ASMFC

ARLINGTON, VA (ASMFC), March 1, 2012 – Atlantic coastal states from Maine through Georgia have scheduled their hearings to gather public comment on the Public Information Document (PID) for Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden.  The dates, times, and locations of the scheduled meetings follow.

Maine Department of Marine Resources
April 4, 2012; 6 – 9 PM

Casco Bay Lines Conference Room
56 Commercial Street
Portland, Maine
Contact: Terry Stockwell at 207.624.6553

New Hampshire Fish and Game
April 3, 2012; 7 – 9 PM
Urban Forestry Center
45 Elwyn Road
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Contact: Doug Grout at 603.868.1095

Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries
April 2, 2012; 6 PM
Plymouth Public Library
Otto Fehlow Room
132 South Street
Plymouth, Massachusetts
Contact: David Pierce at 617-626-1532

Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife
March 28, 2012; 6 PM

URI Narragansett Bay Campus, Corless Auditorium
South Ferry Road
Narragansett, Rhode Island
Contact: Jason McNamee at 401.423.1943

New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation
March 27, 2012; 7 PM
Marine Resources Headquarters
205 North Belle Mead Rd, Suite 1
East Setauket, New York
Contact: Steve Heins at 631.444.0435

New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife
March 21, 2012; 7- 10 PM
Ocean County Administration Building
101 Hooper Avenue
Public Hearing Room #119
Toms River, New Jersey
Contact: Peter Himchak AT 609.748.2020

Delaware Dept. of Natural Resources & Environmental Control
March 28, 2012; 6 – 8 PM
Lewes Field Facility
901 Pilottown Road
Lewes, Delaware
Contact: John Clark at 302.739.9914 

Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources
March 19, 2012; 6 PM
Easton High School Cafeteria
723 Mecklenburg Avenue
Easton, Maryland
Contact: Lynn Fegley at 410.260.8285

Virginia Marine Resources Commission
March 22, 2012; 6 PM
2600 Washington Avenue, Fourth Floor
Newport News, Virginia
Contact: Jack Travelstead at 757.247.2247

North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries
March 27, 2012; 6 PM
NC Division of Marine Fisheries

Central District Office
5285 Highway 70 West
Morehead City, North Carolina
Contact: Trish Murphey at 252.808.8091

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
March 30, 2012; 10 AM
Marine Advisory Council Meeting
217 Fort Johnson Road
Charleston, South Carolina

Contact: Mel Bell at 843.953.9007

Georgia Coastal Resources Division
March 29, 2012; 5 – 7 PM
Richmond Hill City Center (located in Gregory Park)
520 Cedar Street
Richmond Hill, Georgia

Contact: Doug Haymans at 912.264.7218

The Commission's Atlantic Menhaden Management Board approved the Public Information Document (PID) for Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden for public comment and review.  As the first step in the development of Amendment 2, the PID presents the current status of the fishery and resource, and solicits public input on which major issues and alternatives should be included for consideration and analysis in Draft Amendment 2.

The PID's primary focus is to initiate discussion on the timing and implementation of achieving the new fishing mortality threshold (F = 1.32) and target (F = 0.62) reference points recently adopted through Addendum V.  Since fishing mortality in 2008 (the latest year in the assessment) is estimated at 2.28, overfishing is occurring, however, the stock is not overfished. The goal of the new reference points is to increase abundance, spawning stock biomass, and menhaden availability as a forage species. The PID also seeks public input on a more timely and comprehensive catch reporting system, and scopes potential options to be used in managing Atlantic menhaden commercial bait and reduction fisheries as well as recreational fishery.

Alongside the development of Amendment 2, the peer-reviewed stock assessment will be updated with data through 2011 to provide a more recent estimate of fishing mortality.  Results of the assessment update will be used to estimate the harvest reductions needed to achieve the new threshold and target fishing mortality rates.  Therefore, preliminary harvest reductions are provided in the PID but will likely change based on the results of the stock assessment update.

Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the PID by either attending public hearings or providing written comments. Copies of the PID are available here or by contacting the Commission at 703.842.0740. The public comment deadline is 5:00 PM (EST) on April 20, 2012 and should be forwarded to Mike Waine, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (FAX) or at mwaine@asmfc.org (Subject line: Menhaden PID).

