3.2. Spiny dogfi sh fi shery e fi sh as export
The spiny dogfish fishery experienced overfishing during the
1980s and 1990s, but has since fully recovered. Although dogfish
fetch a low ex-vessel price at the dock, the fishery has become
increasingly important to fishers facing declining quotas for other
fisheries (e.g., Atlantic cod). This trend is evident in recent industry
investments in certifying the fishery through the Marine Stewardship Council in 2012 (MSC, 2012).
The distribution system of dogfish in the Northeast and MidAtlantic regions is fairly consolidated, with only 77 dealers
handling dogfish in 2013. As landings have decreased over the
2004e2013 period, however, the top 10 dealers in the fishery have
accounted for a diminishing share, from controlling 75% of the
fishery in 2004 to 62% in 2013 (NMFS, 2015a). Much of this product is harvested from the southwestern quadrant of the Gulf of Maine.
Dealers sell dogfi sh to one of three major processing facilities
located in New Bedford, Massachusetts and Portsmouth, New
Hampshire. The majority of fresh and frozen dogfi sh fi llets, until
recently, were exported to markets in Europe with the remaining
portions of the fi sh (gurry) used domestically to make fertilizer or
sold as lobster bait. Thus, with the exception of several smaller
dealers, dogfi sh has been used primarily as an export product to a
singular geographic region (Fig. 2). In this way, the dogfish fishery
parallels the herring fishery in its lack of diversity and associated
susceptibility to shocks or changes to existing markets