Atlantic menhaden have been called the most important fish in the sea. They are a prime forage fish for striped bass, bluefish, tuna, whales, porpoises, seabirds, and other wildlife. But the essential role menhaden play in the marine ecosystem is now at risk.
By weight, menhaden are caught more than any other fish on the East Coast. Safe fishing targets for menhaden have been exceeded every year but one since 1955, with no corrective management action. The population is now less than 10 percent of its historic level.
As the menhaden population suffers, so do the coastal economies in more than a dozen states, where thousands of commercial and recreational fishing businesses rely on the predatory fish that depend on menhaden as a staple.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has taken a historic first step to restore the menhaden population by laying out a plan that could significantly increase the number left in the ocean, finally taking into account the needs of their predators.
It is important that we urge ASMFC to take action to restore menhaden to a level that can sustain healthy predators and a healthy marine environment.
If you would like weigh in on this matter, send your comments to tkerns@ammfc.org today and use title line Menhaden Draft Addendum V. It is important that you do it today.
Urge them to go for option 4, a 40 percent MSP with it’s corresponding F target and F threshold, the target guideline recommended by the Federal National Standard 1. These reference points would reflect menhaden’s ecological importance, yet still provide for a commercial and recreational fishery.
Read the full article at the New York Post.
Analysis: The article greatly overestimates the threat to the menhaden population and the impact of the commercial fishing industry. The article states that "safe fishing targets" have been routinely exceeded by the industry, but the most recent stock assessment by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) reveals no discernable pattern of overfishing. The ASMFC concluded that not only was menhaden not overfished, but that overfishing had only occurred once in the last ten years. Further, menhaden egg production is at its target levels, the effect of which was seen in a recent ASMFC report stating that the numbers of juvenile menhaden in Virginia are at their highest levels in almost two decades.
The article is also incorrect in declaring that the menhaden population is at "less than 10 percent of its historic level." Menhaden are currently fished to 10 percent of their Maximum Spawning Potential (MSP), which is not an actual historic figure, but an estimate of a theoretical unfished population. This is not a sign of overfishing, however; menhaden MSP has rarely risen above 10 percent, and at that level the stock has historically been able to rebuild itself.