December 18, 2012 — With catch limits on Atlantic menhaden being tightened to end overfishing, a new study is getting under way to look at just how many of the little oily fish need to be left in the water to maintain the health of other fish in the Chesapeake Bay and along the East Coast.
Under a $320,000 grant from the Lenfest Foundation, fisheries scientists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science plan to investigate where the balance needs to be struck between fishing for menhaden and preserving them for their value in the ecosystem.
"Management of menhaden has become very controversial because of different views of how we allocate menhaden between commercial and bait fisheries and those left in the ocean to serve as prey for striped bass and other predators," said the study's lead researcher, Tom Miller, director of the center's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons. "We're trying to estimate from a scientific viewpoint how much we need to leave for the predators to fulfill other important roles in the ecosystem."
More than 300 million pounds of menhaden are caught annually and processed at a plant in Reedville, Va., into meal and oil for livestock and fish food, and for Omega-3 fish oil supplements. Many also are harvested for use as bait in crab and lobster fisheries
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