Conservation & Environment

In the commercial menhaden fishery there are two sectors, the reduction fishery comprises approx. 80% of landings and the remaining 20% are bait.

The modern reduction fishery grinds up menhaden into fish meal and oil for use in pet foods, livestock and aquaculture feeds, industrial products, oil for paints and cosmetics, protein meal and solubles, and dietary supplements.

In reduction fishing, the fish are collected, ground down and reduced to their basic components. Meal and oil can be produced by the same fish. The reduction industry produces fish meal (67%), fish oil (21%), specialty (9%) and solubles (3%).

Larger and older fish are targeted because their yield is far greater. Unfortunately, as fish ages their fecundity – capacity to reproduce – drastically increases, so their contribution to the ecosystem is far more valuable.

There is only one company responsible for the menhaden reduction industry on the Atlantic Coast: Omega Protein, Inc. Omega Protein removes menhaden at a rate that makes it impossible for the fish population to sustain itself. The annual removal of adult fish is 65% or higher, making it unlikely that an adult menhaden will reproduce once, if at all.

In 2010 alone, Omega Protein harvested 404 million pounds—or about 160,000 metric tons—of Menhaden in Atlantic coastal waters. Omega Protein’s annual harvest is worth more than $168 million. Revenues for 2011 are projected at $218 million. The company has 47 vessels and 34 aircrafts in its fleet. One of Omega Protein’s main consumers of its fishmeal product is the international aquaculture industry and this is the fastest growing demand for Omegas products.

Read the full article at Menhaden Defenders.

Analysis: The article makes several incorrect statements about the sustainability of the menhaden reduction fishery. Contrary to the article's assertions, the menhaden population is not overfished, based on the latest assessment by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The article is also incorrect in claiming that the reduction fishery is preventing the recruitment of menhaden. According to the same ASMFC assessment concluded that menhaden fecundity is above target, which it has been for the past 38 years.

 

 

On a bright morning in May, a calm Chesapeake Bay glitters in the sun, an expanse of blue, the nation's largest and once most productive estuary. A sudden commotion shatters the serenity: Dozens of gulls swoop toward the 135-foot ship Reedville, and the water beneath the boat begins to churn and froth. With two smaller boats at its side, the Reedville encloses a school of fish in a stiff black purse seine net. With practiced efficiency, workers onboard hoist a vacuum pump into the net and suck tens of thousands of small silvery fish out of the water. It looks like an unusual way to catch fish; it's all the more unusual when you realize that this particular industrial catch is actually banned by every state on the East Coast. Every state, that is, save for one: Virginia.

The fish going up the tube are Atlantic menhaden, known to ocean ecologists as the "breadbasket of the ocean," though some prefer to call them "the most important fish in the sea." Because there's money to be made, menhaden, all the fish that rely on them for food, and the entire ocean ecosystem are in trouble.

Found in estuarine and coastal waters from Nova Scotia to Florida, menhaden are oily, bony, and inedible to humans, which is why you've probably never heard of them. But their nutrient-packed bodies are a staple food for dozens of fish species you have heard of, as well as marine mammals and sea birds. Located near the bottom of the food chain, menhaden are the favored prey for many important predators, including striped bass and bluefish, tuna and dolphin, seatrout and mackerel.

Out on the bay, the vacuum pump on the Reedville removes 45,000 menhaden from the water. This is a small catch for a boat that routinely takes multiple schools, each of which can contain as many as a million members, stored in a giant hold below deck. There, they will wait for the ship to return to its namesake, Reedville, a remote town on Virginia's northern neck peninsula, where they will be cooked, ground up, and sold. This is the "menhaden reduction" process, the basis for a lucrative industry controlled, on the East Coast, by exactly one company: Omega Protein, Inc.

The same oily property that makes menhaden so valuable to marine life can also be used for aquaculture and livestock feed, pet food, oil for paints and cosmetics, and as a component in dietary supplements. Omega Protein's annual harvest is worth more than $168 million. Revenues for 2011 are projected at $218 million. Because of Omega Protein, Reedville is the third largest commercial fishing port in the United States.

