December 22, 2015 — Virginia Delegate Barry D. Knight once again has introduced legislation that would put the regulation of menhaden into the hands of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission instead of the General Assembly.
Menhaden is the only species of fish swimming in Virginia’s saltwaters that isn’t regulated by the VMRC.
December 15, 2015 — For much of the last decade, the MV Shearwater caught menhaden by the ton but in its new life, as part of the Del-Jersey-Land reef 26-miles off the coast, it will become a fish habitat and diving destination in the state’s artificial reef program.
The ship didn’t go easy into the deep last week. The stern sank first and the ship started to turn leaving just the bow out of the water. It took about six hours to fully sink after the seacocks opened and the interior compartments flooded.
The 176-foot-long vessel went down in 120 feet of water. It lays about one-half nautical mile from the 568-foot long USS Arthur W. Radford, a former Navy destroyer. The Radford was sunk at the artificial reef site in 2011 and has become a popular destination for divers and anglers.
“About three weeks ago, a state-record bluefish was caught there,” said Jeff Tinsman, the state artificial reef coordinator.
“These old freighters make ideal reefs because of the voids and cavities in them – they’re really the perfect sanctuary for fish,” Tinsman said. “But not long after this ship sinks, the fish will start to come ‘outside’ it to feed. Within a few weeks, blue mussels, sponges, barnacles and soft corals will attach themselves to the structure, and in about a year, the reef will be fully productive, for fish and fishermen alike.”
Read the full story at Delaware Online
December 11, 2015 — The following is a commentary by Peter Himchak, Senior Fisheries Scientist for Omega Protein, a member of the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition. Mr. Himchak served for 39 years as a fisheries biologist for the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, and served on advisory and management boards for both the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC). He served on the ASMFC’s Atlantic Menhaden Technical Committee and Stock Assessment Sub-Committee from 1988 until 2006:
A recent Virginian-Pilot op-ed by Chesapeake Bay Defense Foundation (CBDF) Director of Public Affairs William Tabor (“A tragedy of the Chesapeake,” 11/29) contains a deeply flawed and scientifically inaccurate take on the menhaden fishery in the Chesapeake Bay. These inaccuracies illustrate that this recently-formed organization may not have a great understanding of the menhaden fishery or basic fisheries biology. The menhaden fishery, rather than being an example of “market aggression” and “licensed plunder,” as CBDF states, is, according to all available evidence, both responsibly regulated environmentally sustainable.
Many of CBDF’s claims about the local impact of the menhaden fishery are simply not supported by the best and most current science on menhaden. CBDF advocates for banning purse seine fishing for menhaden in Virginia state waters largely over fears of localized depletion—that the menhaden fishery is taking too many menhaden from the Chesapeake Bay. But there is currently no scientific evidence that localized depletion is occurring.
Menhaden are a highly migratory species that travel to inshore and near-shore waters up and down the Atlantic coast. Nowhere has an incidence of localized depletion ever been recorded or confirmed, and many believe that the phenomenon may not even exist. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), acting out of an abundance of caution and not a scientific mandate, has already imposed a cap on how much menhaden can be harvested from the Chesapeake Bay.
Fears that that the menhaden fishery is not leaving enough food for predator species is similarly overblown. Species like striped bass and bluefish generally target younger menhaden, age 1 and under. This is a segment of the menhaden population that is not directly targeted by the fishery, which mostly harvests menhaden age 2 and older. Based on stock assessment reports and the Beaufort Assessment Model, from 2004-2013, the menhaden fishery only harvested around 3.35% of the total menhaden population. The overwhelming majority of the remaining population is consumed by predator species coastwide, and the fishery does not represent a significant threat to the coastal supply of forage.
Menhaden also do not, as CBDF claims, contribute significantly to removing the “excess algae and nutrients that clog the Bay.” As several scientific papers have confirmed, menhaden are opportunistic feeders, consuming both the phytoplankton that leads to algal blooms as well as zooplankton. However, phytoplankton is consumed primarily by younger menhaden, which are not targeted by the fishery, and represent only a small fraction of the overall harvest.
The environmental impacts of the menhaden boats and purse seine nets themselves are also greatly overstated by the op-ed. CBDF cites fears of bycatch and damage to the environment as more reasons Virginia should ban purse seining in its waters. But, because they target densely packed schools of menhaden, purse seine nets are some of the most efficient methods of harvesting fish, and bycatch from these efforts are minimal. The ASMFC acknowledged in its 2010 assessment that “it is suspected that bycatch and discards of menhaden are trivial compared to total landings.”
Purse seine nets also do not frequently interact with the seafloor, and are not a significant threat to the Bay’s corals, grass beds, or oysters. And while the op-ed is concerned with the effect of water discharge from menhaden boats, any effects from this discharge are localized, and temporary. These boats also operate with the approval of relevant regulators. Compared to the widespread and long-lasting dead zones that regularly afflict the Bay, water discharge from a handful of menhaden vessels does not represent a significant, long-term environmental threat.
The menhaden fishery is already managed according to the best available science and management practices. Virginia’s quota is set in accordance with maintaining the sustainability of the stock, and fisheries science confirms that the Chesapeake-based menhaden fleet does not have a serious negative impact on the health of either the Bay or the local menhaden population. A ban on purse seining in Virginia state waters would be both unnecessary and ineffective.
December 9, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
Please find below the preliminary agenda and public comment guidelines for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2016 Winter Meeting, February 2-4, 2016 in Alexandria, VA. The agenda is also available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2016-winter-meeting. Materials will be available on January 21, 2016 on the Commission website at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2016-winter-meeting.
