November 8, 2012 — ASMFC decision will impact both the habitat and communities whose lives, livelihoods depend on the small, oily fish.
James Kellum sat uncomfortably in an overstuffed chair in the ante room of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Alexandria, VA, fidgeting with his tie. His large frame strained at the confines of his dark suit, making Kellum look perhaps more like a former professional football player than the commercial fisherman he has been for more than 20 years.
He left his home in Reedville, VA, at 4 a.m. one hot August morning to beat the horrendous Northern Virginia traffic and sat nervously killing time. Kellum, as well as other commercial anglers and conservationists, were waiting near a committee room to hear from, and perhaps testify before, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Committee. This regulatory body manages various saltwater species on the East Coast and their decisions about fish stocks and harvest limits have become hotly contested.
While some commercial anglers harvest stripers, flounder, shrimp, spot, lobster, squid, bluefish or crabs, James Kellum has only one prize in mind when his boats hit the water each morning — the lowly menhaden.
Menhaden, a small and oily baitfish, has loomed quite large in ASMFC management responsibilities, or mismanagement as some would claim. The difficulty of instituting an adequate management solution continues to plague not only the ASMFC, but conservation groups, scientists, and of course commercial anglers like Kellum.
One of the difficulties the ASMFC faces is how to apportion whatever catch it allows between two commercial fishing groups: the bait fishery, those fishermen who catch menhaden to supply them as bait to other fishermen; and the Omega Protein reduction fishery, whose fishermen catch the fish to grind up and process into oils and meals used in other products.
Kellum, who sells his catch almost evenly for bait and for reduction, has an interest in both these camps.
Unlike most recreational anglers who only think of menhaden as something they occasionally pick up at their local bait shop for a few bucks, Kellum deals with menhaden nearly all year long. He has nearly $2 million dollars tied up in Ocean Baits, a company he opened with his sons in 1993. His two boats, Carter's Creek and Indian Creek, fish from early summer to Thanksgiving. The company employs 16 people ranging from deckhands to spotter plane pilots. His boats, commonly referred to as snapper rigs, use commercial nets to harvest tons of menhaden each year.
Harvesting menhaden boasts a long and storied history. The fishery put the tiny town of Reedville on the map, and the town's many grand houses along the main street were built with money from menhaden that were all but mined from the sea. As the town grew, it eventually boasted several fish-packing houses as well as assorted related businesses. Eventually, the town became a hub for harvesting menhaden and the East Coast home of Omega Protein, the largest harvester of menhaden in North America.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of tons of menhaden are harvested by Omega Protein and smaller menhaden operators like Kellum. Recently, large and small companies alike have become anxious, fearing the first harvest limits ever placed on the menhaden industry as a whole.
Read the full story at the Chesapeake Bay Journal