In an effort to help in communicating to the ASMFC our concern over the chronic overfishing of Atlantic Menhaden, Stripercoast Surfcasters Club urges fishermen coastwide to send in public comment on the ASMFC's Addendum V to the Atlantic Menhaden Fisheries Management Plan.
Menhaden (also known as bunker or pogies), arguably one of the most important fish on the east coast, have been over fished in 32 of the last 54 years, and the menhaden population has declined by at least 88% in the last 3 decades.
It is time for the ASMFC to take a proactive approach to the management of this fishery and uphold its mission statement of achieving "Healthy, self-sustaining populations for all Atlantic Coast fish species, or successful restoration well in progress, by the year 2015." and curb the over harvest of this important forage fish.
The public comment period on this Addendum to reduce Atlantic Menhaden Harvest is open until 5pm on November 2, 2011. PLEASE take a moment to send in your support of harvest reduction and stricter management measures!!
For a template email that you can copy/paste, and for more details on this subject, please visit: http://www.stripercoastsurfcasters.us/forum/showthread.p …
Jacob Freeman
National Chapter President
Stripercoast Surfcasters Club
http://www.stripercoastsurfcasters.us
Analysis: The petition's claim that menhaden is "chronically overfished" is not supported by recent fisheries data, which does not indicate a pattern of overfishing. In the most recent stock assessment, menhaden were not considered overfished, and overfishing had only occurred once in the last ten years.