Conservation & Environment

December 20, 2012 — Environmental groups were successful in their battle to achieve a significant reduction in the menhaden catch last Friday in Baltimore. After a year of standing on the soap box and asking interstate fishery management bodies to protect the fish, they watched, along with thousands of recreational fishermen from Maine to Florida, as the Atlantic Menhaden Management Board adopted a 20 percent coastwide reduction in the harvest.

The reduction is based on the average menhaden catch landings from 2009-2011.

It was the first time any catch limits were ever placed on menhaden — or bunker as many call them.

“They’ve always kind of fallen through the cracks,” said Capt. Paul Eidman, of Reel Therapy.

Eidman said he’s been calling for protection on menhaden since the mid-1980s and he’s hoping now that they have it, the menhaden will thrive.

“They’re resilient fish,” Eidman said.

The Board’s chair, Louis Daniel of North Carolina, went on the record to say they “made a conscious decision to address the ecosystem services provided by Atlantic menhaden.”

Representatives of one of the biggest environmental groups in the country, the Pew Environment Group, were appreciative of the outcome.

“Tens of thousands of people from all walks of life — anglers, business owners, birders, scientists, conservationists, and more — have long been urging this sort of action because they know what menhaden mean for their coastal ecosystem and economy,” said Peter Baker, the director of Pew Environment’s Northeast Fisheries Program.

Pew claimed that menhaden numbers had plummeted by 90 percent in recent years. Which, if accurate, is not a good sign because of the role they play in the ocean food chain. Menhaden turn plankton into fat and protein, and make that energy available to a variety of marine life that, in turn, prey on menhaden.

 

Read the full story in the Asbury Park Press 

 

 

 

 

December 21, 2012 — The following is an excerpt from the opinion piece "The Bottom Line: Big Turnout for Little Menhaden" (12/6) by Lee Crockett posted on National Geographic:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has seen a lot in its 70-year history but nothing quite like this. More than 128,000 people flooded the commission’s inboxes with postcards and emails last month, a new record for public comment. Scientists, small business owners, nature lovers, and anglers sent letters and spoke out at public hearings. And it was all about a fish that almost no one ever eats—Atlantic menhaden.

I’ve written about menhaden before; small, bony, and oily, it isn’t much of a meal for humans. But it’s a favorite food for ocean wildlife including striped bass and bluefish, weakfish and whales, tuna and ospreys. Menhaden form a critical part of the ocean food web and that makes overfishing them a serious threat.

Read the full story at National Geographic

Analysis: In a recent National Geographic opinion piece (“The Bottom Line: Big Turnout for Little Menhaden”, 12/6), Pew Environment Group’s Lee Crockett continues his organization’s misleading Atlantic menhaden campaign by repeating several claims that could be considered “Pew-generated”.

The article includes the widely circulated Pew Environment claim that the menhaden population, “has plunged 90 percent to historically low levels.” Here, Mr. Crockett has disingenuously chosen a specific year of record highs to begin his “statistic”, creating a fictional, pessimistic decline, while ignoring substantial periods of the fishery’s history which demonstrate the natural fluctuation of the population. In fact, current menhaden biomass levels are similar to those seen in the 1960s, which were followed by record high population estimates in the 1970s and 1980s. A recent analysis in a Politifact investigation published by the Providence Journal ("Pew Environment Group says the Atlantic menhaden population has declined by 90 percent in recent years",12/11), Politifact Rhode Island, an independent journalistic source, found Pew’s assertion to be “mostly false” because of their selective representation of the menhaden’s history.

Mr. Crockett cites a “recent study of ‘forage fish’ such as menhaden” to support his argument that  a 50 percent reduction in menhaden harvest is necessary. Mr. Crockett doesn’t tell readers that the study’s sponsor, the Lenfest Ocean Program, is managed by Pew.
 
Mr. Crockett cites “a letter signed by 94 leading scientists” to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) saying current measures are inadequate. Mr. Crockett doesn’t tell readers that at least 31 of the signers are affiliated with, or are part of organizations receiving funding from Pew Environment. Few of the signers have direct experience working on menhaden issues. One of them is an English professor, not a scientist.

