The federal authority that oversees our marine resources finally understands how we need to preserve species at both ends of the food chain.
The Atlantic States Maine Fisheries Commission voted this past week to reduce the menhaden harvest by almost 37 percent. Anglers have always known how important this species is on the food chain, feeding everything from tuna, to bluefish and striped bass.
The Narragansett Indians called the fish munnawhatteaug, “that which manures,” soon corrupted to “menhaden” by the English colonists. Along a good part of the mid-Atlantic they’re known as bunker and further north as pogy.
Termed “the ocean’s unlikely hero” by author H. Bruce Franklin, menhaden have shaped America’s national — and natural — history. Many saltwater anglers on the East Coast might realize their fishing success is dependent on menhaden because these small forage fish support many of the Atlantic’s most important recreational fisheries.
The commission has regulatory oversight of menhaden harvest and other fisheries in state waters from Maine through eastern Florida. The current benchmarks used by the commission show the menhaden stock is undergoing overfishing, and overfishing has occurred in the menhaden fishery in 32 of the last 54 years.
Nearly all of the commercial menhaden harvest is caught by Omega Protein Corp., whose factory processes the hundreds of millions of pounds of menhaden caught annually primarily for fish meal and oil. Menhaden oil is used in animal feed, dietary supplements and other commercial products.
Read the full article by Ken Moran in the New York Post.
Analysis: While the article is correct in saying that menhaden have been overfished in 32 of the past 54 years, it is wrong in saying that the population is currently overfished. The 2010 Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) stock assessment concluded that the stock was not overfished, even though overfishing had occurred in 2008. The distinction between overfishing occurring and the stock being overfished is that, even though fishing slightly exceeded the fishing mortality threshold in 2008, egg production in the fishery was still at its target level. 2008 was the only year in the last ten in which overfishing occurred.