SOUTH PORTLAND – Scientists have called menhaden "the most important fish in the ocean," and for good reason. The species, commonly called "bunker" by mid-Atlantic and New England anglers, grows to about 15 inches of oil- and protein-packed body length.
They feed by filtering nutrient-rich phytoplankton — tiny plants — from the water column. In doing so, menhaden help clean our coastal waters, and their diet makes them a nutrition-packed source of food and energy for many predator fish, birds such as eagles and ospreys and marine mammals, including dolphins.
The oils they provide are particularly important for animals generating eggs, recovering from the stress of spawning or fueling up for long annual migrations. Unfortunately, populations of these small fish have sunk nearly 80 percent during the last 25 years and are at an all-time low, threatening the entire marine food web.
This includes the striped bass fishery and many of the marine predators pursued by anglers enthusiastically and sustainably all along the Atlantic seaboard.
It's hard to overstate the threat that a continued decline in the menhaden population poses. If managers continue to allow menhaden to be caught at levels that don't leave enough in the water for predator species, the consequences could include sick fish due to malnutrition, less successful spawns for many fish species and ultimately fewer and smaller marine game fish, especially striped bass.
These impacts would cascade deeply and widely through our already weak coastal economies and could amount to thousands of jobs lost.
The good news is that for the first time in history, managers are actually considering reducing the menhaden harvest.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will hold a public hearing from 6-9 p.m. Monday at The Yarmouth Log Cabin, 196 Main St.
Read the full article at the Portland Press Herald.
Analysis: The article makes several misleading claims about the menhaden fishery. First, the ASMFC has judged that menhaden are not overfished in their latest stock assessment, and the population has only been overfished once in the last 10 years. The number of menhaden in the Bay depend on a number of environmental factors and is not limited to the influence of commercial reduction fishery.
Second, menhaden's role as a filter feeder is in doubt. A recent study by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science concluded they have little net impact on water quality.
Finally, the article overstates the importance of menhaden to striped bass diet. Bass do feed on menhaden, but menhaden are not an irreplaceable part of the diet. Bass feed on a variety of species of fishes, and other factors such as the location of menhaden and bass schools and the prevalence of other feed species also have an impact on what bass eat. An ongoing VIMS survey has found that they can make up as little as 9.6% of striped bass diet.