Dogfish: Spiny

Dogfish

Spiny dogfish are a small coastal shark inhabiting the temperate continental shelves throughout the world. In North America they are found off both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada and the U.S. Atlantic spiny dogfish have considerably different life histories than the Pacific spiny dogfish. Spiny dogfish are slow to reproduce with ages of 50% female maturity on the Atlantic coast at 12 years and on the Pacific coast, at an unbelievable 35 years. They give live birth to typically 6 pups after a gestation period of 18-24 months. They prey upon a wide variety of fish and invertebrate species. The stock structure of the western Atlantic population is presently under review, but for management purposes they are considered as one coast-wide stock. The Pacific population is thought to comprise of three subpopulations. Very few spiny dogfish make there way into Canadian or U.S. markets. Most are exported to Europe.

Spiny dogfish are among the slowest-growing and longest-lived sharks known, especially in the Pacific, and are therefore inherently vulnerable to fishing.

Stock status in the U.S. Atlantic has been extremely poor since the late 1990s, and is now a critical concern. No formal stock assessment has been conducted for spiny dogfish stocks off the Pacific coast of the U.S. and Canada in federal waters (and the last carried out for the Strait of Georgia/Puget Sound was in 1989), but fishery-dependent and independent data indicates the stock in Puget Sound appears to be in serious decline.

Atlantic spiny dogfish are caught in several different fisheries on the East Coast, including longline, gillnet and trawl fisheries. Bycatch of bottlenose dolphins in the gillnet fisheries is a critical concern. Bycatch is a moderate concern in Pacific fisheries.

Much of the Atlantic spiny dogfish is caught by trawls (high conservation concern) with lesser amounts caught by bottom gillnets and longlines (moderate). In U.S. Pacific waters, spiny dogfish are caught in approximately equal quantities by longline and trawl gears.

Management of the Atlantic spiny dogfish fisheries has a history of state non-compliance and state rejection of scientific advice, leading to overly high fishing pressure and an overfished stock.

In the U.S. Pacific, there has been very little management of spiny dogfish resulting in a strong decline the Puget Sound stock.

Where was the spiny dogfish caught? The only endorsed choice is BC spiny dogfish.

No listing is available from the Environmental Defense Oceans Alive program

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