NOAA Announces Recovery of Spiny Dogfish Stock

[Administrator]

NOAA's Fisheries Service today announced that it will propose increasing the spiny dogfish quota to 20 million pounds for 2011. The new quota would be a 33 percent increase over the 2010 catch limit of 15 million pounds.

More...

[reelworld]

WTF
People eat those things

[justinguzman]

They should increase the quota to all of them! They tare up my gear. I hate those things.

Justin

[zimo]

Not an ugly protein by any means. Seems like a battered fishery as well.

Commercial useSpiny dogfish are fished for food in Europe, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Chile. The meat is primarily consumed in England, France, the Benelux countries and Germany. The fins and tails are processed into fin needles and are used in less expensive versions of shark fin soup in Chinese cuisine. In England this and other dogfish are sold in fish and chip shops as "rock salmon" or "huss", in France it is sold as "small salmon" (saumonette) and in Belgium and Germany it is sold as "sea eel" (zeepaling and Seeaal, respectively). It is also used as fertilizer, liver oil, and pet food, and, because of its availability and manageable size, as a popular vertebrate dissection specimen, in both high schools and universities.

[edit] Conservation Status & ManagementOnce the most abundant shark species in the world, populations of Squalus acanthias have declined significantly. They are classified in the IUCN Red List of threatened species as Vulnerable globally and Critically Endangered in the Northeast Atlantic, meaning stocks around Europe have decreased by at least 95%. This is a direct result of overfishing to supply northern Europe's taste for Rock Salmon, Saumonette or Zeepaling. Despite these alarming figures, very few management or conservation measures are in place for Squalus acanthias. In EU waters, a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) has been in place since 1999, but until 2007 it only applied to ICES Areas IIa and IV. It was also set well above the actual weight of fish being caught until 2005, rendering it meaningless. Currently (2009), the TAC stands at 316t for ICES Areas IIa & IV, 104t for ICES Area IIIa and 1,002t for ICES Areas I, V - VIII, XII & XIV. In addition, a maximum landing size of 100 cm has been imposed in order to protect the most valuable mature females. The European Commission has stated that the TAC for 2010 will be set at 0t, ending targeted fishing for the species in EU waters. It remains to be seen if populations will be able to recover.[2]

In the recent past the European market for spiny dogfish has increased dramatically, which led to the overfishing and decline of the species. This drastic increase led to the creation and implementation of many fishery management policies placing restrictions on the fishing of spiny dogfish. However, since the species is a late maturing fish, it takes a while to rebuild the population.

In 2010, Greenpeace International has added the spiny dogfish to its seafood red list. "The Greenpeace International seafood red list is a list of fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries."[3]