Most Americans are familiar with that tale of early agricultural history, as one part of the story of the first Thanksgiving. But very few know that the fish, which was so important to the early colonists, was menhaden. WASHINGTON – January 5, 2012 — School children are often taught how the first settlers at Plymouth survived by learning from Native Americans to plant their corn seeds with a fish alongside. As the fish decayed in the ground, it provided fertilizer to the young plant, which would otherwise have perished in the barren New England soil.
Most Americans are familiar with that tale of early agricultural history, as one part of the story of the first Thanksgiving. But very few know that the fish, which was so important to the early colonists, was menhaden.
Menhaden’s first use in North America was as a fertilizer, and though 400 years later we still use it for that purpose, the applications for the oils and fishmeal derived from this small fish today are multifold.
Menhaden has seen use as a fuel, as an ingredient in industrial commodities, and most recently as a nutritional supplement. Once making up an economy that spanned most of the Atlantic coast, the menhaden fishery is now centered in the town of Reedville, in Virginia’s Northern Neck.. Though only a few blocks wide and populated by an estimated 2,000 people, Reedville is the largest port on the East coast in terms of volume, largely because of the menhaden fishery, which has dominated the economic and cultural life of Reedville since the 19th century.
In the 1860s, the menhaden fishery was based out of New England and Long Island, New York, with most of the menhaden caught used to make oil. Prior to the widespread use of petroleum, which had first been discovered in 1859, oil from sea creatures was the primary oil for lubrication, illumination, fuel, and other products. That need was first was filled by whale oil. As demand for oil increased, and whales became an increasingly rare sight off the New England coast, the abundant schools of menhaden were used to fill the need for readily available and relatively cheap fuel. Dozens of factories were operating in the region by the end of the decade.
Elijah Reed, a menhaden fisherman from Maine, became frustrated with the competitive fishing in his home state and the diminishing returns from the highly competitive fishery and sought out more abundant grounds. This led him in 1867 to the Chesapeake Bay, which was a largely untapped menhaden fishing ground. He established facilities at a site on Cockrell’s Creek in Reedville, where he founded the town that bears his name today. Proving successful, his business led to the arrival of many other similar enterprises.
“Most of them were family businesses,” says Donald George, the archivist at the Reedville Fisherman’s Museum, describing the early menhaden industry. “Jobs were passed down from father to son.”
Out of the many family-owned companies formed in and around Reedville, which at their peak controlled nearly 70 boats fishing much of the East Coast, only the one started by the Haynie family remains. It is known today as Omega Protein.
The Haynies have roots in the Reedville area that reach back to the founding of the Virginia colony. Brothers Thomas and John Haynie began their menhaden business in Reedville in 1878. Over time, the business was known by many names, including Reedville Oil and Guano and Haynie Products.
The menhaden industry reached its peak in the early-to-mid 20th century, with dozens of companies fishing out of the Northern Neck. “Almost every [Reedville] native has some relative who once worked at a fish plant,” says Monty Diehl, the current manager of Omega’s Reedville plant. “There are strong cultural ties to fishing.”
In the earliest years of the fishery through the mid-20th century, menhaden fishing was a labor-intensive business, with dozens of men required to manually operate the equipment. In those days before refrigeration, they also needed to rapidly transport the catch to shore before it spoiled. In the mid-twentieth century, the fleet became increasingly mechanized.
“In the 1950s, you had the power lock, which reduced the need for labor, nylon nets, so you could catch larger loads, and refrigeration, which helped reduce the need for boats,” says George. These technological changes along with some years of poor harvests and increasing regulatory pressure, according to George, led to the consolidation of the fleet in the post-war era.
In the 1970s, the Haynie’s business was purchased by the Zapata Corporation, and changed its name to Zapata Haynie, and later Zapata Protein. In the 1990s, it changed its name once more to Omega Protein, and became a publicly listed company in 1998. Omega became completely independent of Zapata in 2006.
Omega continues to operate out of Reedville, where the industry, while smaller than it once was, remains critically important to the economy of the Northern Neck. The plant employs 300 workers, but provides for hundreds more jobs indirectly through contractors, vendors, and suppliers. Almost all of the company’s vendors are in the Northern Neck area, and Omega’s total operations are estimated to contribute $88 million in economic output in the region, with over $10 million in payroll and benefits, according to a 2011 economic impact study sponsored by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
Menhaden holds a special place in the cultural history of Reedville. It remains the primary employment opportunity for young people in the area, where many have made their careers in the fishery. Diehl estimates the average tenure of an Omega employee is 20 years, with some employees staying with the company over 45 years, adding that most of Omega’s Reedville employees have multi-generational ties to the business.
“This is more like a family business than a corporate entity,” Diehl explains. “The name has changed many times over the years, but the same people work here like their fathers have and their grandfathers have.”
As the industry has grown and evolved, the use of menhaden oil has expanded well beyond its original applications. Originally a fertilizer, then a fuel, by the 20th century menhaden oil found use as a lubricant and as an ingredient in various industrial and consumer products, such as paint and cosmetics. Beginning in the 1980s, menhaden oil was discovered to serve a beneficial role for use in animal feed, a trend that expanded in the 1990s to include its use in pet food and feed for domestic animals.
In 1997, after years of research and development, the FDA awarded the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) designation to the use of ultra highly refined menhaden oil in human food products. Menhaden oil is rich is omega 3 fatty acids, which have been shown to have a variety of health benefits, including improved blood circulation and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. As the benefits of omega 3 consumption have become better known, menhaden oil has experienced a marked increase in its popularity. Today there are an ever-expanding variety of products boasting omega 3 as an ingredient, and much of that comes from menhaden-derived omega 3 fatty acids.
Responding to the demands of a developing market, Omega Protein has expanded beyond the fishery’s traditional focus on fish oil and fishmeal, and is moving into the health supplements market. This began on a small scale in 2000 with the manufacturing of omega 3 supplement capsules. Expansion into the health market continued with the 2010 acquisition of Cyvex Nutrition, an Irvine, California-based health and nutrition supplement company; through Cyvex, Omega distributes OmegaActiv, an omega 3 capsule that is certified as sustainable by environmental non-profit Friend of the Sea. Omega continued its move into the nutritional market in 2011 by acquiring InCon, a chemical manufacturer that, among other things, produces concentrated omega 3 fish oil and is located in Batavia, Illinois.
