August 4, 2022 — The latest Atlantic menhaden stock assessment accepted today by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) confirms once again that Atlantic menhaden is healthy, not overfished, and that overfishing is not occurring. Significantly, this assessment was completed using new ecological reference points, standards that account for the needs of predator species when determining menhaden’s sustainable status.
In the past, single-species stock assessments that found menhaden to be healthy and not overfished were criticized by some for not taking into account interdependencies between species. The ASMFC’s ecosystem-based reference points were developed over years, with support from industry, recreational fishermen, and environmental groups, to move away from managing species in isolation and consider the needs of predator species and the ecosystem as a whole.