September 10, 2012 — "We've got to end overfishing," said Louis Daniel, a North Carolina fisheries manager who chairs ASMFC's menhaden board. But because the stock assessment "blew up," he added, the extent to which cuts should be made beyond what's needed to end overfishing is uncertain.
"Until we get a new stock assessment, what justification do we have to continue ratcheting down?" Daniel asked.
Regional fisheries officials in August reaffirmed their desire to reduce the catch of menhaden along the East Coast, even as they acknowledged greater uncertainty about what the catch limit should be.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission agreed to take public comments this fall on a range of options to reduce harvest of the small, oily fish that has sparked a huge controversy in recent years.
But it also concluded that the latest update to its menhaden stock assessment has flaws that cast doubt on its usefulness to identify the optimal size for the coastal menhaden population.
The ASMFC, which consists of state and federal fishery managers, is responsible for managing migratory species in state waters — those within 3 miles of the shoreline — along the East Coast.
Last November, in the wake of a stock assessment showing that overfishing was taking place, its Menhaden Management Board agreed for the first time to limit the coastwide catch of menhaden to protect the stock. Recreational anglers and conservationists claimed victory, having long contended that too many of the fish are being harvested, depriving striped bass and other predators of an adequate food supply.
But an update to that assessment clouded the picture. The results—generated by a computer model — poorly matched actual data about the stock in several instances. Although those problems had been evident in the last assessment, the magnitude of the mismatch increased.
Ron Lukens, a representative of Omerga Protein, the largest menhaden harvester along the coast, voiced concerns to the board about "significant issues with the latest stock assessment."
But the scientific technical committee that advises the menhaden board concluded that uncertainties in the model likely don't change the overall conclusion that menhaden overfishing is taking place, because other data also support that conclusion.
Read the full story at the Chesapeake Bay Journal.