Federal fishing regulators are considering letting commercial fishermen catch more of a species of shark in the coming year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it's considering allowing more harvest of spiny dogfish in the 2021-22 fishing year. Fishermen catch dogfish off the East Coast. The top producing states include Massachusetts and Virginia.
NOAA said the proposed revisions increase catch limits by nearly 10%. That would increase the commercial fishing quota to more than 29 million pounds. That's more dogfish than fishermen usually catch in a year. Fishermen brought more than 18 million pounds of spiny dogfish to docks in 2019.
The last year in which fishermen brought more than 30 million pounds to docks was in 1999. The sharks are used as food. Members of the seafood industry have attempted to increase interest in using dogfish as food in America in recent years.
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