Some scientists believe that menhaden could be a partial solution to pollution and the oxygen-depleted areas of water called, bluntly, "dead zones." In these zones, pollution-related algae blooms use up the oxygen in the water, making it difficult for other species to live; it's a particular problem in estuaries like the Chesapeake Bay and the Long Island Sound, where menhaden were once plentiful. Menhaden are filter feeders, swimming with their mouths open and straining phytoplankton (algae) and other particles with their gills. While the exact content of what menhaden filter varies by location and season, it is clear that menhaden have been removing damaging particles from our waters since time immemorial.

"Menhaden are the main herbivore in the ocean that eat phytoplankton, and without them, we have a problem," says Bill Goldsborough, senior scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Goldsborough and other fisheries scientists are concerned about diminishing numbers of menhaden along the Atlantic Coast. Recent evidence shows that menhaden stocks are down 88 percent in the last 25 years, to a record low — from 160 billion fish to 20 billion. Atlantic menhaden harvesters have regularly overfished their target limit: 32 of the last 54 years, according to a 2010 stock assessment by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the regulatory agency in charge of managing the sustainability of forage species like menhaden.

One sign that points to the scale of the problem is that species like striped bass that normally feed on menhaden are displaying symptoms of malnourishment and disease. Seatrout are near their lowest population point on record, in part because of a lack of menhaden. When faced with the loss of both seatrout and menhaden as food, striped bass have been turning to other cherished delicacies. "Striped bass will feed on blue crabs and lobsters when they can't get enough menhaden. We are seeing increased mortality of juvenile lobster and blue crabs," Goldsborough says.

Scientists say Omega Protein removes menhaden at a rate that makes it nearly impossible for the fish to provide the valuable ecosystem services that give them their vaunted title. The annual removal of adult fish is 65 percent or higher, making it unlikely that an adult menhaden will spawn more than once, if at all. Scientists say that this affects the health and sustainability of our natural resources: "[Overfishing] is certainly affecting menhaden, not just in Maryland but coastwide, and therefore it affects the predator populations as well that rely on menhaden. There is no doubt about that. We are competing with the predators," says Dr. Alexei Sharov, head of the stock assessment program at Maryland's Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service.

Read the full article at Salon

 Analysis:

 The article makes several incorrect and misleading claims about the menhaden reduction fishery, the sustainability of menhaden fishing, and the potential ecological effects. The article is based on the premise that menhaden are being fished at an unsustainable rate, and thatthis overfishing is having an environmental impact. However, there is significant evidence that the menhaden population in the Chesapeake Bay is not overfished. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), in its most recent stock assessment, concluded that the menhaden population was not overfished. In the past ten years, overfishing had only occured once in the past ten years.

In addition to overstating the impact of fishing on the menhaden population, the article also overstates their ecological role. Referring to menhaden as filter feeders, the article claims menhaden are essential to cleaning the Bay and that the health of the Bay is suffering due to lack of menhaden. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) recently conducted a study on menhaden's role as filter feeders. They concluded that adult menhaden, which are the group harvested by Omega, eat very little phytoplankton, and remove very little phytoplankton or nitrogen from the water. 

The article is also incorrect in blaming poor health in striped bass on the level of menhaden in the Bay. But, as part of their ongoing ChesMMAP study, VIMS has analyzed the diets of several species of fish, and menhaden only make up a small percentage of the diet of many species. For example, they have been found to make up as little as 9.6% of striped bass diet, even though the exact number will fluctuate given location of the bass or prevalence of other feed species.

 

 

 

Forage fish such as menhaden and sardines are being overharvested for health supplements, aquaculture, and animal feed, posing ecological and economic threats.

Now the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering reducing the menhaden harvest, and a California bill would require regulators to account for species' value as prey, a move toward an ecosystem-based management approach.

You need forage fish to turn plankton into food for bigger fish. Take out the forage fish, and the whole food chain falls apart. This story isn’t sexy: people don’t sport fish for sardines. But we rely on these fish to feed — literally — the boom in aquaculture. Environmentalists see aquaculture as a means of reducing open sea fishing. But to feed those fish, we need open sea fishing.

Rough accounting: Looking at forage fish as merely a protein base is crude, but it highlights the value they have in both the biological and socioeconomic ecosystems.

Hard math: Managing fisheries, whether by species or by an ecosystem-based approach, involves counting fish. And counting fish is not easy, particularly due to the cyclical nature of some forage species.

