2022, Commissioner Jerry V. DeMarco pointed to "a bias against protecting species of commercial value" as one of several problems harming ecosystems and communities.

The audit did not examine the porbeagle specifically — so it does not establish why the shark's case stalled after the 2014 reassessment. The 2006 order, however, documents that projected losses to the fishery drove the original decision. In the new notice, the department wrote that it is "actively working to improve listing timelines."

Shared Waters with New England Fisheries

South of the border, NOAA Fisheries determined in a 2022 Federal Register notice that Northwest Atlantic porbeagle is still overfished because its biomass remains below the agency's threshold. The agency manages the shark under its Atlantic highly migratory species plan and under rebuilding measures agreed through the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.

For U.S. anglers and commercial crews from Maine to Massachusetts, the Canadian proposal creates no new rules. It does mean the jurisdiction holding most of the shared population would be legally required to plan for recovery and to account for sharks taken as bycatch, which affects how quickly the overall stock can rebuild.

The fleets with the most at stake are Atlantic Canadian longline and groundfish operations that still catch porbeagles incidentally. The notice also places the porbeagle within an area covered by the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement, whose wildlife management board did not take a position on listing.

Comment Window Closes in November

The public has 30 days from the Oct. 10 Gazette publication to comment, a window that runs through about Nov. 9, 2026. Comments can be filed through the Canada Gazette's online commenting feature or sent to the Species at Risk Program at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, citing the Gazette and its publication date.

After the comment period, the environment minister will make a final recommendation, and the federal cabinet, acting as the Governor in Council, will decide whether to list the porbeagle, decline to list it or refer it back to COSEWIC. If approved, the order takes effect on the day it is registered. No date has been set for a final decision.

Several questions remain open. Officials have not said when cabinet will act, how bycatch monitoring will be expanded, or how quickly a recovery strategy would follow a listing. Indigenous organizations responding during the 2023 check-ins also raised concerns about the length of the process itself.

The bottom line is that Canada has formally proposed the endangered status scientists recommended in 2004, and the projected economic cost of listing has shrunk to about $1,500 a year. The final call rests with the federal cabinet after the comment period closes in early November.

What Readers Want to Know

What did Canada propose for the porbeagle shark?

Canada proposed adding the porbeagle to Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act as an endangered species. The proposal was announced Oct. 9, 2026, and published in the Canada Gazette on Oct. 10.

Why did protection take more than 22 years?

Scientists assessed the porbeagle as endangered in 2004, but a 2006 federal order declined to list it, citing economic losses to the directed fishery and to fisheries that caught it as bycatch. Scientists reconfirmed the endangered status in 2014.

Would a listing ban fishing in Atlantic Canada?

No. Officials expect to authorize incidental catch through existing fishing licenses, but porbeagles caught as bycatch could no longer be kept or sold. Killing or capturing porbeagles without authorization would become illegal.

Does this affect U.S. fishermen in New England?

The Canadian proposal does not change U.S. rules. NOAA Fisheries separately manages the shared Northwest Atlantic stock, which it determined in 2022 was still overfished.

How can the public comment, and by when?

Comments can be submitted through the Canada Gazette's online commenting tool or to the Species at Risk Program at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The 30-day window runs through about Nov. 9, 2026.

When will a final decision be made?

No date has been announced. After the comment period, the environment minister will make a recommendation, and the federal cabinet will decide whether to list the species.