Tim Walz has a reputation for embracing underdogs. That extends to dogfish.
A 2024 law signed by the Minnesota governor — a hunter and fisherman whose love of the outdoors has become a talking point of his campaign with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris — elevated two dozen of the state’s most underappreciated species to a conservation status once reserved for trophy fish like walleye, pike and muskellunge.
The new status for what are called “rough fish,” species with names like “black buffalo,” “northern hogsucker,” “highfin carpsucker” and, yes, “dogfish,” came in a recent $2 billion omnibus natural resources bill that environmentalists have hailed as a major victory for the state’s aquatic species and a potential regulatory model for other states to follow.
Advocates say the policy reflects the Walz administration’s aim to protect complex ecosystems rather than just individual species.
