August 2, 2016 — SEAFOOD NEWS — This week, fisheries managers have the chance to expand opportunities for fishermen as they consider a scientifically supported increase in the coastwide menhaden quota. Although generally not consumed in their own right, menhaden are the bait of choice for both commercial and recreational fishermen and are prominent producers of the Omega-3 nutrients often used in health supplements.

In recent years, commercial fishing of menhaden has been needlessly restricted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the regulatory body charged with managing the species and maintaining the health of the stock. In 2012, based on the results of a stock assessment that was later found to have inaccurately underestimated the strength of the menhaden population, the ASMFC cut the annual menhaden harvest by a deeply felt 20 percent.

This year, as the ASMFC discusses potentially raising the quota, the science clearly and without a doubt demonstrates the menhaden stock is healthy, vibrant, and not in any conceivable danger of becoming overfished.

In an analysis earlier this summer produced by the ASMFC’s Menhaden Technical Committee, scientists analyzed the potential results of an increase in the menhaden quota for the 2017 fishing season. The Committee experimented with nine different potential increases, from simply maintaining the menhaden quota at its current level to increasing it by 40 percent. For each increase, the Committee ran 1,000 separate simulations, to ensure the data were accurate and all variables possible were accounted for. After this thorough and exhaustive study, the Committee concluded that increasing the menhaden quota for the 2017 fishing season poses a zero percent chance of resulting in overfishing.

These results build upon the positive findings of the 2015 menhaden assessment, which overturned the inaccurate results of the previous assessment when it found the stock to be sustainably managed, neither overfished nor subject to overfishing.

The Committee was comprised of 21 different scientists, representing 13 different states up and down the Eastern Seaboard. In addition, the Committee had representatives from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which has been in favor of limiting menhaden fishing in the past. That such a diverse wealth of scientists and regulators agreed raising the quota would have virtually no likelihood of overfishing is testament to the exhaustive and rigorous nature of their efforts.

When the ASMFC meets this week, they intend to discuss the motion for a raise in the annual menhaden quota. Now it is time for them to either fish or to cut bait. The evidence does not lie – menhaden are not at risk of overfishing with a raised quota.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.