Mr. Crockett states that “More than 128,000 people flooded the commission’s inboxes…for public comment.” What he doesn’t say is that response was generated by Pew-organized online campaigns – in partnership with Greenpeace and other groups – using alarmist and sensationalized headlines that selectively presented facts. The validity of the number of comments has also been called into question.

In last week’s ASMFC menhaden board meeting, New York Commissioner Pat Augustine York challenged some of the public comment that was received from large special interest groups like Mr. Crockett’s Pew Environment. Mr. Augustine described how he became suspicious of the amount of public comment coming in from these groups and began to call  individuals who had signed petitions distributed by these organizations. To his dismay, the first seven people in a row he called, were not only unaware their name was included on a circulated letter, but also had no idea what a menhaden was.

In Mr. Crockett’s op-ed, all arguments for severe regulation lead back to Pew-managed, Pew-organized, or Pew-funded efforts. In the lobbying and public relations world this type of manufactured grassroots support is known as “astroturf”.

 

 

NEW ORLEANS — One the ocean’s smallest fish, which has one of the biggest impacts – the Atlantic menhaden – earned some protections Friday. The National Coalition for Marine Conservation on Monday said the protections showed that “conservation of Atlantic menhaden finally entered the 21st century.”

The new Atlantic fisheries target will work to bring the fish to four times its current population and will reduce a coast-wide catch by 20 percent from the average of landings from 2009-2011. The limits, which will be implemented in 2013, represent an about 25 percent reduction from 2011 catch levels, according to a release by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Louis Daniel, chair of the menhaden board, told an audience of about 200 fishermen and environmentalists that the board took the action "to address the ecosystem services provided by Atlantic menhaden" as well as "to ensure the long-term sustainability of the resource and the fisheries that depend on it.”

"The future of Atlantic menhaden and our coastal ecosystem just got a lot brighter," stated National Coalition for Marine Conservation president Ken Hinman, who was in Baltimore for the meeting. "As we restore menhaden numbers, we will be providing badly needed food for a long list of wild animals, from striped bass to humpback whales, predators whose supply of prey has dwindled, stifling their ability to sustain healthy populations."

 

Read the full story in the Times-Picayune

 

 

December 17, 2012 — Officials have suggested that higher temperatures in the gulf have been a factor in bacterial outbreaks in bivalves and in sea lice infestations in Cobscook and Passamaquoddy bays. Some have put partial blame on the gulf’s warmer waters for a northeasterly shift of cod in the gulf into colder waters, for declining shrimp catches and for the glut of soft-shell lobsters this past summer that plummeted prices lobstermen were receiving for their catch.

Patrice McCarron, executive director of Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said this month that rising temperatures in the gulf are “a huge concern” for the organization, the membership of which includes approximately 1,200 of the state’s 5,300 or so licensed commercial lobstermen. She said she has heard from some association members that water temperatures in the mouth of Penobscot Bay still, as of December, are unusually and consistently warm, from depths of a few feet to more than 150 feet.

“It’s 50 degrees throughout the water column,” McCarron said. “That’s crazy.”

According to data recorded by the Northeast Regional Association of Coastal and Ocean Observing Systems, temperatures close to shore remain about 10 degrees warmer than they were last winter.

McCarron said one big concern among fishermen is that, if water in the gulf does not get cold enough this winter, the lobsters won’t go through their usual relatively dormant winter state, which could continue to throw off their molting schedule. Large catches of lobster in the spring, when market demand for Maine lobster is fairly low, likely would continue to have a depressing effect on the price.

 

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

 

December 17, 2012 — Fishermen and business owners blame the resurgence of the gray seal population on the Cape and Islands over the past decade — 5,611 in 1999 compared with an estimated 15,756 in 2011 — for killing off a traditional fall fishery that brought in money in the off-season and helped the Cape gain a measure of fame in the recreational fishing world for catching big bass.

"I have heard the same things," said Owen Nichols, director of marine fisheries research at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies.

Nichols is researching the interaction among seals, fishermen and their prey. He is also a member of the newly formed Northwest Atlantic Seal Research Consortium, based at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which brings scientists, fishery managers and fishermen together to tackle some of these problems.

"It's very difficult to quantify without direct observation of how much seals are capturing or the more complicated issue of them driving fish offshore," Nichols said. "Fishermen at this point are the best source of the information we do have; however, we need more quantitative evidence."

