October 15, 2012 — “The most important fish in the sea” has been put through more than 50 years of overfishing. The stock is at a record low. Who is suffering from the loss of menhaden? You are.
Striped bass, bluefish and other game fish have lost 90 percent of their favorite food source in the last 25 years.
In 1955, menhaden made up 77 percent of the diet of striped bass. Now, menhaden account for just 7 percent. Young striped bass are increasingly eating weakfish juveniles to supplement their diets, putting both stocks at risk. Bluefish eat 30 percent less menhaden than they did in the early ‘90s.
The science tells us that menhaden have been over-exploited for 50 years — since President Dwight Eisenhower was in office—and yet no coastwide limit exists on the amount of fish commercial fishermen can catch.
Omega Protein, a Texas-based company, is responsible for more than 80% of the Atlantic menhaden harvest. The company uses spotter planes and large purse seines to net schools of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay and in Atlantic federal waters. Omega Protein grinds its catch into meal and oil, and sells it as an inexpensive commodity, primarily to fish farming operations in Europe and Asia.
Read the full story on Menhaden Defenders
Analysis: With the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in the middle of the public comment period for upcoming menhaden regulations, the group Menhaden Defenders is pushing their readers to support, among other options, a 50 percent reduction in menhaden landings. The organization has created a petition campaign for readers to sign and send to ASMFC representatives urging the Commission to adopt severe restrictions on the allowable menhaden catch. To justify such drastic management actions, the website’s petition, “Menhaden need a break,” relies on an inaccurate account of menhaden facts.
Menhaden Defenders is quick to fault Omega Protein for a decline in menhaden, writing that the company “has been doing everything it can to prevent the implementation of a total allowable catch and a rebuilding effort,” and that “they maintain that menhaden are merely suffering from poor recruitment — their half billion pound harvest has nothing to do with it.” Despite this dismissal, poor recruitment is very likely a factor in lower menhaden biomass. According to the last menhaden stock assessment, menhaden are not overfished, which means that the current menhaden population is producing the necessary number of eggs to sustain itself as determined by the ASMFC. In fact, the species is producing 40 percent more eggs than a population that would be considered overfished.
By this measure, the problem with menhaden is not that there are too few menhaden spawning, but that too few menhaden are subsequently being born. Much of the scientific data on the menhaden stock reinforces the claim that reducing fishing mortality is not an effective way to influence the size of the menhaden population. Historically, the number of menhaden caught by the fishery does not seem to have a strong influence on the number of menhaden that spawn. In its 2010 stock assessment, the ASMFC concluded that menhaden population changes “are almost entirely driven by non-fishery sources.” Similarly, NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office concludes, “environmental factors may be the defining factor in the production of good year classes [of menhaden].”
Instead of acknowledging the impact of environmental factors on the menhaden population, Menhaden Defenders exaggerates the status of the menhaden population. “The science tells us that menhaden have been over-exploited for 50 years — since President Eisenhower was in office,” the article claims, but fails to specifically define this over-exploitation. According to the 2010 Atlantic menhaden stock assessment, total menhaden population estimates are approximately the same level as they were in the 1960s, making Menhaden Defenders’ claim, that the stock is at an all time low, inaccurate.
Menhaden Defenders also uses the often-cited phrase “the most important fish in the sea,” in reference to menhaden. The article does not explain the term’s origin, and presents it as a scientific qualification. In fact, this phrase comes from the title and premise of the book, The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America, by Rutgers University Professor Dr. H Bruce Franklin. The statement is entirely qualitative, based on judgments made by the author. There is no scientific evidence supporting the hyperbolic statement that any one species of fish is "most important," and promulgating this idea represents only the authors' opinion, rather than any scientific consensus.
The suggested 50 percent reduction in menhaden landings that Menhaden Defenders suggests would put the commercial menhaden fishery out of business, causing devastating economic loss to Virginia’s Northern Neck. A recent economic impact study conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science highlighted the importance of the industry to this rural area of Virginia: the reduction fishery employs almost 300 people directly, and many more indirectly, and contributes more than $80 million in economic output to the Northern Neck. With the large impact that environmental factors have on the fluctuation of the menhaden population, the likelihood of reaching the target fishing mortality of MSP 30 percent in three years is unlikely. In fact, there is little belief that cutting harvest will increase the recruitment of menhaden; it may have no impact on the menhaden population whatsoever.