The most important fish in the sea is facing an uphill battle for survival.
The Atlantic menhaden—a type of herring—is highly sought after by both fish and fisherman. Menhaden, also known as “bunker” or “pogy” to many anglers, is being fished at unsustainable rates and its population has plunged down below 10 percent of historic levels.
RSMAS Marine Biology & Fisheries Professor Jerry Ault is worried about these little plankton-eating fish and the ripple effect their dwindling numbers could send through the entire U.S. Atlantic coast marine ecosystem.
The coastal migration of menhaden schools intersects with the movements—and stomachs—of many larger and more highly valued predators. In Florida, the “Silver King” (Atlantic tarpon), king mackerel, sharks, cobia, and birds like brown pelicans, bald eagles, and ospreys, as well as Royal and Sandwich terns all rely upon these tiny fish to fuel their migrations.
“Wherever they travel, Atlantic menhaden feed on plankton, converting it into fatty, high-nutrient tissue that larger fish then readily consume to fuel their own migrations,” Ault explains. “All of these larger fish need the rich menhaden flesh for sustenance and reproductive power.”
In Chesapeake Bay, they are the primary diet for striped bass, bluefish and weakfish. As they head south for the winter, they cross paths with Atlantic tarpon off the Florida coast. When they head north again in late spring and summer, as far as the waters off Cape Cod, they become prey to bluefin tuna as well as many other ocean giants.
Read the full story at the University of Miami Rosentiel School blog.
Analysis: It's important to not that the most recently available scientific data on the menhaden fishery does not indicate that the stock is overfished, nor does it indicate a recent pattern of overfishing. The 2010 stock assessment by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) concluded that menhaden were currently not overfished, and that overfishing had only occurred once in the last ten years.
Similarly, the claim that the menhaden population is "below 10 percent of historic levels" is misleading. Menhaden are fished to around 10 percent of their Maximum Spawning Potential (MSP), which is not an historical figure but rather an estimate of a theoretical unfished population.