Dogfish Days at the ASMFC

A couple posts ago I recapped fishery management measures that have gone into place for spiny and smooth dogfish.  Those measures covered dogfish fisheries in federal waters, which are defined as waters between 3 and 100 miles off the coast.  Waters within 3 miles are…

Perfect Little Killing Machines: an Introduction to the Series

Spiny dogfish have had a long history of interactions with humans.  These sharks, once reviled as pests, became valued food fish (particularly in Europe), were declared overfished, rebounded much more quickly than expected, and are now targeted by a certified sustainable fishery on the U.S….

EU Considers Ban on Dogfish

Last week the European Union considered a petition to ban on all products made from spiny dogfish.  The petition, put forward by the representative from Germany, would have banned trade of all spiny dogfish products, and barring that called for changing the names of some…

Enjoying Seafood While Knowing Too Much

I freely admit that I enjoy seafood.  I grew up in New England, where the American seafood industry was practically invented, and now live in North Carolina, where the confluence of cold and warm water at Cape Hatteras makes for some of the richest fishing…

The Case Against Dolphin-Safe Tuna

Here’s another shining example of a post I should have had up a week ago before life intervened.  Last week the World Trade Organization ruled that the dolphin-safe label on canned tuna unfairly discriminates against Mexican fishermen.  The debate could result in trade sanctions against…

Dogfish and Seals Taking a Bite out of Fisheries?

It should be no secret to readers of this blog or anyone familiar with fisheries at all that spiny dogfish have a pretty rotten reputation among commercial fishermen.  Quickly approaching the notoriety of dogfish are those damn dirty sea mammals, the harbor seals.  Both animals…

Atlantic Spiny Dogfish Fishery Closed

Chalk this up as yet another example of me missing the boat on something I should really be posting.  Earlier, I posted on the recent dramatic increase in the spiny dogfish quota, then the closure of the fishery in North Carolina a mere three months…

Interesting Times at NOAA

I live!  Thanksgiving break lead into one of the busiest academic times I’ve ever had.  When I was working on my Master’s, I used to think PhD Comics were hyperbole, that there was no way it could be that bad.  Now that I’m actually in…

Trawling is Not Plowing

This probably should have gone under the annual Southern Fried Science Week of Ocean Pseudoscience, but last week kept me busy enough to effectively prevent me from doing any writing here.  For some reason, I’ve been hearing from multiple fishermen, people who have worked with…

Harpoon Fishing is Totally Badass

Bycatch is a huge problem in commercial fishing operations.  The need to make trips out on the water worth the expenses of gas, gear, and work-hours means that often commercial gear is designed to capture as many fish as possible in the shortest amount of…