Fishermen consider the small shark, renowned for its stunning appetite, the vermin of the ocean. They say the once-threatened dogfish has rebounded under federal protections to an insatiable mass that’s devouring more valuable and scarce fish that regulators are trying to restore, such as cod, while it destroys nets, steals bait and eats catch right off their hooks.
Fishermen want to catch more of the ornery, schooling predator to dent its population and make more money off it, but rules forbid that. Federal regulators say though fishermen see dogfish everywhere, "they’re not seeing the whole picture," said Maggie Mooney-Seus, a National Marine Fisheries Service spokeswoman.
Still, the dogfish dispute has prompted regulators to do a fresh assessment of the stock and how it’s measured, beginning in January. Paul Rago, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist, said he was confident dogfish have been well managed but admits anxiety amid the questions.
"It’s always a concern to me that if we’re off on some assumption, we’ve missed something, you know, it has immediate outcomes," he said. "It’s fine for us to say, ‘Whoops.’ But for the guy that’s at the end of that thing, it’s not acceptable."
In the late 1990s, the dogfish population fell to critically low levels as fishermen targeted females. Regulators say the stock is now stronger and more abundant near shore, where fishermen see them, but remains vulnerable. Scientists project declines in coming years because males outnumber the slow-maturing, unproductive females.