“Now, the hard work begins.”
That was the assessment of Lynn Fegley, a Maryland fisheries biologist just moments after the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted overwhelmingly last night to send a suite of options to protect menhaden and rebuild the population out for public comment.
Not to say it was a walk in the park to get from the tentative steps in 2005 to cap commercial menhaden fishing in the Chesapeake Bay to admitting menhaden are in trouble to actually doing something to protect the resource.
Menhaden, a small, oily fish, is a primary food for striped bass and other fish. About 40 percent of the East Coast population comes from the Chesapeake Bay and about 80 percent of the coast’s striped bass start their lives in the same waters.
But a company called Omega Protein Corp. targets the fish in the Virginia portion of the bay. They are ground up at a plant in Reedville, Va., and used to make diet supplements, pet food and cosmetics. A second commercial industry targets menhaden to use as bait for lobster and blue crabs.
Menhaden have been overfished in 32 of the last 54 years. The stock is at its lowest point in recorded history.
“Draft Addendum 5,” as the document is called, will be coming soon to a public hearing room in states from Maine to Florida. The vote to send it on its way was 15 in favor (including Maryland), one opposed (Virginia) and one abstention (the Potomac River Fisheries Commission).
The debate in a hotel ballroom in Alexandria, Va., lasted a little over two hours and included attempts to limit the scope of what the public would be allowed to comment on. The five options ranged from maintaining the status quo—an action that would almost certainly continue overfishing—to reducing the harvest by as much as 45 percent from 2010 levels.
Read the rest of the article at the Baltimore Sun
Analysis: The article is incorrect in its assertion that if the status quo if continued, overfishing is likely to occur. In the past decade, overfishing was rare, and three assessments by the ASMFC, in 2003, 2006, and 2010, concluded that menhaden were not overfished. Currently, the menhaden population is at its mortality threshold, with a fecundity level that is well above threshold. Thus, reduction fishing cannot solely account for fluctuations in the menhaden population, as there are currently more than enough eggs laid to replace the fish caught. Other environmental factors such as water quality must also be taken into account when evaluating the health of the menhaden stocks.