Some encouraging news in recent days about two of the Chesapeake Bay’s most important living resources, menhaden and blue crabs.
First, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) voted last week to move forward with a series of proposals that should help increase the overall number of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay.
Menhaden, frequently dubbed “the most important fish in the sea” because of their critical ecological role, have been declining in number in the Bay and along the Atlantic coast for many years. The decline has marine scientists worried, as menhaden are a major food source for other Bay creatures, including game fish, sea birds, raptors, and marine mammals. Menhaden also help maintain a balanced marine ecosystem by consuming immense quantities of plankton in the Bay.
Menhaden play an important commercial role as well. They are the object of an intense industrial fishery that takes 85,000 to 90,000 tons of menhaden out of the Bay each year to manufacture cosmetics, fish oil pills, and animal feed. They are also caught and used as bait for crabs and other species.
Recent ASMFC studies have found that menhaden have been overfished for decades, and the commission last week concluded that it’s time to more tightly restrict how many menhaden can be safely harvested each year and still maintain a healthy population and sustainable fishery.
Read the whole article at the Bay Daily.
Analysis: There is considerable doubt that the current level of menhaden fishing is unsustainable. At its current level of fishing, the menhaden stock is at both the target abundance and is at twice the level where it would be considered overfished. There is also doubt as to whether menhaden are actually filter feeders as commonly believed. A recent study by the Virginia Institute of Marine science concluded that menhaden actually have little impact on overall water quality.