The Coastal Conservation Association/Virginia says that the current menhaden management system has allowed this critically important fish species to decline to the lowest abundance ever recorded.
Currently, overfishing of menhaden by the “reduction industry” (it includes Northern Neck commercial netters who sell the menhaden to plants that turn the little oily fish into various products) is occurring and has been for 32 of the last 54 years, says the CCA. In August the ASMFC approved Draft Addendum V to the Atlantic Menhaden Fishery Management Plan while proposing new rebuilding targets, all of which will increase menhaden abundance. A copy of Addendum V and the public hearing schedule for the Atlantic Coast can be found on the ASMFC website at http://www.asmfc.org/public
Read the full article at Gene Mueller's World of Fishing and Hunting.
Analysis: The article's claim that "overfishing of menhaden by the 'reduction industry'…is occuring" is misleading and does not accurately reflect the health of the fishery. While it is true that, according to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), overfishing did occur in 2008, it is the only time in the last ten years it has occured. The amount of overfishing was not enough to affect the long-term health of the fishery, however, as the ASMFC declared in the same stock assessment that menhaden were not overfished.