Read the release here.

 

February 21, 2012, Arlington, VA – The Public Information Document (PID) for Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden is now available for public comment and review on the Commission's website.

 As the first step in the development of Amendment 2, the PID presents the current status of the fishery and resource, and solicits public input on which major issues and alternatives should be included for consideration and analysis in Draft Amendment 2.

The PID’s primary focus is to initiate discussion on the timing and implementation of achieving the new fishing mortality threshold (F = 1.32) and target (F = 0.62) reference points recently adopted through Addendum V.  Since fishing mortality in 2008 (the latest year in the assessment) is estimated at 2.28, overfishing is occurring, however, the stock is not overfished. The goal of the new reference points is to increase abundance, spawning stock biomass, and menhaden availability as a forage species. The PID also seeks public input on a more timely and comprehensive catch reporting system, and scopes potential options to be used in managing Atlantic menhaden commercial bait and reduction fisheries as well as recreational fishery.

Alongside the development of Amendment 2, the peer-reviewed stock assessment will be updated with data through 2011 to provide a more recent estimate of fishing mortality.  Results of the assessment update will be used to estimate the harvest reductions needed to achieve the new threshold and target fishing mortality rates.  Therefore, preliminary harvest reductions are provided in the PID but will likely change based on the results of the stock assessment update.

Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the PID either by attending public hearings or providing written comments. Public comment must be received no later than 5:00 PM (EST) on April 20, 2012 and should be forwarded to Michael Waine, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland St, Suite A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (FAX) or mwaine@asmfc.org (Subject line: Menhaden PID). A subsequent press release will announce the state's public hearing schedule. For more information, please contact Michael Waine at 703.842.0740.

 

Secession is in the air once again in Virginia as a state senator has introduced a bill that would withdraw the commonwealth from the union of states that oversees fishery management along the coast.

Virginia State Senator Richard Stuart’s bill would separate Virginia from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), a consortium of states from Maine to Florida that oversees the management and harvest of 24 species of fish ranging from flounder to stripers. Among those fish is the menhaden, a baitfish that is an essential part of the food chain for game fish and whose population most commissioners (and conservationists) believe may be threatened by overfishing.

In Boston in late 2011, the ASMFC commissioners voted overwhelmingly to curtail commercial landings of menhaden by as much as 37 percent over 2010 harvest levels. This marked the first time the ASMFC has voted to decrease the menhaden harvest. Why the change? The commission’s most recent stock assessment found that  menhaden stocks, in steady decline for the past half-century, were now at a historic low, and that although menhaden are apparently producing enough eggs to supplement the stock, those eggs are not becoming juvenile menhaden, much to the consternation of researchers.

Conservation organizations like The Nature Conservancy and consortia like the Menhaden Coalition, and the Herring Alliance—as well as groups of recreational anglers like Menhaden Defenders—have for years lobbied for more conservative menhaden harvest levels. They believe that the current commercial harvest levels could push the stock past the point of no return, which would affect countless species of fish and sea birds.

Read the complete article on The Chesapeake Bay Foundation website

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fisheries regulators have cut harvest limits for menhaden, a small fish with a big ecological role in the Chesapeake Bay.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has voted to set new fishing limits for menhaden. Menhaden are small, oily fish, and while people don't usually eat them, just about everything else does: eagles, ospreys, striped bass. That's why biologists call them a foundational species. Humans use them for fish oil, bait, and animal feed.

But the fish has reached it's lowest recorded population level ever, at roughly 8 percent of what it would be if humans weren't fishing for it. So the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted to cut the annual harvest by 37 percent, and set a new population target.

Out of 14 states, only New Jersey and Virginia voted against raising long term population targets. One of the country's largest menhaden processing plants is located in Reedville, Va. in the Northern Neck.

Listen to the story at WAMU.

Analysis: The report's claim that the menhaden population is "roughly 8 percent of what it would be if humans weren't fishing for it" is misleading. Menhaden are currently fished to around 8 percent of their Maximum Spawning Potential (MSP), which is an estimate of a theoretical unfished population. An 8 percent MSP is not by itself an indication of overfishing; menhaden MSP has rarely risen above 10 percent in the past 50 years, and at that level the population has traditionally been able to rebuild itself. Levels of MSP also show little correlation to levels of menhaden recruitment. At the current levels of fishing, the menhaden population is judged to be not overfished by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

 

A move to cut the harvest of oily little fish called menhaden could help the Chesapeake Bay but hurt the fishing industry, observers said Thursday.

