Here's the response from Russ Babb at D.E.P. regarding the future regs. on smooth dogfish - or smooth hound sharks as they are officially now calling them:
Brian:
Sorry for delayed response – been digging out after vacation. Let me see if I can confuse you, me or maybe both of us. Quickly, I think what your friend is probably referring to is a bunch of measures for smooth dogfish that just became effective July 1, 2010, federally - outside of three miles. These rules were included in a final rule for Amendment 3 to the Consolidated Atlantic HMS FMP (HMS is Highly Migratory Species group under NOAA) that went into effect July 1, 2010 in the Federal Register.
BUT, and it is a big BUT…many of the smooth dogfish issues don’t become effective until 2012. This change places smooth dogfish under federal management for the first time, beginning, again, in 2012. NMFS HMS is now calling smooth dogfish the “smoothhound sharks”. We manage sharks in species groupings (e.g., large coastal, small coastal, pelagic, etc.). They have always thought that the Florida smoothhound (a dogfish, no surprise, found off of Florida) were possibly a different subpopulation rather than smooth dogfish. They are probably the same exact species though. So, to place them neatly in a species grouping, they have created the “smoothound sharks group” (besides since they were the only two spp in the family). A number of other management measures will come in beginning 2012: they include implementing a commercial quota - something like 700 metric tons, implementing recreational and commercial fishing permit requirements, dealer reporting and requiring that all fins be naturally attached through offloading; however, again, these measures will not be implemented until the beginning of the Atlantic shark fishing season in 2012.
The thing you'd mostly be interested in is that my understanding is that there will be no recreational bag limit (or no commercial trip limit) for smoothhound sharks in federal waters, which means ASMFC, which handles management w/n three miles, will not have bag limits, only a total allowable quota. There will also be no size limit for smoothhound sharks in either fishery. Catching smooth dogfish, err um, I mean, ‘smoothhound sharks’ in federal waters WILL require the fisherman to have an HMS permit - but not in state waters (unless something drastic happens, which is unlikely).
If you haven’t fallen asleep yet and want to know more about this change…..check out the HMS website regarding smooth dogfish, err um, I mean, ‘smoothhound sharks’. Joking aside, their rationale for changing the name is pretty sound. I have to say though that we, and many others, argued against federal management of this species since they had to classify it as an ‘oceanic species’ with the likes of makos, oceanic whitetips, etc. to fall under HMS. I don’t really buy it. We would have preferred that the Mid Atlantic Council managed this spp. This is a far ranging, migratory species to be sure, but certainly it is closer to a near coastal shark than an oceanic species and really encountered in state waters – oceanic whitetips and makos aren’t spawning inshore and using our nurseries for their young, right? - but I suppose that cat is out of the bag.
Sorry for the long response, but nothing with sharks is ever clear enough to summarize in three sentences. This will teach you to ask me questions.
Take care, Russ
Russell M. Babb, Jr., Supervising Biologist
NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife
Delaware Bay Office
1672 E. Buckshutem Rd.
Millville, NJ 08332
P: (856) 785-0730 / F: (856) 785-0853
Visit our Division Website at
http://www.njfishandwildlife.com 
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