The following is excerpted from the Louisiana Sportsman:
Some biologists have called the Gulf of Mexico menhaden fishery a near-perfect fishery. Factors of such a perfect commercial fishery would include:
* Low bycatch.
* A stable number of fishermen, without the big swings in numbers that often occur in commercial fisheries.
* The fishery would not be in competition with recreational fishermen for the fish.
* The number of fishermen in the fishery would be small enough to monitor their catch accurately.
* All parts of the fish would be used, with no backbones, skin, shells or other waste to discard.
* The fishery would be consistently profitable.
The most-difficult goal of these six elements to meet has been the last one – profitability – although recent years have been good to the fishery.
Pogies numbers are awe-inspiring – in the many, many millions. They swim in massive, silvery schools that attract many predator species, including man. The primary target of the fishery is the gulf menhaden, Brevoortia patronus, found between Orange Beach, Ala., and Freeport, Texas.
Menhaden are caught with a large purse seine, but located by the pilot of a small spotter airplane.
The fishery is the largest by weight in the Gulf, averaging 1.1 billion pounds per year. Almost all of that catch is reduced into fish oil, meal and solubles. Because of exports, the fishery provides jobs in the United States funded with dollars imported from other countries.
Read the full story at the Louisiana Sportsman