Spiny dogfish are slow-growing sharks caught commercially as food fish. Their welfare during capture and handling deserves consideration given their vertebrate sentience status.
Spiny dogfish are vertebrate fish with nervous systems capable of nociception and potentially pain experience. As such, their welfare during commercial capture deserves the same consideration as teleost food fish. Trawl capture causes crowding, exhaustion, physical compression, and temperature shock. Longline capture involves prolonged entanglement and often air exposure during line hauling. These stressors cause measurable physiological changes including cortisol elevation and impaired recovery upon release.
Discard welfare is a significant issue in mixed fisheries where dogfish are incidental catch. Air exposure duration during sorting and return to the water determines survival probability — minimizing deck time and returning fish to water promptly improves survival. Reducing bycatch through selective fishing gear improvements addresses both conservation and welfare goals.