February 14, 2013 — The following is an excerpt from the article “ A Crucial Moment for ‘The Most Important Fish in the Sea’”, published on the National Aquarium’s Water Blog:
This fish is referred to as “the most important fish in the sea” by researchers, yet overfishing is causing the overall population of menhaden to plummet at historic rates.
According to the Pew Environment Group, more menhaden are now being caught than any other fish along the Eastern seaboard, including in areas like the Chesapeake Bay where a majority of the catch comes from.
Every year, more than 410 million pounds of these fish are plucked from the Atlantic to be used in everything from fertilizer and pet food to feed for farm animals and farm-raised fish. Menhaden are also used in dietary supplements, as a high source of omega-3 fatty acids.
Read the full story on the National Aquarium's Water Blog
Analysis: The recent article “ A Crucial Moment for ‘The Most Important Fish in the Sea’”, published December 12, 2012 on the National Aquarium’s Water Blog, while describing the significance of the Atlantic menhaden to the marine ecosystem, ultimately misrepresents the management situation surrounding the species.
Placing full blame for the alleged decline of the menhaden on the commercial menhaden fishery, the article claims that “overfishing is causing the overall population of menhaden to plummet at historic rates.” However, the author fails to mention the many natural and environmental factors that affect menhaden reproduction, and thus, the population levels. A study on menhaden management in Marine Fisheries Review by D.S. Vaughan and J.V. Merriner, of the National Marine Fisheries Service, concluded, “it appears that managing the fishery to maintain large numbers of spawners may prove fruitless since environmental conditions appear to outweigh the availability of spawners (as numbers or eggs) in controlling subsequent recruitment.”
Other similar studies from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have shown a poor correlation between the number of adult menhaden available to reproduce and the number of viable offspring that survive to join the population, indicating that factors other than fishing mortality affect recruitment. On their website, NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office explains, “menhaden recruitment appears to be independent of fishing mortality and spawning stock biomass, indicating environmental factors may be the defining factor in the production of good year classes.”
The article also includes a designation of menhaden as “the most important fish in the sea,” without an explanation of the phrase’s origin. Although the article presents the term as a scientific qualification supported by “researchers”, this phrase stems from the title and premise of the book, The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America, by Rutgers University English Professor, Dr. H Bruce Franklin. The statement is entirely qualitative, based on judgments 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.