|
- "Yes, way too many dogfish."
- "We were seabassing and using a plain diamond jig
no bait and the dogs were still attacking them."
- "I feel the spiny dogfish stock is more than thriving.
They are more of a menace than doing any good. I
fish recreationally and also work as a mate. When you
have to pay for bait(spearing, killies, mackeral, etc) and all
your catching is spiny dogfish it gets annoying and expensive.
I say let the commercial guys have their way with them. Just
my opinion. There are more important species to worry
about such at the BLUEFIN TUNA FISHERY WHICH IS BECOMING NON-EXISTENT
DUE TO OVERFISHING IN OTHER COUNTRIES!!!!!!!!!"
- "I have been fishing recreationally the ocean off
of Long Beach Island for the past 30 years and have gone through
a number of spiny dogfish cycles. However, in the past
several years during the colder water periods the abundance
of spiny dogfish has gotten to the point where they seemed to
be the only species thriving."
- "The dogfish population has pretty much displaced
groundfish populations from the inshore and south channel fishing
grounds that we frequent."
- "The Dogfish overpopulation has curtailed my saltwater
fishing so much that I fresh water fish 90% of the time."
- "I have personally spoken to hundreds of recreational
and commercial fishermen from New England down to North Carolina
about the dogfish issue. The general consensus is that dogfish
numbers have been building and now they often make fishing impossible.
One of the biggest concerns of both groups is the voracious
appetite of the hordes of dogs that travel the coasts, eating
every living thing in their path. Another concern is the
obvious expansion of their range. Even the guys in North Carolina
say they often cant set a net without the dogs swarming it and
eating anything that is captured."
- "Just recently I worked on a charter boat for a
offshore Sea Bass/Tile Fish trip. We were harassed all day by
the Dogfish oNce they found the bait. after they found the bait
we had to leave to find other spots. They are thick as thieves
from the canyon to the upper Delaware Bay. Sorry about the 20
words but I dont think you can explain what I see in under twenty
words."
- "I operate a 6 pack charter boat out of cape may
nj. I fish heavily for striped bass + drum fish . I have been
fishing since january when we made several trips to the wilmington
rocks for seabass. There are times when you can't get thru the
doggies to get to the bass. Case in point , made several deep
drops for tile,where we actually brought up 3 to 4 doggies at
a time from 700ft althe way into 300ft. In the lower delaware
bay, you can not fish any water deeper than 15 ft without getting
covered up."
- "Haven't seen this many dogs in 30 years of fishing.
Pretty much destroyed every offshore fishery during the winter
in the mid-Atlantic region."
- "As a conservation minded organization we see an
increased dogfish fishery as an essencial element to rebuilding
other interrelated stocks of concern."
- "COMMERCIAL GILLNETTER with 40 years experience
I’m catching an AVERAGE DAY ON DOGS IN N.H.3-8 THOUSAND POUNDS,
80 PERCENT FEMALE.
- "I live in San Francisco and fish Cape Cod. I do
a lot of striper and tuna fishing. Now I am doing bass fishing
in the Cape Ponds. I used to back east every 3 weeks for 5 days
during the spring, summer and fall. All Saltwater fishing. The
dogs have helped me become a better gaffer and spine remover."
- "I just spoke via Sat Ph to the Captain on
my boat out of Point Judith, RI on his way in from frustrating
Scup hunt " Shortened trip couldn't get away from Dogs--
worse than ever: 5 out of 7 tows plugged with dogfish".
P.S. Dogs major predator of infamous Winter Flounder.
They're also demolishing the Squid."
- "I feel that the dog fish problem is out of control
and affecting many fisheries. i am sure they are eating many
small sea bass , fluke weakfish, and many other young fish.
they are putting a big burden on many charter and headboat and
also the many small boat operator. i am an avid fishermen
and year after year see this problem getting bigger and out
of control something has to be done and the 3,000 lbs limit
is not in any sense large enough."
- "Basically, the dogfish have overpopulated our waters
for some time now. We as fishermen 'SEE' it everyday on
the water. When our vessel hauls gillnets and they are
inundated with dogfish and nothing else, then there exists a
problem! For those that design these regulations, perhaps
each and everyone one of them with an 'opinion' (and we all
know what is said about 'opinions') should put in an entire
summer on a gillnetter or dragger to see it for themselves!
Or, let them pay charter after charter to catch the enormous
amounts of dogfish. It is absolutely ridiculous!"
- "I have been fishing the Delaware Bay and near shore
for 30 years and have never caught so many Dog fish as I have
in the last 3 years. They are all over the place, and no one
wants them."
- "The extent of the devastation cannot be calculated
since scientist have no idea on how many ling, cunners, cod,
sea bass, scup, haddock, whiting and so on were consumed by
dogfish to help these fish grow into numbers never seen even
by those who fished right after World War II. The Dogfish is
truly an apex predator that can survive the harshest handling
when caught, go for untold periods of time without much food,
travel with ease hundreds of feet vertical in the water column
while being able to swim hundreds of miles within a week or
two, time. Mismanagement is something NMFS is slowly coming
to grips with as far as the spiny dogfish, as they now realize
that some species, no matter its place in the food chain, can
harmfully effect the stock biomass of many food fish and other
marine life."
- "The codfish gear we haul is plugged with dogs and
the occasional cod we catch is stripped to the bone of flesh.
They act just like piranha, only it’s our catch that they’re
eating."
