December 21, 2012 โ 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 commissionโs 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 eatsโAtlantic menhaden.
Iโve written about menhaden before; small, bony, and oily, it isnโt much of a meal for humans. But itโs 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 (โThe Bottom Line: Big Turnout for Little Menhadenโ, 12/6), Pew Environment Groupโs Lee Crockett continues his organizationโs misleading Atlantic menhaden campaign by repeating several claims that could be considered โPew-generatedโ.
The article includes the widely circulated Pew Environment claim that the menhaden population, โhas plunged 90 percent to historically low levels.โ Here, Mr. Crockett has disingenuously chosen a specific year of record highs to begin his โstatisticโ, creating a fictional, pessimistic decline, while ignoring substantial periods of the fisheryโs 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 Pewโs assertion to be โmostly falseโ because of their selective representation of the menhadenโs history.
Mr. Crockett cites a โrecent study of โforage fishโ such as menhadenโ to support his argument that a 50 percent reduction in menhaden harvest is necessary. Mr. Crockett doesnโt tell readers that the studyโs sponsor, the Lenfest Ocean Program, is managed by Pew.
Mr. Crockett cites โa letter signed by 94 leading scientistsโ to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) saying current measures are inadequate. Mr. Crockett doesnโt 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 โMore than 128,000 people flooded the commissionโs inboxesโฆfor public comment.โ What he doesnโt say is that response was generated by Pew-organized online campaigns โ in partnership with Greenpeace and other groups โ using alarmist and sensationalized headlines that selectively presented facts. The validity of the number of comments has also been called into question.
In last weekโs 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. Crockettโs 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. Crockettโs 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 โastroturfโ.