Shark Stewards Voices of Extinction Campaign
December 17, 2025
Hey there! I’m Sammy, a soupfin shark—though you might know me as a tope shark or school shark. My scientific name is Galeorhinus galeus, but I prefer Sammy! I’m here to tell you my story because my family and I desperately need your help.
I’m a sleek, slender shark with a long, pointed snout and big almond-shaped eyes. I can grow up to six feet long, and I’m quite the traveler! I have distinctive features that make me easy to spot: my second dorsal fin sits right above my anal fin, and my tail has a cool notched look that makes it appear doubled. My back is grayish-blue, and my belly is white—perfect camouflage when I’m hunting for fish, squid, and other tasty treats in the ocean.
We soupfin sharks are found in temperate waters all around the world. Here in California, where I live, the waters are perfect for us. Female soupfins like my mom love Southern California’s warm, shallow bays—especially places like La Jolla Shores and San Francisco Bay, which serve as nurseries for our babies. Male soupfins prefer cooler waters and usually hang out from Northern California all the way up to British Columbia, Canada. We all meet up in Central California to mate.
We’re social creatures who love swimming in schools with our friends and family. We can travel up to 35 miles in a single day! Some of us have even been tracked swimming over 1,200 miles along the coast. Female soupfins like my mom have an amazing three-year cycle—they return to the same warm waters every three years to help their babies grow inside them for about 12 months before giving birth to 20 to 52 pups at a time.
The Dark History: When We Nearly Disappeared
Let me tell you about the scariest time in my family’s history—the 1930s and 1940s. That’s when humans discovered that our livers were packed with vitamin A, more than any other fish in the Pacific Ocean. During World War II, when vitamin A imports were cut off, we became incredibly valuable.
In 1937, fishermen could sell soupfin sharks for $40 to $60 per ton. By 1941, the price had skyrocketed to $2,000 per ton—and shark livers were worth up to $13 per pound! Can you imagine? By 1939, about 600 boats were hunting us along the California coast using any method they could.
The numbers are horrifying. Between 1936 and 1944, over 24 million pounds of soupfin sharks were landed in California alone. In British Columbia, the fishery peaked in 1944. More than 10,000 tons of my relatives were killed over just seven years, decimating important nursery areas in San Francisco Bay and Tomales Bay.
Fishermen took only our livers and often dumped our bodies back into the ocean. As one fisherman remembered, “It took about two or two-and-a-half years, but we cleaned them all out.” By 1944, the fishery collapsed because there were hardly any of us left. When synthetic vitamin A was developed, the fishing pressure finally decreased, but the damage was done. My population has never fully recovered—even today, nearly 80 years later.
Fighting for Survival
You might think the worst is over, but we’re still in serious danger. Here are the threats we face today:
Shark Fin Trade: Our fins are highly prized for shark fin soup, considered a luxury dish in some Asian cultures. Research by scientists including Chapman and colleagues found soupfin shark fins present in Hong Kong’s shark fin markets—one of the world’s largest trading hubs where over 70% of the sharks are vulnerable or endangered species. Our fins are shipped thousands of miles away, even though many of us are killed just for this one body part.
Bycatch in California’s Drift Gillnet Fishery: These massive nets—up to 100 feet deep and a mile long—hang like walls in the ocean, catching and killing everything in their path. California is the only state on the U.S. West Coast that still allows this destructive fishing practice. Between 2006 and 2016, the drift gillnet fishery accidentally killed about 26,000 sharks, along with dolphins, sea turtles, and whales. Many of us soupfins get tangled in these nets when we’re just trying to swim through our coastal habitats. About 60% of everything caught in these nets is thrown away as unwanted bycatch.
Recreational Fishing: We’re also caught by sport fishermen along the California coast and in San Francisco Bay, often in our critical nursery areas.
Gillnets in Mexico: Scientists tracking us found that at least 15% of tagged soupfin sharks were caught by artisanal gillnet fishers in Mexico, where females travel along Baja California’s coast.
Our Conservation Status: Critically Endangered
The news is grim. In 2020, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) elevated us to Critically Endangered status globally—that means we’re facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. Scientists estimate our global population has declined by 88% over the last three generations (about 79 years). We’re one of the most threatened shark species on Earth.
In 2024, soupfin sharks were listed as Threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), which provides us with critical federal protections including required recovery plans and restrictions on activities that could harm us or our habitat. NOAA Fisheries initiated a status review in 2022 in response to a petition, and we became a candidate species during that review.
We’re also listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which means international trade in soupfin sharks must be carefully controlled and monitored to prevent us from going extinct.
Time is Running Out
But here’s the really scary part: these protections are now under threat. Proposals to weaken the Endangered Species Act could remove the very safeguards that give us a chance at survival. These changes could reduce habitat protections, make it easier to accidentally kill us, and slow down recovery actions—just when we need help the most.
My species has already survived one brush with extinction during World War II. We can’t survive another one.
How YOU Can Help Save Me and My Family!
Kids, this is where you come in, and your voices are SUPER important!
Action 1: Color and Mail to Secretary Burgum (by December 21)
Download the Sammy the Soupfin Shark coloring page from Shark Stewards and color me in! Make me as beautiful and colorful as you want. Then write a short message on your drawing like:
“Dear Secretary Burgum, Please protect Sammy the Soupfin Shark and keep the Endangered Species Act strong! Sharks need our help! From, [Your Name]”
Mail your colored drawing to: Secretary Doug Burgum U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street NWWashington, DC 20240
Deadline: December 21, 2024
Your colorful drawings will show Secretary Burgum that kids care about protecting endangered species like me!
Action 2: Send an Email (by December 22)
Ask your parents or teachers to help you send an email supporting shark protections. Visit the Shark Stewards Voices of Extinction Campaign page at:
You can send comments to both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) asking them to keep the Endangered Species Act strong and protect sharks like me.
Deadline: December 22, 2024
My Final Plea
I’ve swum thousands of miles through the Pacific Ocean. I’ve seen my friends caught in nets. I’ve watched my nursery grounds shrink. I’ve survived when so many of my family members didn’t.
But I can’t do this alone. We soupfin sharks need the Endangered Species Act to survive. We need Marine Protected Areas. We need an end to destructive drift gillnets. We need people to say NO to shark fin soup. And we need the international community to enforce CITES protections.
Most of all, we need YOUR voice. Kids have powerful voices that adults listen to. When you send your drawings and emails, you’re telling decision-makers that my life matters, that ocean health matters, and that future generations deserve to see sharks like me swimming free in the ocean.
Please don’t let me become just another voice of extinction. Help me, help my family, help all the endangered species that depend on strong environmental protections.
Together, we can make sure that soupfin sharks aren’t just a memory, but a living, thriving part of California’s beautiful ocean ecosystem for generations to come.
Thank you for being my voice!
Love,
Sammy the Soupfin Shark 🦈
Learn more and take action at: https://sharkstewards.org
Remember: December 21 for Secretary Burgum drawings and December 22 for USFWS/NMFS emails!