Endangered Species Act Status Review for Spiny Angel Shark (Squatina guggenheim)

This status review report was conducted in response to a petition received from WildEarth Guardians on July 8, 2013 to list 81 marine species as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). NMFS evaluated the petition to determine whether the petitioner provided substantial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted, as required by the ESA. In a Federal Register notice on November 19, 2013 (79 FR 69376), NMFS determined that the petition did present substantial scientific and commercial information, or cited such information in other sources, that the petitioned action may be warranted for 19 species and 3 subpopulations of sharks, and thus NMFS initiated a status review of those species. This status review report considers the biology, distribution, and abundance of and threats to a shark species from the Southwestern Atlantic, Squatina guggenheim (spiny angel shark).