The US National Marine Fisheries Service has announced the initiation of a five-year review of the endangered Brazilian guitarfish.
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires the US government to conduct a review of listed species at least once every five years to determine whether a species should be removed from the list (i.e., delisted), reclassified from an endangered species to a threatened species (i.e., downlisted), or reclassified from a threatened species to an endangered species (i.e., uplisted).
According to the NMFS announcement:
“The determination must be based on the best scientific and commercial data available at the time of the review. Therefore, we request relevant information (e.g., biology, threats, and conservation efforts) that has become available since our previous review of the species.”
NMFS last performed a review of the Brazilian guitarfish in 2015. Background information on the species is available on the NMFS website.
