Between teaching business sustainability and corporate responsibility classes, I've been plying the coastal waters and estuaries of New Hampshire for more than 20 years, fishing for striped bass and bluefish.
My passion for saltwater fishing led me to write about fishing, including a 2009 article, "Granite State stripers" for Fly Fisherman magazine. But unfortunately, I'm not able to write anything enthusiastic about saltwater fishing in New Hampshire today, because menhaden, the most important source of forage for all our gamefish, are on the brink of collapse.
When striped bass populations were allowed to collapse along the Eastern Seaboard in the early 1990s, the economic impacts felt by the recreational fishing and coastal tourism industries were obvious. As the populations rebounded, so were the benefits to fishing tourism and coastal ecosystems. I thought we'd learned our lessons about the folly of overfishing once and for all. Apparently not.
Sound scientific information shows menhaden populations have declined by more than 85 percent. Omega Protein, the company responsible for almost all menhaden harvesting, has exceeded sustainable fishing levels every year except one since 1955, with no penalties or corrective measures. In this day and age, we know perfectly well that allowing industrial fishing operations to harvest unlimited quantities of fish with no threat of penalty is a terrible way to "manage" our coastal ecosystems, much less incentivize businesses to operate sustainably and responsibly.
It's incumbent upon the Atlantic States Fisheries Commission to make major cuts in the menhaden harvest, lest we lose the species that all large predators depend upon. Affected fish species include stripers, blues, weakfish, tuna, cod and swordfish, as well as haddock, halibut and king mackerel. Ospreys, loons, eagles, sea turtles and other marine mammals and birds depend on menhaden. The fish is also important bait for lobster and crab industries, while recreational fishing for stripers alone is enjoyed by 3 million anglers per year to the tune of $6 billion and 60,000 jobs. The other unique thing about the menhaden is that they feed by filtering nutrient-rich phytoplankton — tiny plants — from the water column, helping to keep coastal waters clean. In short, declining menhaden populations impoverishes everything, including, soon enough, Omega Protein's revenues.
Read the full article at Sea Coast Online.
Analysis: The article is incorrect in saying that the reduction fishery "has exceeded sustainable fishing levels every year except one since 1955." According to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which is responsible for regulating the menhaden fishery, the menhaden population is not overfished. Rather than being fished at chronically unsustainable rates, overfishing has only occured once in the last ten years, in 2008, and the abundance levels in the fishery remain at or near target, which is why the population is currently not overfished.