{"id":2424,"date":"2007-10-01T14:32:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-01T18:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=2424"},"modified":"2024-10-24T16:37:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T20:37:17","slug":"dogs-days-estimating-spiny-dogfish-populations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/dogs-days-estimating-spiny-dogfish-populations\/","title":{"rendered":"Dogs Days: Estimating Spiny Dogfish Populations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
Visitors of all sorts enjoy coastal North Carolina’s warmth and surf all year round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The human kind show up in the dog days of summer, when the water is warm and the days are long. But as tourists leave and residents hunker down for a quiet winter, chilly coastal waters start to teem with underwater visitors, cruising south from northern summer hangouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A water temperature that hovers around 47 F in the winter is perfect for spiny dogfish, a small shark that is, on average, two feet long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For 10 years, Roger Rulifson, an East Carolina University (ECU) researcher, has studied spiny dogfish through funds from five N.C. Fishery Resource Grants (FRG). FRG is funded by the N.C. General Assembly and administered by North Carolina Sea Grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the late 1990s, fishermen Chris Hickman and Eddie Newman approached Rulifson to investigate the declining dogfish population, which crashed soon after. And Rulifson has been hooked ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, Rulifson, along with commercial fisherman Dewey Hemilright and ECU graduate student Kelly Register, attempted to estimate the size and composition of the spiny dogfish population that winters off the North Carolina coast. The group also tagged the fish to determine migration patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n