The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 7: June 1996
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Spiny dogfish landings crash in
British Columbia
After 35 uninterrupted years of recording commercial spiny dogfish
Squalus acanthias landings in British Columbia, the Canadian
Department of Fisheries and Oceans did not report any commercial
landings in 1994. This followed a 58% decline in reported catches
from 1990 to 1993. Landings in Washington and Oregon have
increased greatly since the end of the 1980s (when salmon stocks
collapsed and local fishing efforts were retargeted) and the small
Californian fishery is stable. Nevertheless, there has been an overall
declining trend in total Pacific Northwest landings of this species
since 1990. If catch trends observed in other areas are followed, a
rapid decline in total spiny dogfish catches from Pacific North
American waters may be anticipated in the near future.
Sid Cook, Shark Specialist Group vice chair, Northeast Pacific
region.
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