Novermber 7, 2012 — Conservation of our marine resources is essential. But good conservation is based on sound science and strikes a balance between the concerns of environmentalists and the needs of fishermen whose livelihoods are at stake. Taking drastic action on inconclusive evidence helps neither the fish nor the fishermen.
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The following op-ed ran in the Standard-Times in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The various scientific documents cited by the authors are listed in a bibliography at the foot of the text to which the documents are linked in their entirety.
Throughout the text, links inserted by Saving Seafood take the reader to PDF images of the specific pages of the documents referenced.
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BOSTON (The Standard-Times) Nov. 7, 2012 — As the product of the largest fishery by weight on the East Coast, Atlantic menhaden is a vital species to a broad swath of hard-working communities, from Chesapeake watermen working in the reduction industry, to New England lobstermen using the fish for bait. With the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission poised to place new harvest caps on the fishery this December, the implications will be felt coastwide.
Environmental organizations, like the Pew Environment Group, have taken this opportunity to push for sharp catch reductions. Writing in a recent petition drive that "the best scientific information available shows that menhaden are in severe decline and that catch should immediately be reduced by half," Pew is pushing for the harshest of a suite of measures being considered by the ASMFC. However, the truth is much more nuanced than the environmental advocacy community has otherwise claimed.
In 2010, an ASMFC stock assessment found that menhaden were experiencing overfishing, meaning that, in 2008 (the last year of the assessment) fishing exceeded the ASMFC's designated mortality limit. This triggered the management process culminating in this December's prospective catch limits. But the recent history of the fishery has not been marked by a pattern of over-exploitation: In 2008 overfishing was slight (.4 percent over the limit), and was only the second time in the period from 1993-2008 where it had even occurred. The stock fared even better in measures of fecundity (the number of eggs produced). The assessment found the population was producing more than enough eggs to sustain itself, meaning it was not overfished.
Further complicating the management process is the 2012 assessment. While it concluded that overfishing was still occurring but that the population was not overfished, the assessment was regarded by the ASMFC's Menhaden Technical Committee as severely flawed, especially its pessimistic estimations of menhaden biomass and fishing mortality. The committee found that these flaws were so bad that the assessment was unfit for management advice. As a result, officials at the ASMFC are now expected to regulate a fishery whose exact status is uncertain, and where the last reliable data comes from 2008.
What is certain is that adopting the maximalist position put forth by some environmental groups, and cutting harvests by 50 percent, would have a devastating impact on the fishery. The Virginia-based reduction fishery is the lifeblood of Virginia's Northern Neck, directly employing 300 people, and indirectly employing hundreds more. It annually produces an estimated $80 million in economic output in a region where dependable, good-paying jobs are otherwise scarce. But menhaden's value extends far beyond the Chesapeake's waters: fisheries up and down the East Coast, including marquee New England fisheries like lobster, rely on menhaden for bait, which has the potential to become more scarce and more expensive in the face of draconian harvest cuts.
Louis Silvestro is vice president and Adam Holbrook is plant manager at Channel Fish Co. of Boston.
Read the op-ed at the New Bedford Standard Times
Works Cited
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, “Stock Assessment Report No. 10-02 of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Atlantic Menhaden Stock Assessment and Review Panel Reports,” 2010
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, "2012 Atlantic Menhaden Stock Assessment Update," 2012
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, “Menhaden SAS/TC Conference Call 5/29/12,” 2012
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, “Atlantic Menhaden Stock Assessment Subcommittee Conference Call Summary," June 15, 2012
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, “Atlantic Menhaden Technical Committee Meeting Summary 6/25/2012,” 2012
Kirkley, James E. “An Assessment of the Social and Economic Importance of Menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) (Latrobe, 1802) In Chesapeake Bay Region,” 2011