April 23, 2012 – The National Coalition for Marine Conservation’s comments on the PID were guided by our vision of what we would like the Atlantic menhaden fisheries to look like in the future. First and foremost, because of menhaden’s critical role as food for other fish and wildlife, we would like the resource to be restored to and maintained at a level of abundance substantially higher than the conventional targets set for other marine fish, as recommended by a number of national and international bodies, most recently the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force.
We would like to see growth of the menhaden population so the species returns to its historic range, to areas where menhaden have not been seen in abundance for decades. With this growth, we would like to see the fisheries for menhaden distributed throughout the species’ geographic range, not concentrated in certain regions, especially in and near sensitive estuaries (e.g., Chesapeake Bay), and not dominated by industrial-scale fisheries for reduction or bait, but rather smaller-scale bait fisheries that support local commercial and recreational fisheries.
NCMC advocates a management strategy in Amendment 2 that would reduce fishing mortality, through coast-wide limits on landings, to the target level in as short a time as possible, in any case no more than three years, with a high probability (~75%) of success. Please see NCMC’s written comments covering each of the issues presented in the PID, including timely catch monitoring and reporting, recreational and commercial management options, and potential long-term social, economic and ecological benefits from restoring menhaden abundance.
Read the full story at Save the Menhaden.
Analysis: The National Coalition for Marine Conservation calls for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) to significantly lower the target for fishing mortality over the next few years, in an attempt to maintain the fishery “at a level of abundance substantially higher than conventional targets” and to “see growth of the menhaden population return to its historic range.”
However, much of the scientific data on the menhaden stock has concluded 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 subsequently spawn. In its 2010 stock assessment, the ASMFC concludes that it is likely “[menhaden] population fluctuations are almost entirely driven by non-fishery sources.” Similarly, NOAA concludes, “environmental factors may be the defining factor in the production of good year classes [of menhaden].”