The fact that there is a commercial DOGFISH!!!!!! fishery at all is as starkly black and white an illustration of the decimation of fishing stocks as I can imagine. I remember reading National Fisherman magazine in the late 70s / early 80s – when they were also the best boating magazine around, bar none – and reading about a handful of fishermen wondering if there might be commercial market for dogfish, because as a trash fish it was starting to dominate the hauls of fish they were targeting. And commercial fishermen responding in disgust to the idea – targeting those slimy foul fish?! That one can now point to dogfish(!!!!) as an overpopulated problem top predator (“those dogfish were eating everything else”) and an important fishery is a stark comment on the problem.

Your fisheries aren’t “under attack” by regulators or legislators. Your fisheries are largely gone – y’all are arguing over how many crumbs to scrape off the floor, after the great overfishing feast of the last several decades has left the larder bare.

Overfishing is a fact, and it has decimated the fisheries. Erring on the side of underfishing – substantial underfishing – is the only acceptable way to manage what tiny remnants are left of those fisheries.

This summer, in New England, there will be a dogfish quota, several years after figures showed that there was a population that could support it. Meanwhile, those dogfish were eating everything else.

Quota for my own targeted species changes every year, but since I am so small time it has little effect on my fishing effort or result. Even so, my little piece of the fish pie is under attack, from my own state rep among others.

25 years ago the Moonies were into giant bluefin tuna off the New England coast, mostly working out of Gloucester. They had an efficient set-up and did well.

More recently it’s been claimed that Moon controls at least 75% of the US wholesale sushi market, but those reports didn’t specify where the fish were caught. As the Moonies are famous for operating multiple levels of shell companies, connecting all the relevant dots would probably take more than a few minutes of web searching, but it might be worthwhile for those attempting to shame politicians into abandoning this particular crime against nature.