August 6, 2018 –Last week about 40,000-50,000 Atlantic menhaden (pogies) were found dead along the Mystic River in Everett and Somerville, MA.
There are no perpetrators responsible for the mortality. Menhaden are victims of their own success, flourishing in large, dense schools that can cause them to “suffocate” and die off from lack of oxygen.
David Pierce, director of Massachusetts Marine Fisheries said, “When large schools of fish enter warmwater estuaries and rivers in large numbers during the summer months, they can deplete the water’s dissolved oxygen, making survival impossible. Oxygen must pass across and through fish gills, and when used up by tightly-packed fish in shallow waters, the inevitable occurs.”
Pierce said, “Management and regulation of menhaden is overseen by the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), having adopted compliance criteria of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Menhaden Plan and approaches best suited for the Massachusetts menhaden fishing industry. Our commercial quotas were raised this year due to high menhaden abundance finally re-establishing itself north of Cape Cod and (somewhat expectedly) causing re-occurrences of past years’ typical hot-weather kills – over 20 years ago.”