tell them what you think

[north coast]

This just arrived today, here's a chance to tell the director how you feel about the dogfish explosion.





NOTICE OF PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD

As specified in 322 CMR 6.35, the Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) may, by declaration, establish and adjust the manner and times of taking spiny dogfish, and the legal size limits, numbers and/or quantities of spiny dogfish to be taken as prescribed by M.G.L. c.130 §17A and specified by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. DMF has established a public comment period on the following proposed measure for the 2007/2008 spiny dogfish fishery beginning May 1, 2007: During a 24-hour day it is unlawful for state-only permitted commercial fishermen to land or possess greater than 2,000-lbs. of spiny dogfish, until 58% of the ASMFC-approved quota has been reached at which point it shall be unlawful for state-only permitted commercial fishermen to land or possess spiny dogfish. ASMFC approved a 6-million lb. quota for 2007/2008, allocating 58% of the quota to states from ME to CT and the remaining 42% to states from NY to NC. Federally-permitted fishermen are restricted under federal regulation to a 600-lb. trip limit.



Written comments may be received by e-mail, (marine.fish@state.ma.us), fax (617.626.1509), or mail (DMF; 251 Causeway St., Suite 400; Boston, MA 02114) and will be accepted until 5PM on Friday, March 9, 2007.

[twofinbluna]

Good call NC, I am glad you posted this. I will definitly be making a comment. Others should too.

[north coast]

for what it's worth , here's what I wrote them .




Good morning,
Let me start by saying ,I'm not a scientist,but I spend a heck of a lot of time on the water.seems to me, what we have on our hands with this dogfish explosion is a catastrophe in the making.
For the last few years, during the warmer months, you can take a boat out and randomly stop anywhere! (up to 35 mi. for me) drop down a piece of bait and almost instantly have it gobbled up by a dogfish.To me ,this is a pretty clear picture of how many are out there.I've seen them finning on the surface for miles at times . I've set hooks in the spring for codfish and brought up nothing but heads.I once took a long cruise from Jefferies down to broad sound,and paying close attention to the fish finder, marked them pretty much the whole way.I could go on ,but you get the picture.Years ago ,they used to disappear in the fall and you didn't see them again untill about late june or early july. now, they don't ever seem to go away.
One has to wonder, what are they eating? the obvious answer (at least to me ) is everything and anything. including the groundfish we're trying to rebuild. I've got to believe that this overabundance isn't helping their species either.I'm sure some of them are starving .there are just way too many of them.
It would seem to me that opening this fishery back up to something reasonable enough to interest people to fish for them, couldn't be a bad thing. I don't fish for dogfish, but I know some of the guys that are hurting from recent groundfish closures could benefit from this. I'm also fairly certain the rest of us(including the dogfish) would benefit from a little "thinning of the herd" if you will. thanks for listening, hope this helps.