DOVER, Del. (AP) - The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council has revised harvest rules for the spiny dogfish that had been recommended for the 2016 fishing year.
At a meeting last week, the council approved a revised acceptable catch limit of about 52 million pounds, and a commercial quota of 40 million pounds.
Officials say the revised commercial quota is about 60 percent higher to than the originally recommended for 2016 quota.
The council had recommended substantial reductions in spiny dogfish catch limits for 2016, including a 50 percent cut in the commercial quota, in response to findings that the stock biomass had decreased markedly.
But the council expressed concern about data used for the initial recommendations.
