November 3, 2014 — In 2013, more large (non-dogfish) sharks were landed by U.S. recreational shark anglers (~4.5 million pounds) than by U.S. commercial shark fishermen (~3 million pounds). This was not the case in 2012.
The United States National Marine Fisheries Service just released the 2013 “fisheries of the United States” report. The extremely detailed report contains lots of important information on both recreational and commercial fisheries in U.S. waters, and I recommend giving it a thorough read. I noticed an interesting detail about the U.S. shark fishery, though. In 2013, more large (non-dogfish) sharks were landed by U.S. recreational shark anglers (~4.5 million pounds) than by U.S. commercial shark fishermen (~3 million pounds). This was not the case in 2012.
In total, U.S. commercial fishermen landed about 21.5 million pounds of sharks in 2013, including 18.5 million pounds of dogfish. The dogfish fishery is by far the largest U.S. shark fishery by weight of landings, by number of individual sharks killed, and by value and there are some important management concerns about this fishery (smoothhound sharks are dogfish). And while dogfish are sharks, too, this means that approximately 3 million pounds of larger non-dogfish sharks were landed by U.S. commercial fishermen in 2013.
Read the full story from Southern Fried Science