Can the Atlantic coast's menhaden population be restored without hurting Chesapeake Bay commercial fishermen?
That remains to be seen, as the video above makes clear. It was produced by students in the environmental law class at University of Maryland law school. Yup, that law school – the one in the crosshairs for the Clean Water Act lawsuit filed by its environmental law clinic against an Eastern Shore farm couple and the Perdue poultry company. The clinic's catching hell for not representing the farm couple as well as – or instead of – the Waterkeeper Alliance, the client for whom it filed the suit.
On this issue, the students' video does a good job of presenting both sides – the argument for conserving, and the concern about how a catch reduction could hurt Bay fishermen and crabbers. Of course, the class video project is an academic exercise, so you would expect the students to examine all sides in a dispute. In the real world in which the clinic operates, lawyers represent one client at a time, and can't ethically work both sides of a case.
Read the article and watch the video at the Baltimore Sun.
Analysis: The video overstates menhaden's role as filter feeders and their ability to consume phytoplankton. Several studies have determined that menhaden over the age of 1, which are those harvested by the bait and reduction fisheries, mostly eat the larger zooplankton, rather than phytoplankton. These studies show that while menhaden may consume some available phytoplankton, the species as a whole has a negligible net impact on water quality.