Nichols said a public forum on seals is in the works for March.

Before he bought Nelson's Bait & Tackle in Provincetown eight years ago, Wood was one of those fall fishermen. He traveled from Connecticut and stayed for two weeks at the end of September into the beginning of October, at the iconic Days' Cottages along Route 6A in North Truro. Now, when he drives by, he can't help but take a wistful glance at the cottages.

 

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

 

NEW YORK — December 13, 2012 — Fishery protection groups are appealing to the commission to impose a catch limit off the mid-Atlantic that would reduce the current take of menhaden by as much as 50 percent. Decisions by the commission, created by Congress, have the force of law.

For Omega Protein, that’s a major threat, said Ben Landry, a company spokesman. The company supports 300 employees, most of them fishermen as their fathers or even grandfathers were before them, he said. A 50 percent cut would force the company’s plant in Reedville, Va., “to shut down tomorrow,” he said.

“The last thing we want to do is bury our heads in the sand if there’s really an issue,” Mr. Landry said. He said the demand for a 50 percent reduction was based on “a lot of cloudy science,” adding that the most recent stock assessment of the menhaden had produced “unreliable results.” Omega Protein is willing to accept a 16 percent reduction in the catch, he added.

Erik Williams, a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center who was involved in this year’s menhaden stock count, said there were some loose ends in the data.

Time pressures meant that the stock assessment team had to update the information quickly, leaving some uncertainties in its analysis. Its members advised that a more thorough investigation be carried out.

“The population is definitely not in its most healthy condition,” Dr. Williams said, “but the problem is that we don’t know where it is according to what we call benchmarks” that would size up the menhaden’s status more precisely.

All the same, he said, the call for a strict catch limit is based not so much on the stock assessment data, which focuses strictly on the menhaden’s status, as it is on the functioning of the ecosystem as a whole. Dr. Williams said that ecosystem data is not particularly solid, either, however, although the fisheries commission has determined that the menhaden is being overfished.

 

Read the full story in the New York Times 

 

 

December 14, 2012 — The Providence Journal's "PolitiFact" unit investigated claims made by Pew Environment Group in advertisements they ran in several newspapers asking east coast governors to support their demand for a 50% cut in the menhaden harvest. Pew justified this demand saying "… in recent years, menhaden numbers along our coast have plummeted by 90 percent."  The newspaper found the claim to be "Mostly False".

The paper found that the "estimated number of menhaden is clearly well below the estimated population for the late 1980s. But it's currently at levels seen in the 1960s. If you want to claim a 90-percent drop, you have to compare the 2008 population to a very specific — and very exceptional — year, 1982."

The following is an excerpt from the paper's analysis:

 

The estimates over the years show two peaks and two valleys. The population was high in the 1950s. It dropped precipitously and remained low in the 1960s. Then it started rising significantly, peaking from 1976 to 1989 before falling back to the 1960-ish range during the last two decades.

If you think of "recent" as the last 10 years, the drop from 1999 to 2008 has been 43 percent, far from 90 percent, according to the chart Pew referenced.

Over the last 20 years, it's been 76 percent.

To show a drop close to 90 percent, you have to start at 1982, when the estimated number of menhaden was 20.2 billion, the second-highest ever reported, and compare it with 2008, when the population was about 2.4 billion — a drop of 88 percent.

If you started with the first year of data — 8.3 billion fish in 1955 — and compared it with 2008, you’d have a decline of 71 percent.

We also consulted with Mark Gibson, deputy chief of the marine fisheries division of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

"There's no question there's been a decline downward," he said. "But when you have a fish stock that varies up and down across time, you can cherry-pick your window across time, say it declined and get a whole bunch of people alarmed."

Read the complete analysis in the Providence Journal

 

The newspaper listed its sources for this analysis:

Interviews and e-mails, Jeff Young, spokesman, Pew Environment Group, Dec. 12-13, 2012

ASMFC.org, "Stock Assessment Report No. 10-02 of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission," revised March 2011, and "Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission 2012 Atlantic Menhaden Stock Assessment Update," July 2012, both accessed Dec. 12, 2012

Interviews, Jud Crawford, science and policy manager, Northeast fisheries program, Pew Environment Group, Dec. 13, 2012

Interview, Mark Gibson, deputy chief, marine fisheries division, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Dec. 13, 2012

Roanoke.com, "Menhaden: Point/Counterpoint," The Roanoke Times, Nov. 25, 2012
 

 

FREEPORT, Maine — December 11, 2012 — Small, green crabs are wreaking havoc along the Harraseeket River, and could soon devour the soft-shell clam population into extinction.

