The SSACN Sunnart Spurdog Tagathon took place on the 15^th and 16^th of November.

The main aims of the weekend were to tag as many spurdog as possible from the shore and boat and to raise the public awareness of the urgent need for sharks, ray and skate protection in Scottish waters.

The final results will be posted as soon as they have been collated.

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In the meantime a bit of background for those not aware of SSACN’s project and the plight of the Spurdog. Spurdog (Spiny Dogfish) are :

• exceptionally slow-growing and vulnerable to overfishing
• heavily exploited primarily for European demand for meat
• considered Critically Endangered in the Northeast Atlantic by the IUCN
• inadequately protected and in danger of collapse from overfishing in Europe
• in urgent need of stronger conservation measures

Evidence from many anglers suggests that the Lochs Sunnart and Etive and surrounding waters have a unique resident population and that the spurdog pup in the region.

We believe the Scottish Government could provide real leadership by setting aside this area to provide a springboard for the regeneration of the Species.

However, the Scottish Marine Directorate has stated they need scientific data before they are willing to take any action, such as declaring the area a Nursery area.

This would also protect the local Common Skate populations

The only way to gather the evidence is by tagging, which will be carried out in two phases :

1. Our members are already tagging the fish with standard plastic darts and this information will be collated by the UK shark tagging programme. See http://www.ukshark.co.uk
2. The Scottish Government’s marine scientists at the Fisheries Research Services (FRS) will administer an enhanced programme using satellite tags providing we can raise the necessary £25,000 to pay for tags and satellite time.

Thanks to Sea Life, SSACN have notice boards highlighting the Spurdog Tagging programme in 12 of their centres (many thousands of people will see these every week) with collection boxes helping to raise money.