After a concerted effort by commercial fishermen to raise the dogfish quota, it was fished out in three months.  The closure comes before the time of peak dogfish abundance in Virginia and North Carolina waters, and well short of the end of the season (the dogfish fishery runs from April-May).  The closure of this fishery is noteworthy for a couple reasons.

Spiny dogfish are a contentious fishery to manage.  The slow growth and late maturity of female dogfish makes it easy to fish out adults of this species before they ever have a chance to reproduce, and this is compounded by the fact that females are the largest individuals and therefore the most valuable to fishermen.  However, the sheer unpopularity of spiny dogfish among fishermen means that the motivation for fishing the species is often not commerce, but pest control.  It’s tough to sell dogfish conservation to commercial fishermen.  The quick closure of the Atlantic spiny dogfish fishery is likely due to one of two possibilities, which lie on the extremes of the debate:

1 – The conservationists are right: the increased quota was too much, too soon and the dogfish population has not recovered to a level that can sustain that much fishing.

2 – The fishermen are right: even the increased quota is too low to allow fishermen to make dogfish fishing worth their while, and the quick closure shows how much managers have underestimated the stock.

Read the complete blog post from Southern Fried Science