The footlong nuggets of nutrition are important foods for game fish such as striped bass and popular animals such as dolphins and ospreys.

They also are the targets of an industrial fishing operation in Reedville, about 85 miles northeast of Richmond.

A panel of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, an interstate regulatory agency, voted Wednesday in Boston to cut the menhaden harvest between 23 and 37 percent.

Virginia must go along with the cutback or the federal government could shut down menhaden fishing in the state.

"This is really a watershed event in terms of how we manage menhaden," said Chris Moore, a scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group that has claimed for years that too many of the fish were being caught.

Jack Travelstead, Virginia's fisheries director, said the fishing cut will hurt not just Omega Protein Inc., which runs the Reedville operation, but also people who catch menhaden to sell as bait and crabbers who buy menhaden for bait.

Read the full article at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

 

East Coast fisheries regulators voted Wednesday to reduce the take of menhaden by nearly 40 percent — a victory for environmental activists and recreational fishing allies who contend the oily, herring-like fish have been harvested to levels below what is healthy for the ocean ecosystem.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted in Boston for new biological benchmarks that in time would push a 37 percent reduction in the fishery — a move activists aim squarely at Omega Protein, a Houston-based company that is the sole operator in the industrial fishery that processes menhaden for fish meal and oil.

Omega’s boats have been pushed out of near-shore waters after years of state-level legislative campaigns by recreational fishing advocates, who complained about big purse seine nets cleaning out large schools and leaving little to feed prized sport fish like striped bass and bluefish.

“Almost every economically important predator fish on the East Coast … target on menhaden,” said Terry Gibson, a recreational charter captain and writer from Jensen Beach, Fla.

Over time, Omega’s Reedsville, Va., processing plant has come to rely more on fish caught within Chesapeake Bay and in federal waters beyond three miles of the beaches. The fisheries commission imposed a cap on the Chesapeake catch several years ago.

The Pew Environment Group poured a lot of resources into campaigning for new controls on the industrial fishery, marshaling 90,000 letters to the commission from supporters.

Read the full article at the Asbury Park Press.

Analysis: The article underestimates the health of the menhaden fishery, claiming that it has been fished to "levels below what is healthy for the ocean ecosystem" and "pehaps 10 percent of its onetime size." Such claims are misleading and are not accurately reflected in the scientific data, as the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission concluded in its last assessment that menhaden were not overfished. Similarly, the claim that menhaden are at 10 percent of their historic level is misleading. The figure refers to the Maximum Spawning Potential (MSP) which is an estimate of a theoretical unfished population, and not a historical measurement. Menhaden are currently fished to around 10 percent of MSP, but that alone is not an indication of overfishing; MSP has historically rarely risen above 10 percent, with the population previously able to rebuild itself at that level. Over the past several decades, there has been little correlation between MSP levels and menhaden recruitment.

 

RICHMOND, Va. — Fisheries regulators voted Wednesday to reduce by more than one-third the harvest of menhaden, a small fish that plays a big ecological role in the health of the Chesapeake Bay and the fish that swim in its waters.

Meeting in Boston, the menhaden board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted to cut the annual harvest by 37 percent, according to calculations by the Pew Environmental Group. The new harvest limit, which is subject to a vote by the full commission in one year, would be effective in 2013.

Approximately 460 million pounds of Atlantic menhaden were caught in 2010, primarily by trawlers that scoop up the fish in nets in the bay and along portions of the coast. Lobstermen in Maine and Massachusetts and bay crabbers also use the oily fish to bait their traps.

Environmentalists, scientists and sports fishermen have lobbied for years for the more stringent catch limits. The forage species is eaten by prized game fish such as striped bass, or rock fish, and filters the Chesapeake Bay, improving its water quality.

"They did the right thing today," said Peter Baker of the Pew Group. "I think they heard the public loud and clear."

The commission held 13 public hearings on menhaden and received nearly 92,000 comments, the vast majority seeking to limit the harvest.

The reduced catch is intended to allow menhaden stocks to rebound.

