"Mighty menhaden." "The most important fish in the sea."
Many people have never even heard of this boney, oily, unappetizing denizen of the Chesapeake Bay. But without this little unsung hero the Bay's ecosystem would likely collapse. Now, overfishing has brought the population plummeting to its lowest level on record. That's bad news for the Bay's other valuable fish that rely on menhaden for nutrition—including striped bass (rockfish), bluefish, summer flounder, and weakfish—and for the commercial fishing industry that relies on them.
Menhaden (also known as bunker or pogy) are often referred to as "the most important fish in the sea" because so many other species rely on them for food. They are a key link in the food chain. These little fish feed on plankton (tiny plants and animals), and in turn are a primary food source for rockfish, bluefish, weakfish, sea turtles, osprey, and other fish-eating marine mammals and seabirds.
The Chesapeake Bay is the most important nursery area for Atlantic menhaden. From spring through fall, juveniles and adults fill almost the entire Bay and its tributaries.
Why are they disappearing?
For hundreds of years, menhaden have been sought after by humans. American Indians used menhaden as fertilizer for corn. The early settlers processed them for lamp oil. Then, in the late 19th century, the population began to collapse.
In 1879, Maine became the first state to ban large scale menhaden fishing. One by one other states followed suit. Today, only Virginia and North Carolina allow industrial menhaden fishing. The largest harvester in the Bay is Omega Protein, the world's largest producer of omega-3 fish oil and North America's largest manufacturer of fishmeal. One Omega Protein boat can vacuum up as many as 300,000 fish in a single catch.
Taking too many young fish both greatly diminishes the spawning potential of the population and reduces their availability to predators. The declining number of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay has been a concern for many years and has been linked to the chronic disease problem facing Chesapeake striped bass.
The annual industrial catch in the Chesapeake was capped in 2006. Then in May 2010, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) received an alarming scientific report on the status of Atlantic menhaden—confirmation that the species has been systematically overfished for 32 of the last 54 years. The population is currently at its lowest level on record.
Read the full article at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Analysis: The article's claim that "overfishing has brought the population plummeting to its lowest level on record" is not supported by the ASMFC findings that they cite. The most recent measure of the menhaden fishery by the ASMFC concluded that the stock was not overfished. And contrary to the article's assertion that the report confirms "systematic overfishing in 32 of the last 54 years," the assement states that only once in the last 10 years, in 2008, was the population overfished. In that year fishing only slightly exceeded the mortality rate, although the fecundity levels of the fishery are curently on target.
The article also overstates menhaden's role as a food source for fish like striped bass and bluefish. These species do feed on menhaden, but their diets vary based on a number of factors independent of the reduction fishery, such as location and the prevalence of other feed species. A survey by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has found, for example, that menhaden can make up as little as 9.6% of striped bass diet and 11.6% of bluefish diet.