BETTER MANAGEMENT EYED FOR MENHADEN continued from Homepage

 

Atlantic menhaden on the deck of a boat where blue crab is also being sorted into bushel baskets. The menhaden fishery was the subject of new management considerations by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission earlier this month. Michael Dowgiallo/NOAA Coastal Ocean Program

The measure came in the form of Addendum V to Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden.

According to a press release from ASMFC, the new measure will result in harvest reduction. Just how much of a reduction is involved has not yet been worked out, the release said.
According to the ASMFC, overfishing of menhaden is occurring.

A press release from the Pew Environment Group, which hosted the teleconference, said menhaden is often called “the most important fish in the sea.” The fishery is the largest on the East Coast by weight, the PEG release said. About three-quarters of the Atlantic menhaden catch comes from the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding ocean waters. Most of these fish are ground up and reduced to fish meal and oil for use as dietary supplements, fertilizer, farm animal feed, and pet food.

But menhaden, like herring, is also an important forage species, the PEG release said.

“Scientists have warned that having too few menhaden in the water could result in disastrous impacts on the fish and wildlife that eat them,” said Peter Baker, director of the Northeast Fisheries program at the Pew Environment Group. Gibson said dozens of predator species depend on menhaden as forage. Just a few, he said, include striped bass, bluefish, tuna, king mackerel, tarpon, Spanish mackerel and red drum.

“The list goes on and on,” Gibson said. “Almost every economically significant predator fish along East Coast forages on menhaden. We’re very concerned about all the menhaden we’re not seeing. The menhaden is the most important fish in the ocean because it provides food for so many species.”

Judd Crawford, a biologist and the science and policy manger for PEG’s Northeast Fisheries program, said that, as a member of the herring family, menhaden is “the foundation of the food web.”

“A fundamental food base in the region has been badly depleted,” Crawford said. “Of that group of forage fish (herring), menhaden is the preeminent example….We think now that the population is 10 percent of what it was historically.”

According to information from the ASMFC, the commission “was advised of significant public interest” in its deliberations regarding the menhaden fishery. The ASMFC received 91,949 comments on proposed measures.

Among the commenters was the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, whose executive director, Patrice McCarron, wrote, “The fate of the menhaden management plan is extremely important to the Maine lobster industry. Pogies are an important source of bait for Maine lobstermen, second only to Atlantic herring.…

“For many years, Atlantic herring has served as a plentiful, sustainable and local source of bait. Recent changes to the herring management plan have put a squeeze on the availability of herring as a source of bait for the Maine lobster fishery, due to decreases in available inshore quota. Maine continues to undergo a major diversification of its bait supply. As a result, pogies have become a critical source of bait for the Maine lobster fishery.”

McCarron referenced data from the Department of Marine Resources port sampling program.
“In 2006,” she wrote, “herring comprised 86 percent of the Maine lobster industry’s bait supply, compared to only 6 percent for pogies. In 2008, reliance on herring decreased to 70 percent of Maine’s bait supply, while pogies increased to 19 percent. And this trend continues.

McCarron said that Maine lobstermen have diversified their bait supply further to include exotic species, imported from areas outside the Gulf of Maine. These baits, she said, pose “potential risk to the ecosystem due to disease and other threats related to the use of non-native species. Therefore, it is imperative that the availability of local baits, such as Atlantic menhaden, be maximized to the extent permitted through a sustainable fishery.

“The MLA strongly supports the continued, sustainable management of the Atlantic menhaden fishery. Sustainable management and strong conservation measures are imperative to ensure the long-term health of this important species. According to the most recent stock assessment, menhaden remains a healthy and abundant resource. The menhaden stock is at target abundance, twice the level that would be considered overfished….

“MLA urges the board to wait to move forward with any significant changes to the management plan until both the results of next year’s stock assessment and the industry-based aerial study provide the most up to date information on the current status of the stock.”

A species profile provided by the ASMFC describes Atlantic menhaden s “a small, oily, schooling fish of historical, ecological, and economical importance. Historically, menhaden supported large-scale commercial fisheries bringing considerable growth to Atlantic coastal communities. Uniquely, menhaden flesh is a major source of omega-3 fatty acids, a popular diet supplement and food additive because it is not produced naturally in the human body. Omega-3 has been shown to aid metabolic processes and cut risks of heart disease and possibly Alzheimer’s. Additionally, menhaden are increasingly valuable for use as bait in many important fisheries, including American lobster and blue crab commercial fisheries and striped bass recreational fisheries. Menhaden are also commonly used in agriculture; they are processed directly into fishmeal and oil and used in livestock and aquaculture feeds.”

Menhaden occupy estuaries and coastal waters from northern Florida to Nova Scotia and are believed to consist of a single population, the profile said. The menhaden commercial fishery consists of both a reduction fishery and a bait fishery, the profile said. The reduction fishery is so named because it processes the whole fish into fish meal, fish oil and fish solubles.

According to the profile, the reduction fishery first began in New England during the early 1800s and spread south after the Civil War. Purse seine landings reached a high point in the 1950s.

At that time, over 20 menhaden reduction factories ranged from southern Maine to northern Florida. In the 1960s, the menhaden stock and, consequently, the reduction fishery, experienced a series of ups and downs. But by 1989, all shoreside reduction plants in New England had closed, mainly because of odor abatement regulations.

During the 1990s, reduction plants elsewhere along the coast closed, resulting in a “significant reduction in fleet size and fishing capacity.” Omega Protein, a reduction factory in Virginia, has been the one remaining plant since 2005, the profile said.

Still, the menhaden bait fishery has become increasingly important from New England to North Carolina, the profile said.

In a report issued this year—“An Assessment of the Social and Economic Importance Of Menhaden,” principal investigator and author James Kirkley of the College of William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, writes that concern revolves around menhaden’s importance as a forage fish for various recreationally important predators, such as striped bass, weakfish, speckled trout and bluefish, as well as various marine mammals and seabirds. There is also concern, the report continues, because menhaden is a filter feeder on excess microscopic algae and, as such, its depletion could affect water quality.

Every coastal state of the Northwest Atlantic has some type of regulation that either limits or prohibits the harvesting of menhaden by purse seine or for reduction purposes in its coastal waters, the report said.

The report expanded on the fish’s historical significance: “Atlantic menhaden has been the subject of controversy and debate for nearly 200 years. The Pilgrims supposedly used menhaden as fertilizer for their crops, a practice taught to them by Indians of the Chesapeake region. The industry emerged and developed early in New England in the early 19th century; this occurred because menhaden oil was found to be a valuable alternative to whale oil for lubricants, as fuel for lamps, and in manufacturing soap and paint. By the early 1900s, menhaden was used as a component of fertilizer and animal feed, and in the manufacturing of paints and other substances such as fingernail polish and perfume. Initially, menhaden were caught in weirs and in haul seines worked from the shore, and to a lesser extent, by gill nets worked from canoes and small ships.”

Up to now, menhaden has been managed through harvest caps and season limits.