Green Fish Blue Oceans

Green Fish Blue Oceans


D is for Dogfish and Discards

March 02, 2017

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Welcome to Green Fish Blue Oceans, the podcast where stories about seafood are good for you and the oceans.
On today’s episode, D is for Dogfish and Discards, I’ll explain all things dogfish and discards in less than fifteen minutes.
What is dogfish? And should you eat it? Where can you find it? What are discards, why should you care and what can you do?
Stick around I’ve got some ‘splaining to do.
D is for Dogfish
Dogfish, like many seafood species, are called by different names. For instance, a dogfish can be called a spiny dogfish, piked dogfish, rock salmon, and spiky dog! And again, I don’t know why the seafood industry does this! All said, what you really need to know is that a dogfish is a shark.
Here are a few shark stats worth mentioning and then a little backstory about how the dogfish industry came around before I get into the should you eat dogfish and where can you find it.

* There are over 400 shark species in the oceans. Sharks have been around for hundreds of millions of years.
* They are predatory creatures, at the top of the food chain in the oceans and their presence is necessary for the health of the oceans.
* Sharks are slow to grow and have few offspring making them a target for overfishing.
* Sharks get caught in fishing gear and are illegally fished for their fins (which I will discuss later in the year in S is for salmon and shark fins). Shark fisheries are not well managed and without fisheries management, overfishing is also a problem.
* Sadly, many shark species are in decline and many are severely depleted. Specifically Scalloped, hammerheads, blue, and thresher sharks. I added a Shark chart in the show notes to help you with the what, where and why fo shark declines.

And speaking of overfishing, it could be said that overfishing is the biggest threat to the future of seafood populations.
However, all that said, some species of shark, like the dogfish, are healthy and abundant. They’re a good source of protein and provide jobs for fishermen on the West coast of the US and on the North East coast in the US, specifically for those fishermen who once relied on cod for their livelihood.
What happened to the cod industry? And what does that have to do with Dogfish?
Well if you’re a seafood nerd you already know, but if you’re not, then I can sum it up for you with this limerick I concocted while blending a smoothie during research and writing.
There once was a fish named Cod.
Whose life ended
at the tip of a rod.
He gave a good fight,
with all of his might,
but his fate
was a crate
then a plate.
Poor sod.
Cod a once abundant fish helped grow the human population of the Western world according to Mark Kurlansky, the famed commercial fisherman turned journalist and author of the book, Cod.
But after decades of nonstop, ruthless fishing, the once great cod fishery, collapsed in 1992. This devastated fishing communities and their families around the world.
Fast forward to 2017.
Enter the dogfish.
Dogfish were once considered discard fish, which I’ll talk about later in the program. In the late 1990s, dogfish catch levels were low, but by 2010 with good fisheries management, the dogfish species rebounded making dogfish a viable commercial fishing opportunity for ex NE Cod fishermen.
These sharks are caught on a longline, which is a sustainable fishing method, and the entire shark is processed and sent abroad.