For well over a century, commercial and recreational anglers have argued about menhaden harvesting. In the past few decades, however, conservationists who may or may not be anglers have also entered the fray, advocating for tighter controls on harvesting. The battle lines have been drawn between conservationists and recreational anglers on the one hand, who see commercial anglers as greedy and malevolent despoilers of our natural resources, and commercial anglers on the other hand, who argue that while others are out fishing for fun, they're working these resources to provide for their families.
Once upon a time the East Coast menhaden industry was very strong, outstripping even the commercial whaling industry. More than 150 processing plants dotted the Eastern seaboard, with more than a dozen in the state of Maine alone. Docks were filled with millions of tons of menhaden that, when sold, catapulted the coastal towns that housed them to prosperity. Times have certainly changed: Now just one East Coast plant still operates. Houston-based Omega Protein, which has another processing center in Louisiana, is the largest harvester of menhaden in North America and is viewed by many as the prime culprit in dwindling menhaden stocks. Their East Coast fleet of nine ships, some of which can hold a million menhaden at a time, are a common sight in the Chesapeake Bay. The ships work closely with their spotter planes to find, harvest, and then deliver menhaden to their processing plant in Reedville, Virginia. The plant employs about 300 workers and processes millions of pounds of menhaden each season, turning the oily baitfish into industrial products like lubricants, heart-healthy food supplements, pet food, and, ironically, commercial fish food. The company?s industrial fishing fleet accounts for about 80 percent of the menhaden harvested on the East Coast.
The remaining 20 percent of menhaden is harvested commercially by much smaller independent operators like Lund Seafood in Cape May, New Jersey, which fishes for a variety of species and then sells those fish to customers along the East Coast. Ocean Bait Inc. of Weems, Virginia, is an even smaller commercial operator that sells all its fish to a single wholesaler, which in turn distributes the fish to points south. Occasionally packing limitations prevent Ocean Bait from processing all of the menhaden it catches, in which case it sells what is left over to Omega Protein. Most of the menhaden caught by smaller commercial anglers end up as bait for crabbers, lobstermen, and of course bait and tackle shops, which eventually resell to recreational anglers.
For many years conservationists, recreational anglers, and commercial fishermen have argued over just how many menhaden need to be left in the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding area. Humans don?t eat menhaden, but just about everything else in the ocean does. Also known as bunker, pogie, and fatback, menhaden are a prime target for predator species and are crucial to the survival and health of other marine life like crabs, lobsters, ospreys, and even loons. (Menhaden, by the way, aren?t the only forage fish fly anglers should care about: Popular gamefish like trout, stripers, and bass eat spring runs of river herring and shad once they enter their natal rivers to spawn. Unfortunately, these river herring are also seeing their numbers decline precipitously.)
Read the full article at Save Menhaden.
Analysis: The article is misleading when it says the menhaden population is "8 percent of its historical size." That estimate refers to menhaden's Maximum Spawning Potential (MSP), which is an estimate of the size of a theoretical unfished population, not an historical measurement. Menhaden are fished to around 8 perent of their MSP, but this is not a sign that they are overfished; the population has historically been able to rebuild at that level, and MSP is poorly correlated with menhaden recruitment.
It is also important to note that the stock is not currently overfished. In its 2010 stock assessment, the ASMFC concluded that overfishing did occur in 2008. However, this was not enough for the ASMFC to declare the fishery overfished; the overfishing in 2008 only slightly exceeded the mortality threshold, and egg production in the fishery was still at target levels. This was the only time in the last ten years that the population had experienced overfishing.