April 8, 2012 – There is more to smart fishery management than protecting the big, delicious species, like striped bass, cod, tuna and salmon. A huge and growing portion of the world’s commercial catch — 37 percent by weight — is made up of small fish, like herring, sardines, anchovies and menhaden, which are food for larger predators.
These “forage fish” are ground up and used in all sorts of products, including feed for pig lots and fish farms, nutritional supplements and salad dressing. They are valuable and easy to catch, and industrial fleets the world over are relentlessly “harvesting” them with little awareness of the damage this is doing to the oceans’ ecosystems.
A new study by an international group of marine and fisheries scientists warns that the taking of forage fish should be cut back, drastically in some areas, to prevent broader ecological destruction. The report, by the Lenfest Foundation, urges a rethinking of the common belief that little fish are “more like weeds than trees,” whose populations can be maintained no matter how aggressively they are fished. After studying a variety of regions, including the Antarctic, the North and Baltic Seas, Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Maine, the researchers concluded that forage fish are not only more vulnerable than previously thought, but also worth more in the water than in the net because of the many species of larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals that depend on them.
The scientists, acknowledging that there are gaps in knowledge about some forage-fish species, urge erring on the side of protecting these fisheries, which can rebound quickly if allowed to. Stricter limits will be opposed by many in the forage-fishing industry. But future abundance depends on ending overfishing, a change that will benefit consumers, the ocean environment and fish of all sizes.
Read the full editorial at the New York Times.
Analysis: The editorial states that commercial fishing is damaging stocks of forage fish by "relentlessly harvesting" them, and supports recommendations by the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force to reduce the commercial harvest on these species of fish. On the East Coast, one of the most prominent species of forage fish is the Atlantic menhaden. But much of the available evidence on menhaden and the menhaden fishery suggests that reducing the commercial harvest might not significantly impact the growth of the menhaden population, as the Task Force hopes.
In its 2010 stock assessment, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) wrote, “past performance of the Atlantic menhaden suggests it has gone from periods of low recruitment [the number of menhaden that spawn] and fecundity [the number of eggs produced by the stock] to periods with high recruitment and fecundity, while sustaining moderate to high landings.” It further notes that recent landings that are low by historical standards do not seem to correlate with recruitment levels. It concludes that these trends may indicate that fluctuations in the menhaden population may be “almost entirely driven by non-fishery sources.” Many other scientific organizations, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have concluded that environmental factors are the single biggest influence on the size of the menhaden population.