The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission met in Annapolis on Tuesday to hear input concerning phase one of its possible implementation plan regarding menhaden, the most important fish in the sea.
What is a menhaden? Also known as bunker and alewives, the menhaden is a food fish that also serves as a filter feeder that helps clean the water it lives in. It is rich in oil and nutrients that keep predator fish healthy.
It is, in fact, the mainstay of rockfish, bluefish, sea trout and other species. Without this prey species, target fish lose their health, catch diseases such as pfisteria and micobacteriosis and remain skinny.
Once abundant, the menhaden now is at an all-time low of 8 percent of their capacity. Yet, the ASMFC maintains that the species is not overfished.
The reduction industry is the scourge of the fish. Located in Reedville, Va., Omega Protein is one of two places on the East Coast that kills the vast majority (80 percent) of fish.
Here is how they do it: A mother ship goes out to sea, keeping in touch with spotter planes equipped with heat sensors that detect large schools of menhaden. These planes relay the information back to the mother ship, which then sends out two smaller vessels deploying purse seines, effectively surrounding the entire school. The two vessels come together, joining back at the mother ship, where the fish are sucked into a huge vacuum onto the hold of the ship. The fish are then iced down and put into the hold until the ship docks.
Later, they are converted into cat food, dog food and Omega Protein capsules and sold in local drug stores.
The bottom line is that one industry is allowed to kill a valuable resource for monetary gain. Is it financially feasible for them to do this? Only because they are subsidized by NOAA, which has funded them for years. What is NOAA? It the federal group that is "the watchdog beyond the EEZ." Simply put, NOAA is a federal agency responsible for maintaining a safe balance of marine species beyond the three-mile zone near the coast.
Read the full article at the Cecil Whig.
Analysis: The article gets several facts wrong about the menhaden fishery and the ecological role of menhaden. While it is correct in noting that menhaden are not considered by the ASMFC to be overfished, it is misleading when it claims that menhaden are at 8 percent of their historical abundance. Currently, menhaden are fished to 8% of their Maximum Spawning Potential (MSP), which is not a historical number, but rather a population estimate of a theoretical unfished population. An 8% MSP is not a sign of an overfished population; menhaden have rarely exceeded 10% MSP in the past few decades, and the population hasin the past been able to rebuild itself at that level.
The article's claim that a low menhaden population is responsible for mycobacteriosis in sea bass is not unanimously supported. Sea bass diets are variable and depend on factors unrelated to the menhaden fishery, such as the availability of other prey species. A recent survey has found that menhaden can make up as little as 9.6% of sea bass diets.
Similarly, the cause of mycobacteriosis in bass is less likely due to diet and more likely due to environmental factors, such as the "thermal niche/oxygen squeeze" theory. Currently, large amounts of run-off in the Bay have created areas with low levels of oxygen, called hypoxia, in cold waters that bass traditionally inhabit. Because the waters that they are most suited to are uninhabitable, bass spend more time in warmer, shallower waters. The temperature of these waters are too high for the bass to feed properly, leading to a variety of health problems, including susceptibility to mycobacteriosis.