August 8, 2022 — An updated menhaden population assessment that takes into account the ecological role of the species as a popular food for other fish deems the coastwide stock to be in good shape.
The latest assessment, presented to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Aug. 3, incorporates data collected through last year. It concluded that “overfishing is not occurring, and the stock is not considered overfished.”
Menhaden are a small fish but have long stoked big controversies, especially in the Chesapeake Bay, where conservation groups contend commercial harvests leave too few of the “forage” fish in the water to support striped bass and other fish.
That concern spurred the ASMFC, an organization made up of fishery managers from East Coast states and federal agencies, to make adjustments to their assessment methodologies two years ago to better account for the role of menhaden in the food chain.
But even with the new methodology, the latest assessment concluded the overall stock was healthy — a finding immediately touted by the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition, a group representing commercial harvesters.
“Using these stricter standards that incorporate the forage needs of predators, the new assessment has found that the menhaden fishery is sustainable, and that menhaden fishing does not negatively affect predator populations,” it said in a statement.
Some conservation groups contend the assessment evaluates the menhaden stock coastwide and does not necessarily reflect what is happening in the Bay, where much of the harvest takes place.