January 20, 2015 — Now a draft of a new benchmark assessment that incorporates more comprehensive data from coastal states stretching back to the 1950s, as well as alternative model scenarios, appears to indicate menhaden might not be in such bad shape after all.
Environmentalists and commercial fishermen have clashed for years over Atlantic menhaden and whether there are still plenty of the little fish left in the sea.
The science seems to have backed the environmentalists, culminating in a 2012 interim stock assessment that so alarmed the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission that it imposed the first-ever 20 percent reduction in coast-wide commercial catch, including in the Chesapeake Bay.
Now a draft of a new benchmark assessment that incorporates more comprehensive data from coastal states stretching back to the 1950s, as well as alternative model scenarios, appears to indicate menhaden might not be in such bad shape after all.
"Based on the current adopted benchmarks," the draft states, "the Atlantic menhaden stock status is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring."
The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition said the findings confirm what they've been saying all along.