Read the full article from the Associated Press.

Analysis: While many environmental advocates quoted in the article argue that reductions in the menhaden harvest are necessary as a result of overfishing, the most recent data collected on the fishery reveals no pattern of overfishing in recent history. According to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's (ASMFC) 2010 stock assessment, the menhaden population is currently not overfished and overfishing had only occurred once in the last ten years.

The article also overstates menhadens impact on water qualtiy. Several studies, including a recent one conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, concluded that menhaden have little, if any, net impact on water quality.

 

 

Commission yesterday voted to tighten commercial harvests of menhaden on the East Coast by 37 percent of last year’s catch. Correspondent Pamela D’Angelo reports.

Listen to the full story at NPR member station WCVE.

The interstate panel that oversees fishing along the Eastern Seaboard voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to cut the menhaden catch by up to 37 percent next year in an effort to protect the species and, by extension, striped bass.

The 14-3 vote by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission was hailed by environmentalists and criticized by commercial fishermen who make their living catching menhaden for processing into animal feed and dietary supplements and for bait.

"This is historic," said Ken Hinman of the National Coalition for Marine Conservation. "This will leave more fish in the water to reproduce and rebuild the stock."

Menhaden, called "the most important fish in the sea" by conservationists because of its role as a food source for other fish, such as striped bass, and birds, has been in steady decline, with a population that stands at 8 percent of historic levels. But the commercial fishing industry has fought efforts to impose limits, which led to the showdown at the commission's annual meeting.

The atmosphere outside the hotel ballroom resembled a political convention rather than the normally low-key regulatory meeting. Recreational anglers bused in for the occasion handed out fliers and buttonholed commissioners, who had to walk by a 9-foot cardboard fish decorated in slogans. Governors and congressmen lobbied behind the scenes and in the open.

In a letter to the commission, Omega Protein said its nine-boat fishing fleet and processing plant in Reedville, Va., could accept a 23 percent reduction in the harvest. Virginia commissioners tried to steer the vote in that direction, but mustered little support.

Read the full article at the Baltimore Sun.

Analysis: While the article contends that menhaden are in "steady decline," it is important to note that, according to the most recent stock assessment by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the menhaden fishery is currently not overfished. There also is no recent pattern of overfishing, as it has only occurred once in the last 10 years of the assessment.

 

 

Concerned that overfishing is destroying the ability of menhaden to reproduce, the commission that manages the Atlantic coast fishery voted Wednesday to sharply reduce the catch of the fish.

Tiny, oily menhaden are called the ocean’s most important fish by environmentalists because they provide food for essential fish such as striped bass and for birds such as osprey, bald eagles and brown pelicans. Without menhaden, environmentalists say, the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay ecosystems would come crashing down.

At a meeting in Boston, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted 14 to 3 to cut the amount of menhaden that can be harvested annually from 183,000 metric tons to 174,000 metric tons. The commission must now draft and vote on a plan to implement the new rule, which is likely to become effective in May 2013, spokeswoman Tina Berger said.

A single company, Omega Protein Corp., took 160,000 metric tons of menhaden — 80 percent of about 450 million fish harvested last year — off the coast of Virginia, the only state that permits industrial fishing of menhaden. The company crushes the fish into meal to feed livestock and farmed fish around the world.

Bait fishermen, who mostly sell to sport fishers, caught the rest.

Ben Landry, Omega Protein’s spokesman, said the commission’s decision could lead to job cuts at the company processing plant in Reedville, Va., where 250 people work. “It’s too early to say,” Landry said.

In the run-up to the vote, the 45-member commission received more than 91,000 letters, the vast majority of which urged members to drastically reduce the catch. States from Maine to Florida each have three representatives, only one of whom can vote.

The commission wants to ensure that at least 15 percent of adult menhaden are left to spawn in the ocean and its tributaries after the yearly harvest. But the commission is pushing to have 30 percent of the adult population left to spawn. That would nearly quadruple the current threshold of 8 percent.

Read the full article at the Washington Post.

Analysis: While the advocates quoted in the article are concerned with overfishing, it is important to note that, according to the most recent stock assessment by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the menhaden fishery is currently not overfished. There also is no recent pattern of overfishing, as it has only occurred once in the last 10 years of the assessment.