May 4, 2015 — The Asbury Park Press has been a source of accurate information regarding the menhaden fishery, thanks in large part to the solid reporting done by reporter Dan Radel. Unfortunately, an April 30 opinion piece by Paul Eidman, “Don’t increase menhaden catch limits,” contained a number of misleading and inaccurate statements.
Eidman asserted that the current menhaden assessment “is based on a ‘single species’ model that does not take into account the nutritional needs of menhaden’s predators.” In fact, as clearly described in the assessment document, which is available on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s website, the commission’s Menhaden Technical Committee did factor in natural mortality, including mortality as a result of predation, into its estimates of total mortality. A lengthy discussion of natural mortality, including the mathematical formulas and assumptions that went into estimating it, is included in section 3.6 of the assessment.
Eidman asserts that “the majority of the fish caught in this fishery are ground up into fish meal, and sold for pennies a pound in an international commodities market.” In fact, marine ingredients such as fish oil and fish meal, which the current assessment shows are harvested sustainably, have become increasingly valuable as the nutritional importance of long-chain Omega-3s has become better understood, and as their importance in aquaculture has increased.