September 18, 2012 — The following is an excerpt from the Daily Press:
Atlantic menhaden continue to be overfished, but a new draft management plan is wide open on whether a quota, harvest reductions, real-time catch reports or something else might be the best way to boost the population of what's often called the most important fish in the sea.
The Atlantic States Marines Fisheries Commission released Draft Amendment 2 of its long-anticipated menhaden fishery management plan Friday, offering a "suite of options" to manage and monitor the stock and opening the door to public comment.
"The document essentially asks the public, 'How would you like the Atlantic menhaden fishery to look in the future?'" said Michael Waine, fishery management plan coordinator. "How would you like us to manage it?'"
Menhaden are too bony and oily to make good eating, but highly valued by the commercial fishing industry, which harvests them by the metric ton to make vitamin tablets, animal feed and fertilizer. The only menhaden processing plant on the Atlantic, Omega Protein, is located at Reedville on the Northern Neck. Menhaden are also a vital food source for other fish and waterfowl.
Read the full story in the Daily Press
Analysis: A recent story in the Daily Press, a publication based in Newport News, Virginia outlines the menhaden management process and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Draft Amendment II, which was recently released for public comment. The article, “New draft plan to manage menhaden”, offers explanation of the current status of the menhaden population, but it also misrepresents several key facts about the menhaden fishery.
The author states, “Menhaden were overfished commercially for most years between 1954 and 2008.” This is an oft-repeated but misleading statement derived from an equally misleading observation recently promulgated in an online petition by the Pew Environment Group. In the petition, Pew stated for dramatic effect, “overfishing has occurred in 32 of the last 54 years," but failed to mention that 30 of those 32 instances occurred between 1954-1993. This statement ignores the fact that overfishing of Atlantic menhaden has decreased substantially in recent years. In fact, overfishing has only occurred twice in the last 15 years for which data is available, most recently in 2008 by 0.4 percent. Because menhaden is a comparatively short-lived species (living from 10-12 years), and the average menhaden produces a high number of eggs during its lifetime, the most recently available data is much more relevant in determining the health of the species than older, dated studies.
The article also claims that “the fishery is at roughly 8 percent of its normal population.” This assertion refers to a value called the reference point, a figure that, if exceeded, indicates that overfishing has occurred within a population. For menhaden, the reference point is currently set at 8 percent Maximum Spawning Potential (MSP). However, MSP is an estimate of the reproductive capability of a theoretically unfished population, and represents neither a historical nor a “normal” population, as the article states.
The article also fails to note that, historically, MSP levels appear to be poorly correlated with menhaden recruitment (the number of menhaden that survive to join the migratory population). The Daily Press criticizes the current reference point of 8 percent as producing an all-time historic low of menhaden, but that figure is actually higher than historic averages for MSP. Since the 1950s, the reference point has averaged approximately 6 percent MSP. In the same period, menhaden recruitment fluctuated dramatically, rising to a high in the late 1970s when the reference point equaled only 2 percent MSP, indicating that the MSP was not a predictor of how healthy the population would be.
The article quotes Chris Moore, a senior scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation: “if we keep continuing as now, we can’t expect anything but the population to go down.” Because there is not a recent, reliable estimate of menhaden stock health, it is impossible to predict the future of the population. The 2010 ASMFC stock assessment found that the amount of menhaden eggs within the population was sufficient to maintain a healthy stock size, indicating that the low population could be due to environmental factors. In the 2010 assessment, the ASMFC concluded that “(menhaden) population fluctuations are almost entirely driven by non-fishery sources,” a conclusion that they reached after observing an increase in the menhaden’s reproductive success and recruitment during a period of sustained moderate to high landings. The ASMFC is joined in their assertion by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency in charge of fisheries science in the US.