The Division of Marine Fisheries (MarineFisheries) has projected that 58% of the regional spiny dogfish quota would be harvested by Sunday, December 17th. MarineFisheries is therefore taking action to prohibit the possession and landing of spiny dogfish by fishermen effective 0001 hours on Monday, December 18th through April 30, 2007 (the end of the 2006/2007 Period II fishery).

At a November meeting, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Spiny Dogfish Management Board approved a six-million pound quota split for spiny dogfish that assigned 58% of the overall spiny dogfish quota to “northern” states (CT through ME) with the remaining 42% assigned to states from NY south. This translated into roughly an additional 993,000 pounds of spiny dogfish available to commercial fishermen in the “northern states” under a 2,000-lb. trip limit implemented by MarineFisheries on November 10th.

The same 6-million pound quota and regional quota split will be in place for the next fishing year beginning May 1, 2007 with trip limits to be determined by ASMFC early next year.