Conversation with a Dogfish expert

[sailingk8]

Question: The dogfish industry, what are they using the sharks for?



David Shiffman: Mostly meat and fins, but also the cartilage and liver oil to a lesser extent.

Kate Goodson: The fins, cartilage and liver I get, but where would the meat go? Cat food? Human consumption?


Southern Fried Science: Fish and chips, fish sticks, fried fish


Kate Goodson: For US market or UK?


Southern Fried Science: both, though I guess fish n' chips is more of a UK thing. Any highly processed white fish looking food product that is just "fish" and not anything specific is likely dogfish.


Kate Goodson: Thank you very much for this info, it really illustrates how consumer education is vital to saving sharks.

[Wookie]

Dogfish has been the staple of the fish and chips industry ever since the collapse of the cod stocks in the '80's. Better than the alternative, though. We used to catch spiny dogfish and discard them as bycatch when cod fishing. At least they are being totally used.

[sailingk8]

Dogfish fisheries is from Maine to North Carolina and was brought up in the fight to pass the revised US Shark finning Bill. I was curious about this industry and the regulations for this type of shark. Anything relating to shark fisheries I try to explore and I like to share what I learn. Any contributions would be welcome.

[Kiwi303]

Lemonfish here in NZ is the basic fish n chips fish, if you don't ask for a specific type and just order "fish" you get lemonfish, which is the spotted dogfish.

Estuary sharks and coastal sharks are a very common cheap processing fish.

Not the US, but still shark fishing.

[VooDooGasMan]

Interesting, spiny dogfish are eatable, in the summer I can shine a light at night at my house and see hundreds of these guys cruising around. I play with them by spearing bottom fish and put them on stringer for them to come and take them, from a line off the bottom of boat.

or are you using it as bait wookie?

Happy Diving

[JJEH]

Hopefully no one here is eating sharks.

Sharks are contaminated with the life-threatening methyl-mercury, which causes neurological damage.

[Wookie]

Interesting, spiny dogfish are eatable, in the summer I can shine a light at night at my house and see hundreds of these guys cruising around. I play with them by spearing bottom fish and put them on stringer for them to come and take them, from a line off the bottom of boat.

or are you using it as bait wookie?

Happy Diving

As a younger man I fished by long line (swords), gill net, rock hopper trawls, and purse seine. Spiny dogfish was, at that time, considered bycatch and tossed overboard. In 1981 I went off to play Navy, and subsequently the cod stocks collapsed. The Europeans are voracious in their need for a white flaky fish to fry, and spiny dogfish fills the bill.

I personally have no issue with shark fishing if the entire shark is consumed. I am heartily against finning because of the waste that could go to feed the worlds hungry. There was a post about the amount of methyl mercury in sharks. Well, everything you eat has something in it that will kill you eventually. Life is ultimately fatal. I choose to eat a balanced diet, by balanced I mean that I like chicken, beef, pork, and fish equally well. With the chemicals introduced into modern livestock to make them grow fast and load up with fat, I think I'll take my chances with a few heavy metals, thanks.

It is intersting that with the collapse of the cod fishery, the market dried up. In Maine, cod stocks are back to 1981 levels. With a coast that had 100 sardine canneries and 20 cod processing plants, not one exists any more. Herring are still very rare, and used mainly for lobster bait, but cod, cusk, and haddock have returned, but no one fishes for them, and there is no place to land them if you caught them. Fish and chips are now dogfish instead of cod. We see the same thing in the gulf with Shrimp. I was running a dive boat in a shrimping town listening to the fishermen moan and groan about Asian imports, fuel prices, and low catch rates. There were hundreds of boats fishing out of this little town. Key West was the same way. In 2005, after being battered by fuel prices and low catches, 3 hurricanes wiped out a quarter of the shrimp fleet. High fuel prices wiped out another quarter. Now, in 2010, shrimp are plentiful, big, and the price allows the fishery to be sustainable. NMFS finally did something smart and limited the entry into the fishery. With the limited shrimping effort, red snapper are coming back to areas where they haven't been seen in 30 years.

I believe that the ocean has an infinite capacity to heal itself. Whatever man does to screw it up seems to heal in a relatively short (on a lifetime scale) time. The reefs in the Florida Keys are far healthier in 2011 than they have been since I started operating here in 1999. Part of that is due to Marine Protected areas, but more I think is due to reduced sewage runoff from places like houseboat row and the keys themselves, some due to awareness by the stakeholders. I have very little hope for our political future, but the oceans will do just fine in spite of us.

[BVickery]

As a younger man I fished by long line (swords), gill net, rock hopper trawls, and purse seine. Spiny dogfish was, at that time, considered bycatch and tossed overboard. In 1981 I went off to play Navy, and subsequently the cod stocks collapsed. The Europeans are voracious in their need for a white flaky fish to fry, and spiny dogfish fills the bill.

I personally have no issue with shark fishing if the entire shark is consumed. I am heartily against finning because of the waste that could go to feed the worlds hungry. There was a post about the amount of methyl mercury in sharks. Well, everything you eat has something in it that will kill you eventually. Life is ultimately fatal. I choose to eat a balanced diet, by balanced I mean that I like chicken, beef, pork, and fish equally well. With the chemicals introduced into modern livestock to make them grow fast and load up with fat, I think I'll take my chances with a few heavy metals, thanks.

It is intersting that with the collapse of the cod fishery, the market dried up. In Maine, cod stocks are back to 1981 levels. With a coast that had 100 sardine canneries and 20 cod processing plants, not one exists any more. Herring are still very rare, and used mainly for lobster bait, but cod, cusk, and haddock have returned, but no one fishes for them, and there is no place to land them if you caught them. Fish and chips are now dogfish instead of cod. We see the same thing in the gulf with Shrimp. I was running a dive boat in a shrimping town listening to the fishermen moan and groan about Asian imports, fuel prices, and low catch rates. There were hundreds of boats fishing out of this little town. Key West was the same way. In 2005, after being battered by fuel prices and low catches, 3 hurricanes wiped out a quarter of the shrimp fleet. High fuel prices wiped out another quarter. Now, in 2010, shrimp are plentiful, big, and the price allows the fishery to be sustainable. NMFS finally did something smart and limited the entry into the fishery. With the limited shrimping effort, red snapper are coming back to areas where they haven't been seen in 30 years.

I believe that the ocean has an infinite capacity to heal itself. Whatever man does to screw it up seems to heal in a relatively short (on a lifetime scale) time. The reefs in the Florida Keys are far healthier in 2011 than they have been since I started operating here in 1999. Part of that is due to Marine Protected areas, but more I think is due to reduced sewage runoff from places like houseboat row and the keys themselves, some due to awareness by the stakeholders. I have very little hope for our political future, but the oceans will do just fine in spite of us.

I know what your talking about. I used to live up in New England and remember the toll the decline in cod stocks did to the economy. Glouchester just crumbled for a bit. I firsthand saw how conservation can replenish fish stocks with the Striped Bass. I remember when there was a 36" min. size and catch limit. Well, these efforts caused the species to bounce back with gusto. At one point FWS wanted to lower the limits and the fisherman were AGAINST the change to a smaller catch limit.

I am also with Wookie, I am not against shark fishing, but as long as the whole fish is used as well that the harvest is sustainable.