Read the full article at This Week in Earth

Analysis:

The article is incorrect in stating that menhaden are overfished, and it overstates its importance as a forage species. The most current available data by the ASMFC concludes that the menhaden population in the Chesapeake Bay is not overfished. In the past ten years, the menhaden population had only experienced overfishing once in the past 10 years.

Menhaden's value as a forage fish is also overstated by the article. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science, as part of its ChesMMAP survey, has analyzed the diet of several marine species. In several notable species, including striped bass and bluefish, menhaden was found to make up less than ten percent of their diet. While the prevalence of menhaden in the diet will fluctuate, the survey seems to suggest they are not irreplaceable.

As one of the biggest supporters of catch shares in New England, the Environmental Defense Fund has few backers on New Bedford's working waterfront. Mayor Scott W. Lang has openly criticized the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose leader, Jane Lubchenco, is former EDF vice-chairwoman, saying its actions "make it clear they listen more intently to environmental groups than fishing groups."

Into this tense atmosphere steps Johanna Thomas, an arrival from California, newly appointed as regional director for EDF's Oceans Program on the East Coast. She recently visited New Bedford and agreed to an email interview with The Standard-Times.

Q: Does EDF recognize the comeback of New England fisheries and would it support an increase in fishing on healthy stocks in recognition of that?

A: Yes, as fish stocks recover and as science allows, EDF supports an increase in fishing on healthy stocks. It makes sense for fishermen to have increased access to fish when there is confidence that stocks and habitats can sustain that. We supported the proposal by Sen. Kerry, Congressman Barney Frank and other members of Congress to allow groundfishermen additional "carryover" of unused quota within scientifically defensible bounds. We are also working on a study of closed groundfish areas. That could result in a closed area network that allows access where strong stocks are abundant, while meeting other management goals. Another question we are pursuing is whether the benefits of closed areas can be quantified in a way that allows reducing "uncertainty buffers" for some key groundfish stocks.

Q: Does EDF think that consolidation of the fleet is necessary?

A: No, we don't think it's "necessary," nor do we know how many boats are right for the New England fleet. We have no position on the number of boats or the right level of fishing power in the region. We don't know anyone who can answer the question "how many boats should there be?" Fishing fleets change in response to fish stocks, regulations, new technology, prices and demand. We do recognize that consolidation has been taking place for more than two decades in the groundfish fleet, after doubling in size between 1975 and 1980. This rapid expansion and subsequent contraction has had a tremendous impact on the industry, shore-side businesses and fishing communities.

We are urging the New England Fishery Management Council to move forward with an amendment focused on establishing "accumulation limits," or limits on the amount of fishing opportunity that any one entity can control. This is going to be difficult, given that this issue is so complex and opinions are so divergent. But there are tough choices to be made so the groundfish industry can have some stability.

Q: Another controversial question is alleged damage to the bottom by fishing gear. On Georges Bank the bottom changes weekly, according to fishermen and scientists, yet environmental groups, like Monterrey Bay, were telling people to eat only cod caught on hooks. Do you want to address that?

A: EDF doesn't oppose any gear type nor do we favor one over the other. We see that markets have a role, but also management, in what gear fishermen choose to use, and how they use it. We've seen a big increase in gear innovation in response to changing regulations and incentives about bycatch in particular. There are a lot of great examples of fishermen in New England and elsewhere making changes to their gear that reduces bottom contact and the weight of their gear, so there are savings to fishermen and lower impacts on habitat.

 

Read the complete interview from The South Coast Today

 

 

 

 

 

While fishing the Chesapeake Bay not long ago, we watched as water craft wrapped nets around a huge, purplish mass of baitfish, their surface-dimpling movements detected by a spotter plane that droned above us. As a cloud of gulls screeched over the water, the fish were sucked into a vessel more akin to a ship than a boat.

Texas-based Omega Protein Corp. was at work, capturing tons of menhaden for its processing plant in Reedsville. The take provides the ingredient for everything from pet food to healthy heart fish oil.

The menhaden grab is a common scene across the Bay’s landscape. It is unnerving for sport fishermen who view menhaden as a vital and declining food source for striped bass, bluefish, trout, flounder, drum and other species they hold in high esteem.

