As we roll from summer into fall, the fishing, regrettably, remains sporadic and most days just not very good. Bluefish are still hard to find, and the striped bass aren’t here in the numbers we need if we’re going to catch them consistently: one day the fishing is good, and then the next day it’s awful. The bay has been pretty much a dead zone, and I remain very concerned as to why that is.

One new trend is a large invasion of dogfish. We have not seen this for a very long time here. They used to come in whenever we got a few days of easterly winds and leave when the wind changed direction. But the wind doesn’t seem to be a factor this year.

Dogfish are small bottom-dwelling sharks that got their name from fishermen who observed that they hunt their prey in large packs the way wild dogs or wolves do — a behavior that is unlike that of most sharks, which are generally solitary hunters.

Dogfish are Squaliformes, one of eight orders of sharks. At their largest, the Atlantic species don’t get to be more than three to four feet long, but they have that classic shark look — sleek and slim, with hydrodynamic dorsal fins.

The dogfish we see here — the smooth dogfish and the spiny dogfish — belong to two different families. The spiny dogfish, unlike virtually all other sharks, are venomous. They have two sharp spikes in front of each dorsal fin that secrete the venom. When the dogfish is threatened, it will curl into a bow and strike with its spikes. Smooth dogfish do not have the telltale spikes on their dorsal fins and are generally smaller.

The venom is mildly toxic to humans; mishandling a spiny dogfish can result in an extremely painful sting. If you catch one and happen to get stung — the majority of stings happen when the fish is being removed from the hook and line or net — clean the wound immediately and encourage bleeding: the venom is not usually the big problem, but these stings can easily become infected. A saltwater bath is also helpful.

When dogfish are in the same area with striped bass and bluefish they are quicker to the bait or jigs, so all you will catch is dogfish even though the fish you are targeting are also right under your boat. We have had a real problem with dogfish in the last two weeks, and trying to avoid them to catch bass and blues has been challenging as they seem to be virtually everywhere in our local waters.

Although there have been campaigns to convince us that we should love this unwanted bycatch, and they are used to make fish and chips in England, dogfish haven’t gained much popularity here in the U.S. My daughter, who goes to school in England, tells me that at fish-and-chips shacks there if you want cod or haddock you have to pay a little more. She gladly pays extra, and so would I.

We still have humpback whales hanging around the harbor, and one juvenile humpback has been camped between Long Point and Wood End light all week. The whales around the Peaked Hill Bar are still there, too, as they have been for going on a month now. They show no sign of wanting to leave. But this is the first year in many that the fin whales have not appeared at Race Point by now.