February 5, 2015 — There are more menhaden than previously thought, according to a new stock assessment, calling into question whether there was a need for a 20 percent reduction on the menhaden fishery about three years ago.
Menhaden are managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which also manages other coastal fishery species. A benchmark stock assessment from 2009 to 2011 led the ASMFC to order East Coast states to impose a 20 percent reduction on the menhaden fishery, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources put that reduction into place in 2013.
The reduction triggered a lawsuit from Maryland watermen, who argued that it was not needed.
At the time, officials from both DNR and the ASMFC said the reduction was ordered based on the best available science they had.
Now, a 2015 menhaden benchmark stock assessment has determined the resource commonly called “the most important fish in the sea” is not overfished or experiencing overfishing.
Capt. Rob Newberry — a spokesman for the Harvesters Land and Sea Coalition, members from which initiated the lawsuit against DNR over the menhaden regulations — said, “We were right. They were wrong.”
“My thing for the Harvesters, we don’t need these regulations. Lift the regulations. Let us continue on our fishery the way we have been and just keep going. We said all along they weren’t necessary,” Newberry said.