January 31, 2012 – Old tensions – and some new ones – reared their heads during a recent conference call to discuss the future of the menhaden fishery, including the growing divide between the industrial menhaden harvester, Omega Protein Inc, and the smaller bait companies.
Now that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the regulatory agency that manages menhaden, has decided to limit the amount of menhaden that can be harvested from Atlantic and estuarine waters, a new amendment to the fishery management plan is being developed to detail how the reduction will be achieved.
Certain management measures could disproportionately benefit the big industrial fishery over the bait harvesters, and vice versa.
Recommendations to the ASMFC on the nascent amendment will be hammered out during several meetings including the Advisory Panel for the Atlantic menhaden fishery, a group of stakeholders, recreational fishermen, environmentalists and others with an interest in how the menhaden fishery is managed.
Read the full article at the Public Trust Project.
Analysis: In their recent article recounting the January 26th meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Advisory Panel for Atlantic menhaden, the Public Trust Project cites comments from conference call participants in order to depict the reduction and bait fisheries as being increasingly at odds with one another over the future of menhaden management. The article suggests that the future of the fishery will be “divided” and that bait companies “won’t benefit from a continued alliance” with the reduction industry. However, several industry stakeholders quoted in the Public Trust Project’s story see the future differently, and when contacted for further comment clarified their views.
“I don’t see [a division] at all,” says Jeff Kaelin of Lund’s Fisheries, a commercial bait dealer and a participant in the Advisory Panel meeting. “I would not count that discussion as characterizing a departure between the two sectors.”
Rather than devolving into a zero-sum competition between the bait and reduction fisheries, Kaelin sees potential for cooperation between the reduction and bait sectors of the fishery in the management process. The goal, he says, is still to find the best management options for the fishery. “I’m still focused on the science,” Kaelin explains.
Jennie Bichrest, of Maine’s Purse Line Bait, was also quoted in the story, but strongly disagrees that there is what the article refers to as a “growing divide” between the two sectors. “We need to stand together and work through the issues,” she said. “I have never felt like Ron [Lukens, Senior Scientist at Omega] was representing a ‘big, corporate’ interest.”
Another participant in the call, bait dealer Jimmy Kellum, considers the relationship between the bait and reduction industries to be more cooperative than competitive. “We have no animosity towards Omega,” he says. “If Omega dies, I’m going to die with them.”