April 2, 2012 – An international group of marine scientists is calling for cuts in commercial fishing for sardines, herring and other so-called forage fish whose use as food for fish farms is soaring. The catch should be cut in half for some fisheries, the scientists say, to protect populations of both the fish and the natural predators that depend on them.
“The message is, if you cut back on harvesting of forage fish, there will be benefits,” said Ellen K. Pikitch, director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University and chairwoman of the task force that produced a report on the issue that was released Sunday.
The report, “Little Fish, Big Impact,” financed by the Lenfest Foundation through the Pew Charitable Trusts, details how fishing has increased for these fish, which now account for 37 percent, by weight, of all fish harvested worldwide, up from about 8 percent half a century ago. The consumer market for forage fish is relatively small; most of the fish are ground and processed for use as animal feed and nutritional supplements and, increasingly, as feed for the aquaculture industry, which now produces about half of all the fish and shellfish that people eat.
On the East Coast, the fishery for menhaden, a forage fish, is the largest in the region, and about 80 percent of the catch is processed into meal and other products. The abundance of menhaden has declined over the last quarter-century, said Edward D. Houde, a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and a member of the task force, as the fish’s reproductive rate has fallen. Yet fishing has continued at a high rate.
Bob Beal, an official with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a regional group that coordinates management plans for the menhaden and other fisheries, said that in 2010, the menhaden population was estimated to have been reduced to 8 percent of its maximum potential. As a result, Mr. Beal said, the commission has recommended reducing the allowable catch so that the population roughly doubles, to a threshold of 15 percent of the maximum level, with an eventual target of 30 percent. The reductions would take place next spring, after a period to allow for public comments on the proposal.
Read the full article at the New York Times.
Analysis: While a member of the forage fish task force is quoted saying “if you cut back on harvesting forage fish, there will be benefits,” the available evidence on menhaden suggests that reducing the commercial harvest might not significantly impact the growth of the menhaden population.
In its 2010 stock assessment, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) wrote, “past performance of the Atlantic menhaden suggests it has gone from periods of low recruitment [the number of menhaden that spawn] and fecundity [the number of eggs produced by the stock] to periods with high recruitment and fecundity, while sustaining moderate to high landings.” It further notes that recent landings that are low by historical standards do not seem to correlate with recruitment levels. It concludes that these trends may indicate that fluctuations in the menhaden population may be “almost entirely driven by non-fishery sources.”
In addition to evidence that suggests reducing the commercial menhaden catch may not be an efficient way to increase stock size, there is also evidence that localized depletion of menhaden in the Chesapeake may not be as big a problem as assumed. As mentioned in the Lenfest report, the Chesapeake has seen its striped bass population, as well as the populations of piscivorous birds like ospreys have rebounded in recent years. Since all of these species feed on menhaden, among several other species of fish, there recovery does not suggest a lack of forage in the Chesapeake Bay.