by Jonathan Hemmerdinger
Special to Saving Seafood
WASHINGTON – September 23, 2010 – The commercial fishing industry and environmentalists continue to disagree about the state of menhaden stocks after the release of data showing a significant uptick in the pace of 2010 menhaden landings.
According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, menhaden landings in the Atlantic Ocean—including the Chesapeake Bay—between May and the end of August were 45 percent higher than landings during the same period in 2009, and 32 percent higher than five-year average landings.
During the period, Atlantic purse seine vessels—most owned by Omega Protein—caught some 121,000 metric tons of menhaden, compared to some 83,000 metric tons in 2009. Omega operates a fleet of menhaden fishing boats and a menhaden “reduction” plant in Reedville, Va., where the oily fish are processed into omega-3 fish oil and livestock and aquaculture feed, among other products.
"Really good numbers are coming out of Reedville," said Ben Landry, Omega's director of public affairs'. "Menhaden are out there in impressive numbers … The sky is not falling."
Landry, who said Omega has fished with the same number of boats and in comparable weather conditions as last year, added that the "doom and gloom" predicted by environmentalists "have so far shown to be exagerated"
Continuing saga
For years, Omega has sparred with environmentalists and recreational fishing groups, who say heavy menhaden landings have hurt the health of the already ailing Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States. They say low menhaden stocks have impacted species such as striped bass and sea birds, which eat menhaden, and they say the models used by scientists to assess menhaden stocks inadequately account for the dietary needs of other species.
The debate intensified in May, when the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission released its most-recent stock assessment.
The report said the menhaden fishery "is not overfished, nor is it experiencing overfishing," and that menhaden reproduction "appears to be adequate to produce the target number of eggs."
But the agency cautioned that menhaden fishing is "close" to the maximum rate at which the species can still replace itself and that the population of young menhaden has been low for decades. The report also said menhaden abundance has declined "steadily" since the early 1980s and that recruitment (the number of surviving offspring) is "relatively low."
Greenpeace reacts
Greenpeace ocean campaigner Phil Kline attributes Omega's strong landings not to health stocks, but to the efficiency of the company's vessels, guided by spotter planes.
The landings indicate "they were fishing in a body of water where the fish were very catchable," Kline said.
Kline said declaring the stock healthy based on recent landings requires "some pretty big extrapolations, especially given the most recent [stock] assessment."
He added that now is the perfect time to restrict fishing. Doing so would allow two-year-old fish to "grow and spawn and regrow the population."
The environmental factor
Government scientists say menhaden stocks are far more influenced by environmental factors—weather, for instance—than by commercial harvest.
"If you look at history of the stock, there is weak relationship between number of spawners and the number of young that are produced each year," said Joseph Smith, a fisheries biologist at the National Marine Fisheries Services.
Smith said some sixty percent of this year's catch have been 2-year old fish, which is in line with the agency's belief that menhaden reproduction was strong in 2008.
That suggests "that the 2008-year class is strong" and that menhaden are "generally abundant," Smith said.
Still, Smith concedes far more scientific study is needed before drawing definitive conclusions. He said his agency hopes to one day conduct coast wide air surveys of menhaden stocks.
Spotting more fish
Monty Deihl, general manager of Omega's Reedville reduction plant, said Omega's fishing spotter plane pilots and captains, some of whom have 40 years of fishing experience, have reported seeing "an ever increasing abundance of menhaden" this year.
"Our captains are seeing more fish in the lower portion of the Bay and outside the Bay," he said.
Deihl thinks the fishery continues to "look positive."
"Some people cry bleakness. I don't know if anyone here has seen that. It's the opposite."
Smith at NMFS said he has examined three years of flight logs from Omega's pilots.
While the information is anything but a "rigorous survey," pilots do seem to be "seeing more fish than in recent years."