As water temperatures continue to rise and the winters get warmer, experts and clammers say the crabs, which eat spat – clams in larval stage – combined with coastal acidification, could drive 1,800 licensed clammers out of work and drastically alter the ecosystem.

Chad Coffin, president of the Maine Clammers Association, said the crabs have essentially taken over two-thirds of the productive clam flats in the last two decades, eating the mussels and scallops along the way. The devastation of clams has accelerated in the last decade and the problem is only getting worse, he said.

"It has taken 20 years for it to happen and essentially we're the last thing left," he said. "And it's not just in Casco Bay; it's happening all over the state. All significant shellfish populations will collapse in the next three to five years and it's all related to the climate."

Brian Beal, a University of Maine at Machias biologist, has been studying the decline of clam populations in the state and said warm weather, coupled with an extremely successful predator, historically spells disaster for clams.

 

Read the full story at The Forcaster

 

 

December 11, 2012 — Researchers have completed a five-year monitoring program for Cape Cod Bay that shows ongoing changes to the bay's ecosystem, many caused by human activities.

The information gathered during the program, however, is only the start of a long-term plan to keep an eye on the 600-square-mile bay, according to officials at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies.

The center has collected basic water quality data in the bay such as temperatures for 25 years as part of its study of the endangered North Atlantic right whale, Hughes said.

The newest round of monitoring includes not only water temperature but also salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH levels and other measurements.

"I think probably one of the most important things that we've really seen in this long-term monitoring is a degradation in water quality at near-shore and inshore sampling stations," Hughes said.

Conditions at 55 percent of the 54 monitored stations have improved but 40 percent, primarily those close to shore, have shown declines in water quality, according to the report.

"That's where most people are active, where we swim, where we shellfish, where we fish," Hughes said.

 

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

 

December 11, 2012 — The following is an excerpt from a transcript of the Pew Environment Group's video, "Help Save Menhaden: Quite Possibly the Most Important Fish in the Sea."

They’re small, they’re oily, they’re not much to look at. But the humble menhaden could be the most important fish in the sea. That’s because these little fish feed much of the other fish and wildlife in the ocean around them. Striped bass and bluefish; humpbacks and other whales and dolphins; ospreys and terns; even sharks: all these animals and more depend on menhaden for survival. These little fish scoop up plankton, turn it into protein and fat, and send that energy up through the ocean food chain. But we’re breaking that chain.

Unrestricted industrial fishing is taking a toll. Menhaden have plunged 90 percent from historic levels, which means that some ocean wildlife can’t find enough to eat. Take striped bass, for example. In the Chesapeake Bay, menhaden made up most of a stripers diet. Now they’re just a small proportion, and many bass show signs of malnutrition and disease. The industrial menhaden fleet uses spotter planes to find schools of menhaden and then scoop them up in large nets. There is no legal limit on how much they can catch at sea. Menhaden are churned into feed for poultry and livestock, cooked down for oil, even used in pet food.

Watch the full video here

Analysis: As part of its continuing campaign to impose new catch limits on Atlantic menhaden, the Pew Environment Group’s recent video, “Help Save Menhaden: Quite Possibly the Most Important Fish in the Sea,” is filled with half-truths and distortions regarding the state of the menhaden fishery. Rather than present a balanced portrayal of the fishery and the debate over fishery management, Pew uses selectively edited facts to push its preferred agenda.

The misrepresentations from Pew begin with the title of the video. While environmental groups like Pew make liberal use of the phrase “the most important fish in the sea” in their menhaden campaigns, the phrase does not actually come from any scientific designation. Rather, it is based on the title of Rutgers University English professor H. Bruce Franklin’s book on menhaden, The Most Important Fish in the Sea. The designation is based on the qualitative judgements of the author, and there is no scientific evidence to support the statement that any one fish in the Atlantic ecosystem is “the most important.”

