Tope

description

Soupfin Shark or Tope. To about 2 m (6.5 ft) TL (Miller and Lea 1972). Temperate waters, nearly worldwide; northern British Columbia (Miller and Lea 1972) to Gulf of California (Compagno et al. in Fischer et al. 1995); Ecuador (Béarez 1996) to Chile (Miller and Lea 1972). Coastal pelagic; depth: surf to 826 m (2,709 ft) (min.: Compagno 1984; max.: Thorburn et al. 2019). The common name Soupfin Shark has consistently been used for this shark on the West Coast, but the official AFS – ASIH name (Nelson et al. 2004) is Tope. While we treat Galeorhinus zyopterus Jordan & Gilbert, 1883 as a junior synonym, we note that Chabot and Allen (2009) and Naylor et al. (2012) found evidence from DNA studies that the eastern Pacific Ocean population may merit status as a separate species. If that is the case, G. zyopterus would be resurrected.

Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

discussion

Remarks: Although wide-ranging globally, within the southern African region, this species appears to be mostly confined to South African waters, with only a few records north of the Orange River in Namibian waters. A highly migratory species, it shows strong segregation by sex and size (Compagno et al., 1991).

An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of South Africa

distribution

South African distribution: The Orange River (NC) to East London (EC).

An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of South Africa

materials_examined

South Africa voucher material: SAIAB 2732, SAIAB 6834, SAIAB 6835, SAIAB 6836, SAIAB 6837, SAIAB 11429, SAIAB 11430, SAIAB 11962, SAIAB 11963, SAIAB 12122, SAIAB 12819, SAIAB 12832, SAIAB 12979, SAIAB 25596, SAIAB 27023, SAIAB 39371, SAIAB 41964, SAIAB 41965, SAIAB 44246, SAIAB 46923, SAIAB 99193, SAIAB 99194, SAIAB 99195, SAIAB 99196.

An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of South Africa