Sport fishermen and environmentalists believe that when you harm menhaden, you aren’t just harming a single species, you are threatening the entire ecosystem. Already there are signs that striped bass are under stress in the Chesapeake Bay, which is the species principal spawning grounds. No wonder menhaden are called “the most important fish in the sea,” which happens to be the title of a probing book on the species by H. Bruce Franklin.

To be sure, Omega Protein is engaged in a lawful business that provides jobs, pays shareowners and stimulates the economy. The fact that the company posted $168 million in revenue last year is of no small importance in today’s challenging business climate.

But angling groups, joined by environmental organizations, point to other figures. They say there has been an alarming 88 percent decline in the menhaden population the past 25 years. This has brought pressured for a new management plan from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a multistate organization charged with the well-being of this species.

Much to the irritation of sport fishermen, the ASMFC has insisted that over-fishing is not a factor, that the stock is sufficient to satisfy the needs of fish, birds, marine mammals, the baitfish business and the purse seine industry.

But recently ASMFC has expressed more tolerance for the concerns of anglers; thus, it was a huge and historical victory for sport fishermen earlier this month when the agency voted to begin a public comment period on a draft addendum to the present menhaden management plan. The goal is to increase the menhaden breeding stock along the Atlantic Coast, including the Chesapeake Bay. Options will range from reducing the harvest by as much as 45 percent to maintaining the status quo.

Read the full article at The Roanoke Times.

 

Analysis:

While the article is correct in asserting that menhaden are a food source for various species prized by angles, it is incorrect in asserting that menhaden are a primary or irreplaceable part of these fishes' diets. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), as part of their Chesapeake Multispecies Monitoring and Assessment Program (ChesMMAP) initiative , has studied the diets of various fish species in the Chesapeake. It concluded that menhaden make up as little as 9.6% of striped bass diets, 11% of bluefish diets, and less that 10% of flounder diets. As the article notes, the ASMFC has concluded that menhaden are not overfished.

 

 

 

 

WARRENTON, Ore. – Perhaps you've had salmon, tuna or swordfish for dinner recently. Or maybe it's on the menu tonight. Every big fish that lands on your plate got that big by eating lots and lots of little fish.

If you don't have abundant small fish in the ocean, you won't have the big fish. That's why some scientists, fishery managers and advocacy groups are paying more attention to the small prey in the sea.

Commercial fisherman Ryan Kapp of Bellingham argues the West Coast sardine, anchovy and herring fisheries are already quite conservatively managed.

"Seeing that none of these stocks are overfished or even approaching overfishing, I just a soon leave it alone. We have enough regulations to keep track of as it is," Kapp said.

Environmentalists worry rising global demand for seafood and fish meal will put pressure on Pacific bait fish. At the Pew Environment Group, Paul Shively invokes the precautionary principal.

 

Read the complete story from NPR's Seattle affiliate KPLU

 

 

 

 

 

 

COURT HOUSE – The Cape May County Library invites the public to attend “Menhaden Defenders: Restoring the Atlantic's Most Important Fish” presented by Captain Paul Eidman. The program will be held on Wed., Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. at the Main Branch Library located at 30 Mechanic Street, Cape May Court House.

The over-exploitation of the Atlantic's prized menhaden fishery has implications for anglers and coastal lovers from Maine to Florida and for the marine ecosystem. Menhaden Defenders seeks to restore Atlantic menhaden populations so that they can fulfill their vital ecological role. The group is comprised of anglers and conservationists along the East Coast.

Learn more about the plight of this critical species from Captain Paul Eidman. Captain Eidman grew up fishing with his father and grandfather out on Long Island and brought his love of fishing to New Jersey in the ‘70s. Eidman is an experienced saltwater fly fishing guide for striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, false albacore, Bonito and more. The current state of fishing in the Atlantic has raised his concern and turned him into an ocean advocate who hopes to protect the fish for future generations.

For more information, call 463-6350 or visit www.cmclibrary.org.

Read the full article at the Cape May County Herald.

Analysis: There is significant evidence disputing two of the claims made here: that menhaden are overfished and that overfishing affects menhaden's ecological role. The most recent measurements by the ASMFC state that the menhaden population in the Chesapeake Bay is currently not overfished, with the menhaden population at or above its mortality and fecundity targets. There are also questions as to how important menhaden are in fulfilling ecological roles as filter-feeders and food for larger predators. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS ) at William and Mary recently concluded that menhaden actually do very little to affect water quality. Similarly, in a different study , VIMS concluded that menhaden can make up to as little as 9.6% of striped bass diet.

