A recent update of the menhaden juvenile abundance index conducted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) provides positive news for menhaden recruitment in the Chesapeake Bay and the southern US.
The index levels returned from Virginia were particularly high; the values in the last two years of the survey, 2009 and 2010, were higher than had been seen in the last two decades, leading to an increase in year-old menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay. The survey concluded that the Bay remains “the epicenter of menhaden recruitment,” and that there is a strong correlation between the coastwide index and the indices of the southernmost states in the survey: New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. The findings are to be presented this week at the ASMFC meetings in Boston.