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Some call them spiny dogfish, fishermen call them 'plague,' and they're headed for southern New Jersey
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WILDWOOD - Commercial fisherman Marty Buzas calls them the perfect predator. They may be small for a shark, the largest ones coming in at about 15 pounds, but they're brazen enough to steal fish right out of his nets.
"They're an eating machine. You name it and they eat it. The only real predator of a spiny dogfish is an octopus, and the ocean isn't exactly teeming with octopus," said Buzas.
That's one reason Buzas has chosen his side on a debate raging about the spiny dogfish shark. When he dresses them out, he finds their stomachs full of fish that are more valuable, including mackerel, squid, butterfish and weakfish.
Fishermen in New England have been complaining about a rise in populations of spiny dogfish this summer, putting a dent in the stocks of fish that are more marketable, such as cod. Some have pulled up lines of hooks and found a spiny dogfish on almost every one. Or, they find a half-eaten fish on the hook decimated by a spiny dogfish.
"It's a plague of locusts is what it is. I don't care if I make a penny on dogfish, we just need to kill them," Massachusetts fisherman Peter Taylor said.
This so-called "plague" is due to arrive in southern New Jersey waters in a matter of weeks. Buzas notes that spiny dogfish like water between 45 and 55 degrees and usually appear around Thanksgiving.
Buzas, who operates the 43-foot net boat Captain Frank, has another reason to support a higher catch limit on spiny dogfish: There really isn't much else for him to harvest in the winter when bluefish, weakfish, croakers, bunkers and other species go south.
They take a lot of work, since they have to be dressed immediately, and they only bring 20 cents to 22 cents per pound, but it's enough to pay the bills. They're also easy to catch.
"As soon as the water gets cold, everything is infested with them," Buzas said. "There are so many of them they're destroying the whole ocean."
While the East Coast quota was just tripled, from 4 million pounds per year from 2000 to 2008 to 12 million pounds this year, fishermen want it raised even more. The 12 million pounds is a small portion of the peak year in 1996 when 51 million pounds were brought in, leading to a population crash that slashed catches beginning in 1998.
But the spiny dogs have returned in huge numbers. The 12 million pound quota is estimated to be only about 1 percent of 479,000 metric tons swimming off the East Coast. Buzas would like to see the limit of 3,000 pounds per day per fisherman increased to 5,000 pounds.
Resistance is coming from shark conservationists and the federal government. The main problem seems to be a gender imbalance. The market wants larger spiny dogfish, and these are females, which also tend to congregate closer to shore where fishermen can get them. Males now outnumber the females 4-1. The ratio should be more like 2-1. The concern is that more fishing could increase that ratio even more.
"There are a lot of dogfish. The problem isn't how many there, are but that balance of males to females. Nobody's figured a way to fish them by gender," said Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
A second problem is a low number of juveniles due to a shortage of females. Frady noted that female sharks take years to reach sexual maturity and then go though a long gestation period, about 22 months, before birthing on average about six pups.
"They don't send out millions of eggs," Frady said.
Sonja Fordham, a shark specialist with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said spiny dogfish are a scapegoat. She said in New England they are known to eat the predators of the valuable codfish, including cone jellies and silver hake. She blamed fishermen for putting the population "structurally out of whack." She noted that in recent years when the quota was 4 million pounds per year, fishermen were bringing in 8 million pounds.
"There are very few large females left, and we have 10 years of record lows of pups coming into the population. In the early 1990s, I was the one to suggest a fishery for males only, and the fishermen said that was impossible," Fordham said.
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council is looking into a male-only harvest, though Fordham argues that at this point "it's too late."
Paul Rago, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the dominance of males, known as whips, is the major problem.
"They're half the weight at the same length, so they're labor-intensive. They're as much work for half the product. The economics are just not there," Rago said.
Buzas said he sees packs of spiny dogs from the beach all the way out to the Continental Shelf. He claims Fordham underestimates the number of pups females produce once they reach sexual maturity.
"The female, once she starts to pup, has one in the chamber at all times. Once she starts dropping pups, it just keeps cycling," Buzas said.
Barnegat Light net fisherman Kevin Wark blames the spiny dogfish, including its warm-water cousin called the smooth dogfish, for knocking down stocks of more marketable species such as weakfish.
"Dogfish are destroying recruitment in so many fisheries. They know striped bass and dogfish are part of the weakfish problem. We see great spawns (of weakfish) and no returns," Wark said.
One problem with catching more dogfish is that the market diminished when the quota declined. The meat goes to England for fish and chips and the Germans prize the smoked belly flaps, which sell at beer gardens as "shillerlocken." The hides are used for leather products, while liver oil and cartilage go into supplements.
"The only thing not used is the guts and a small portion of the head," said Buzas.
But the overseas markets dried up after 1998 when the species was overfished. Spiny dogfish also were overharvested in Europe and now are being considered for a CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) listing there. Such a listing could kill the trade in spiny dogfish - or make it flourish. Opinions vary.
The most serious listing would shut down trade, as happened recently with bluefin tuna. Spiny dogs are proposed for a less serious listing that simply puts in safeguards.
Fordham said if U.S. fishermen prove they are taking the sharks in a sustainable manner, it could actually boost their market in Europe. Argentina, which sells the sharks but has no management plan for the harvest, could lose its market. She noted that the U.S. has a management plan.
"It could potentially create a competitive advantage for us," Fordham said.
If a male-only fishery were developed, there would be plenty of stock. Rago said maybe a male dogfish market could be developed for use as animal feed or a protein product. Rago is not too worried about spiny dogs taking over the ecosystem.
"They are slow-growing and eat half of 1 percent of their body weight a day. Striped bass and cod are three to four times higher than that," Rago said.
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Fishermen unite
The spiny dogfish debate has had the rare effect of bringing commercial and recreational fishermen together.
The two groups usually fight over fish stocks, but they joined forces in May to form Fishermen Organized for Responsible Dogfish Management.
The organization, which says it represents $10 billion in economic fishing activity from South Carolina to Maine, has written NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco asking for help reducing spiny dogfish stocks.
The group said spiny dogfish may be undercounted and the real population could be 2 million metric tons that are eating so many fish that commercial, party and charter boats and recreational fishermen must suffer stricter quotas.
"We have no doubt that the billion or more pounds of spiny dogfish infesting our waters are collectively costing us hundreds of millions of dollars," states the letter to Lubchenco.
It was signed by commercial fishing groups, recreational fishing associations, dock owners, fish wholesalers and retailers, gear and tackle manufacturers, and fishing boat captains.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Richard Degener:
609-463-6711
Posted in Ocean, Cape_may, Atlantic, Top_three on Sunday, October 18, 2009 11:35 pm Updated: 6:11 am.
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