October 5, 2012 — A small fish is the subject of big decisions to be made in the coming weeks. If you care about the Chesapeake Bay and the critters that live in and around it, you’ll want to weigh in.
Atlantic menhaden, frequently dubbed “the most important fish in the sea” because of their critical ecological role, have been declining in numbers in the Bay and along the Atlantic coast for many years. In fact, stocks of menhaden along the East Coast have plummeted to their lowest levels on record, or about 8 percent of what they would be if there was no pressure from fishing. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has concluded that menhaden are currently overfished and have been so for 32 of the past 54 years.
The decline has commission and other marine scientists worried because menhaden are a major source of food for other Bay creatures, including larger finfish, sea birds, ospreys, bald eagles, and marine mammals. The little fish also help maintain a balanced marine ecosystem by consuming immense quantities of plankton.
Menhaden play an important commercial role as well. They are the object of a major “reduction” fishery in Reedville, Va., that catches and processes the fish into oil and meal, making Reedville one of the largest fish landing ports (by weight) in the United States. Menhaden are also the bait of choice for most commercial crabbers. And as prey fish, menhaden nourish Chesapeake Bay striped bass, bluefish, summer flounder, and other popular fish targeted by commercial and recreational fishing industries.
Read the full story on the Bay Daily blog
View the Chesapeake Bay Foundation flyer about menhaden
Analysis: While encouraging readers to participate in the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) public comment process, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) misleads the public on the current status of the menhaden population. Both the article, “Menhaden – Small Fish, Big Decisions,” on the Bay Daily blog, by the CBF’s Chuck Epes, and a flyer released by the CBF, “Help restore the Atlantic menhaden population,” demonstrate their misrepresentation of the state of the menhaden species.
The article by Epes states that, “The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has concluded that menhaden are currently overfished and have been so for 32 of the past 54 years.” However, the article fails to recognize that there is a distinct difference between a stock that is experiencing overfishing, and one that is overfished. According the official definition provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), overfishing occurs when the number of fish caught in a given year exceeds a preset mortality rate. On the other hand, a stock that is overfished is not producing enough eggs to sustain itself. According to NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office: “Based on the current reference point to evaluate stock condition, Atlantic menhaden are not considered overfished.”
Epes’ article conflates the terms a second time when it claims that the menhaden population has been overfished in 32 of the last 54 years, while the CBF flyer uses the same claim in reference to the overfishing of menhaden. In both cases, it is important to note that the 2010 menhaden stock assessment indicated that, in the most recent 15 years of the 54 being considered, overfishing only occurred twice, most recently in 2008 by only.4 percent. For menhaden, recent data is more important than dated statistics, as they produce a large new class of offspring every year and are a comparatively short-lived species.
In 2011, the Commission adopted a new, more conservative baseline for determining overfishing going forward. Based on that new “reference point,” the Menhaden Board determined that overfishing also occurred in 2011 based on harvest increases, the new reference point, and apparent lack of stock growth. Due to adoption of the new reference point and model uncertainty, no overfishing determinations have been made for 2009 and 2010.
In reference to menhaden, both articles uses the phrase “the most important fish in the sea,” which is frequently used without proper explanation. Originating from Rutgers University English Professor, Dr. H. Bruce Franklin’s book, The Most Important Fish in the Sea, the phrase stems from entirely qualitative judgements made by the author. There is no scientific evidence supporting the hyperbolic statement that any one species of fish is "most important," and promulgating this idea represents only the authors' opinion, rather than any scientific consensus.
Although the Epes article states that “The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is pushing for fair and reasonable limits to rebuild the menhaden population,” the organization does not provide a similar description of the status of the menhaden stock, using biased phrasing in their articles to make the species seem in worse condition than it actually is.