September 20, 2018 — A tug-of-war over menhaden baitfish has been playing out for the last half-dozen years in quiet library meeting rooms and hotel lobbies from Maine to Florida.
Now it’s taken to the high seas.
Twice in three weeks, a pair of industrial-size reduction boats from Reedsville, Virginia came within sight of Sandy Hook to net the bait, removing nearly 3 million pounds of the fish from the water on the two trips.
A sum equal to one-tenth of one percent of all the menhaden in the ocean.
The boats were within their legal right but a social media dust-up ensued with whale watchers and conservationists who homed their cameras in on the boats. See the above video.
They then blasted their pictures and videos on the web, clamoring the boats took the fish out of the mouths of hungry humpback whales.
“The simple sight of our vessels sets them off. They don’t say anything about the bait guys who take 70 million pounds of fish,” said Ben Landry, spokesman for Omega Protein, the company that owns the boats.
Omega Protein operates the lone fish reduction industry on the East Coast. The company’s name is a reference to menhaden’s rich source of Omega 3 fatty acids.
The company’s workforce is made up of multi-generational fishermen who have been harvesting the menhaden for years and raising their families on the fish.
But some want them to slow down, if not stop completely, and leave more menhaden in the water to feed big marine mammals like whales and game fish.
Menhaden, also known as bunker, play a vital role in the ecosystem as filter feeders that turn plankton into fat and protein.