More substantially, Pew’s claim that “menhaden have plunged 90 percent from historic levels” is an incomplete statistic, and does not take into account natural variations of menhaden recruitment. While environmental groups often cite variations on the claim that there has been a 90 percent decline in the menhaden population over the last 25 years, this ignores the fluctuations that have occurred over the full series of available menhaden data, where alternating cycles of highs and lows in the menhaden population can be observed.

Climate and environment are strong influences on menhaden recruitment (the number of menhaden that are born), and as a result menhaden biomass will fluctuate along with climatic conditions. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, favorable conditions led to especially strong recruitment and years of high biomass, reaching a relative high point in 1984 with 65 billion menhaden. In contrast, the late 1960s and the current fishery have seen less favorable conditions, and subsequently low recruitment, with biomass statistics from the late 1960s roughly comparable to current numbers. For example, in 1966, there were an estimated 12.7 billion menhaden: 40 years later, in 2006, biomass was estimated at 13.6 billion menhaden. Menhaden have previously shown the ability to rebound from these lows without Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission intervention.

The scientific agencies responsible for overseeing menhaden recognize this link. NOAA, on its Menhaden Fact Page, states, “menhaden recruitment appears to be independent of fishing mortality and spawning stock biomass, indicating environmental factors may be the defining factor in the production of good year classes.” The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) similarly concluded in its 2010 stock assessment that fluctuations in menhaden abundance may be “almost entirely driven by non-fishery sources.”

This is also supported by the fact that, according to the 2010 and 2012 menhaden stock assessments, menhaden is not considered to be overfished. This means that, according to current measures, the stock is producing enough eggs to sustain itself. If recruitment remains low while egg production is at its target, it is probable that the problem with the stock is not that there are too few spawners, but that there are too few menhaden being born.

Pew is also quick to blame the commercial fishery for health problems now prevalent in Chesapeake Bay striped bass, saying “menhaden made up most of a striper’s diet. Now they’re just a small proportion, and many bass show signs of malnutrition and disease.” The disease that is referenced in the article, a bacterial infection called mycobacteriosis, is widespread among striped bass, present in as many as 76 percent of the Bay’s bass population. But a 2009 study, conducted by Dr. David T. Gauthier and published in The Veterinary Journal, on all available research on mycobacteriosis in the Bay found that there is currently no consensus about the primary cause of the disease, and it is not clear which of several potential factors has the greatest influence.

Like many issues affecting the Chesapeake Bay, environmental conditions probably play a key role. Excess agricultural runoff entering the Bay contains large amounts of nitrogen and other nutrients. These nutrients cause algal blooms, the excessive growth of phytoplankton and algae. When these blooms die off, the process of decay consumes the oxygen in the surrounding water, creating hypoxic (low oxygen) areas. These areas are usually in the cooler water that bass inhabit during the summer months. But because hypoxic conditions make them uninhabitable, the bass instead migrate to shallower, warmer waters for which they are ill-suited. The sub-optimal temperature makes them unable to feed properly, and makes them more susceptible to diseases like mycobacteriosis. This theory was originally developed by Charles Coutant, formerly of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who published several articles first observing the same phenomenon in striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay during the late 1980s and early 1990s.


Finally, Pew overreaches when it says “menhaden need a coastwide catch limit and 50 percent cut in the catch to end overfishing, and they need it now.” While Pew has been pushing for this 50 percent cut, the steepest of several possible cuts being considered by the ASMFC, it is impossible to say whether such a drastic reduction in catch will even benefit the menhaden stock. Although the ASMFC is required to set catch limits this December, there is an absence of reliable data on the current state of the fishery. The most recent menhaden assessment, released in 2012, is regarded as severely flawed by the ASMFC’s Menhaden Technical Committee. Among other issues, the assessment overestimates fishing mortality and underestimates menhaden biomass. The Technical Committee decided the assessment was unfit for management advice, and the assessment itself concludes that the flaws “cast considerable doubt on the accuracy of the estimates from this update stock assessment.” As a result, the last reliable data on menhaden dates back to 2008.

Ultimately, these facts reveal a fishery that is in a much less dire state than Pew would have its audience believe. While Pew presents a narrative which assumes that its proposed reduction in harvest is necessary, it is more likely that a far less severe cut would be most appropriate and effective, and would be in the best interest of the fishery and all of its stakeholders.