 

 

 

 

At their meeting later this week in Wilmington, Del., the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will announce that the summer flounder quota will increase yet again,according to  the Pew Environment Group.

They say the management  council’s scientific advisers recommended an increase in the annual catch limit of up to 1.6 million pounds, which would raise it to 35.55 million pounds for 2012. This would represent a 125 percent increase from a low of 15.77 million pounds in 2008. Furthermore, preliminary scientific data indicates that the summer flounder population has been fully rebuilt to a healthy level in 2011, nearly two years ahead of the congressionally mandated deadline of 2013.

Pew say a continued increase in annual quotas for summer flounder clearly illustrates that the rebuilding provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary US law that governs management of ocean fish populations, are working. When fisheries managers follow the science and the law on the books, they can achieve “remarkable successes.”

 

Read the complete story from Fish News EU

 

 

 

 

 

Some encouraging news in recent days about two of the Chesapeake Bay’s most important living resources, menhaden and blue crabs.

First, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) voted last week to move forward with a series of proposals that should help increase the overall number of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay.

Menhaden, frequently dubbed “the most important fish in the sea” because of their critical ecological role, have been declining in number in the Bay and along the Atlantic coast for many years. The decline has marine scientists worried, as menhaden are a major food source for other Bay creatures, including game fish, sea birds, raptors, and marine mammals. Menhaden also help maintain a balanced marine ecosystem by consuming immense quantities of plankton in the Bay.
Menhaden play an important commercial role as well. They are the object of an intense industrial fishery that takes 85,000 to 90,000 tons of menhaden out of the Bay each year to manufacture cosmetics, fish oil pills, and animal feed. They are also caught and used as bait for crabs and other species.

Recent ASMFC studies have found that menhaden have been overfished for decades, and the commission last week concluded that it’s time to more tightly restrict how many menhaden can be safely harvested each year and still maintain a healthy population and sustainable fishery.

 Read the whole article at the Bay Daily.

Analysis: There is considerable doubt that the current level of menhaden fishing is unsustainable. At its current level of fishing, the menhaden stock is at both the target abundance and is at twice the level where it would be considered overfished. There is also doubt as to whether menhaden are actually filter feeders as commonly believed. A recent study by the Virginia Institute of Marine science concluded that menhaden actually have little impact on overall water quality.

 

 

 

 

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Tangible management of menhaden in the Atlantic moved another step closer to reality this week when the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) voted to send a series of management options for this critical forage species out to public hearings.

Menhaden management has long been a sore point among conservationists as intense commercial harvest of the species in the Chesapeake Bay has added to factors believed to be negatively impacting striped bass and other gamefish all along the East Coast. The primary industrial harvester of Atlantic menhaden, Omega Protein, has never had its harvest effectively restricted and stands as one of the very few commercial fishing operations in the country to successfully avoid management measures that might impact its bottom line.

There is also a completely unregulated bait fishery that targets menhaden throughout its East Coast range.  Comprised of boats of all sizes, from large mid-water trawlers to small skiffs, it supplies bait to both the commercial and recreational fishery.  The quantity of menhaden harvested by that industry has never been comprehensively assessed, but it is undoubtedly significant.  In addition, the fishery is believed to be expanding as northeastern lobstermen seek a substitute for the more strictly regulated, Atlantic herring, which is decreasing in abundance.

The most current menhaden stock assessment showed the stock was undergoing overfishing and abundance estimates were at the lowest level ever recorded. Current science indicates that the menhaden spawning stock biomass is at about 9 percent of a stock that is not subjected to any fishing pressure. With the vote this week, the ASMFC has put into play management options that could increase the spawning stock biomass to15 percent or more.

Read the full article at CCA.

Analysis: It is not true that Omega's fishing operations in the Chesapeake Bay are completely unregulated. Currently, they're limited to 109,020 metric tons a year by the ASMFC, a rate that neither has lead to overfishing nor caused the population to be overfished. It is also not true that the ASMFC's limit does nothing to protect the menhaden population. According to the last stock assessment by the ASMFC, the menhaden population met 99% of its fecundity target, and, at 198% of its limit, is twice the size of a population that would be considered overfished.