- "Two commercial Giant Tuna chummers who fish out
of Cape Ann have described to me their attempts to get
a baited hook down through the layers of Dogfish to Bluefin
Tuna in the Jeffries Ledge area in the Gulf of Maine. After
seeing nothing but Dogfish on their electronic fish-finder,
they elected to heave anchor and steam five miles away, only
to find that when stopping and tuning in the fish finder again,
the scope was still "black" with Dogfish. They tried
the technique again, steaming "out of the area" at
high speed, only to encounter the same magnitude of the dogfish
menace. Then they gave up and ran for home. One of our
members reported Dogfish in the Vineyard Sound area so aggressive
and voracious that they were hitting trolled artificial plugs!"
- "So many dogfish in VA waters that you can't fish
for anything else. They're eating everything out there."
- "Dogfish make it impossible at times to fish for
sea bass, and other bottom fish."
- "From five fathom to two hundred fathoms I
have had them attack and ruin my fresh caught cod and monk fish
it use to be a time where they would go to the south or offshore
closer to the warmer water now they stay all winter and do nothing
but work against rebuilding the stocks."
- "I am the owner operator of four boats from newbedford
mass to Maine since 1971 never saw so many dogfish. Somthing
has to be done or stocks will never rebuild.
- "I am a recreational fishermen in Delaware I fish
the Delaware Bay and ocean.When fishing the bay or ocean wrecks
for every target fish I catch I catch 20 spiny dogfish.
- "There is not a doubt in any tuna fisherman's mind
that the abundance of dogfish throughout the Northeast has severely
impacted tuna catches over the last decade. If action is not
taken soon to control the hoard of dogfish, the ecosystem in
general and the migratory habits of bluefin tuna in particular
may be permanently altered and, in spite of our rigorous conservation
efforts, the traditional giant tuna fisheries may be destroyed
forever."
- "As recently as 3-4 years ago, using (3) 600ft nets,
I could catch 200-500 lbs of cod close to the beach gillnetting.
Now it is about 5-10 fish daily and about 400-1500 lbs of dogfish."
- "The costs associated with gear destruction to tub
trawls by the dogfish has eliminated the month of December as
a traditional fishing time for me. Our season in my area is
only a 4 month opening to begin with, now reduced by 25%"
- "I've been fishing on the Jersey coast for over
40 years. It has been obvious that the Spiny Dogfish population
has gone up and is so far out of proportion. Likewise
the decrease in other more valuable species is obvious. What
do you think that these doggies eat? Let's send the doggies
to England in a box."
- "I own a commercial fishing boat and have been fishing
for 30 years,the over abundance of dogfish have hurt our ability
to target other fish species not to mention the predation on
those species."
- "I organize several fishing trips
outta barnegat light on a charter boat not
everyone that fish's with me has a computer
could you help me out with a letter
that i can have on the boat and also
fellow fisherman that i know they
can sign , date it, give any info you need
that will help with the dog fish
problem i was out last weekend blackfishing
w/ crabs and we caught them !!!
on crabs no less."
- "I am a commercial fisherman from Chincoteague Virginia.
I have been a fisherman for 35 years, fihing for every species
of fish that travel up and the coast, I am very concerned with
the overpopulation of spiny dogfish. They seem to be eating
everything in the ocean. They are also going places they have
never been caught before.Ex. Chincoteague Bay a very shallow
body of water averaging about six feet is infested with dogs
early in the spring.The Chesapeake Bay is also experencing the
same thing. If there is nothing done to slow the population
growth I would be willing to say there will be a disaster in
the environment."
- "I am a commercial and recreational fisherman
out of point judith RI . I have witnessed the dogfish menace
since 2001 . Poor science has now brought these fish to numbers
beyond the imagination. Last summer mid may through july there
were sightings of dogfish by numerous boats commercial and recreational
. These fish were measured in square miles it was estimated
that from the reports over the radio. These fish stretched from
the beach in narragansett to the mud hole and beyond. Some of
these schools of fish were three miles square do the math. Fish
schools from shore out to 40 miles that is only what was on
the surface. On the party charter boat i work on we caught 500
or more dogfish with a group of forty customers while trying
to catch fluke. These fish would follow the others up it looked
like a bad horror film thousands of these fish were around the
boat for the entire day. We moved away from them and could drift
for 100 ft before they caught on to us. It was awful.when i
was gillnetting for these fish in cape cod they would come on
board and regurgitate baby codfish haddock and small lobsters.
Boy i wonder why the grounfish and lobster populations are down.
These fish are destroying our fisheries like a toothy vacuum
cleaner. This is no longer a problem it is on the verge of catastrophic.
These fish if unchecked could cause an entire collapse of numerous
fisheriesat one time. Please help us . There is a viable commercial
market for these fish letsm utilize the resource and everyone
wins."
- "My understanding is that dogfish breed all year
round and are ready to prey upon most species at birth. They
feed on countless "desirable and endangered species".
They need no protection from humans."
- "Spiny dogfish are a problem. They eat all
the fish fry for species we target daily. This fishery
should be opened to unlimited commercal fishing."
- "Some groundfish industry representatives oppose
Sector management because the existing Sectors have not caught
their codfish quotas. The exploding dogfish population
is outcompeting codfish and disruption spawning aggregations.
It is one of the reasons we have yet to catch our quotas,
and until we manage this population appropriately, the truggling
groundfish industry will suffer."
|
|