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
9:00 a.m. – Noon American Lobster Management Board
1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Atlantic Herring Section
2:45 – 4:15 p.m. Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board
2:45 – 4:15 p.m. Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP) Executive Committee
4:30 – 6:00 p.m. ACCSP Coordinating Council
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
8:00 – 10:00 a.m. Executive Committee
10:15 – 11:00 a.m. Atlantic Menhaden Management Board
11:15 – 11:45 a.m. Atlantic Sturgeon Management Board
· Consider 2016 FMP Review and State Compliance Reports for the 2013 and 2014 Fisheries
Noon – 12:30 p.m. Spiny Dogfish Management Board
1:30 – 2:15 p.m. Coastal Sharks Management Board
2:30 – 3:30 p.m. Horseshoe Crab Management Board
3:45 – 4:30 p.m. South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board
4:45 – 5:45 p.m. Tautog Management Board
Thursday, February 4, 2016
8:00 – 9:00 a.m. Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board
9:15 – 10:15 a.m. Winter Flounder Management Board
10:30 – 11:30 a.m. American Eel Management Board
11:45 a.m. – 2:45 p.m. Interstate Fisheries Management Program (ISFMP) Policy Board
(includes a 30-minute working lunch)
2:45 – 3:15 p.m. Business Session
Public Comment Guidelines
With the intent of developing policies in the Commission’s procedures for public participation that result in a fair opportunity for public input, the ISFMP Policy Board has approved the following guidelines for use at management board meetings:
For issues that are not on the agenda, management boards will continue to provide opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the board’s attention at the start of each board meeting. Board chairs will use a speaker sign-up list in deciding how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak.
For topics that are on the agenda, but have not gone out for public comment, board chairs will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. Chairs will have flexibility in deciding how to allocate comment opportunities; this could include hearing one comment in favor and one in opposition until the chair is satisfied further comment will not provide additional insight to the board.
For agenda action items that have already gone out for public comment, it is the Policy Board’s intent to end the occasional practice of allowing extensive and lengthy public comments. Currently, board chairs have the discretion to decide what public comment to allow in these circumstances.
In addition, the following timeline has been established for the submission of written comment for issues for which the Commission has NOT established a specific public comment period (i.e., in response to proposed management action).
1. Comments received 3 weeks prior to the start of a meeting week will be included in the briefing materials.
2. Comments received by 5:00 PM on the Tuesday immediately preceding the scheduled ASMFC Meeting (in this case, the Tuesday deadline will be January 26, 2016) will be distributed electronically to Commissioners/Board members prior to the meeting and a limited number of copies will be provided at the meeting.
3. Following the Tuesday, January 26, 2016 5:00 PM deadline, the commenter will be responsible for distributing the information to the management board prior to the board meeting or providing enough copies for the management board consideration at the meeting (a minimum of 50 copies).
The submitted comments must clearly indicate the commenter’s expectation from the ASMFC staff regarding distribution. As with other public comment, it will be accepted via mail, fax, and email.
November 16, 2015 — A group of New Jersey fishermen pulled their boat into a breathtaking scene last week and captured video of massive numbers of menhaden schooling to avoid the jaws of predator bluefish.
“My father and his friend have a combined 120 or so years of experience on the water and they had never seen anything like that,” said Nick Kita, 22, of Manville, who shot the video and posted it to Youtube. Kita also provided the video to NJ.com.
A professional photographer, Kita used both a submerged GoPro camera and an overhead drone to capture dramatic footage of the fish.
Read the full story at New Jersey Advance
October 13, 2015 — Here’s a statistic, which is a best-guess estimate, but nonetheless difficult to wrap one’s head around: On Tuesday, Oct. 6, there were 5.8 million pounds of menhaden swimming in the bay.
That isn’t too hard to imagine if you looked down from the Pawtuxet River Bridge the following day, or actually, as it turns out, just about any time in the last two weeks. What you would have seen are thousands upon thousands of fish. Most of them were juvenile menhaden averaging about three inches long. Mixed in the schools – so thick that they looked like carpets – were a few adults of about 11 inches. And then there were the predators – the cormorants, sea gulls, terns and bluefish and stripers – gorging themselves.
“The menhaden population has absolutely exploded this year,” says Christopher Deacutis.
Deacutis, supervisor of environmental science for the Department of Environmental Management, said large schools of the fish have been seen up and down the eastern seaboard, and there have been reports of humpback whales feeding off them last month in Long Island Sound. The whales haven’t been reported in Rhode Island waters, but Deacutis suspects the menhaden are the reason why schools of common dolphins have been spotted at the mouth of Narragansett Bay.
October 6, 2015 — Vessels on the Houston Ship Channel faced big problems this summer from the tiniest of traffic hazards: finger-long fish called menhaden, which showed up in record-size schools and temporarily idled at least 17 ships.
Weather patterns the last several years helped the menhaden population in the channel grow to 10 times its typical size, making it more likely the young fish get sucked into the ships’ filter systems that suck in seawater to cool off the engines. When they get lodged in high enough numbers, they can shut down an engine.
“It’s a mess,” said Houston Pilot Capt. Clint Winegar, who sat aboard at least one ship waiting for the crew to clear its filter before he could navigate it through the Ship Channel. “It’s amazing how much fish get caught in those strainers.”
When engines fail, pilots use towboats to control the ships, and all other vessels in the channel have to slow down to avoid collisions. These delays cost money, as the industry average cost to operate an oceangoing ship in port is more than $1,000 per hour.
October 6, 2015 — The Berkshire sow has flopped down on her side inside a sunny, semi-exposed shelter at Cabin Creek Heritage Farm in Upper Marlboro. A couple of piglets, no larger than pugs, are nursing while the remaining newborns gather around their mother’s head, as if looking for face time.
Jeremiah Langhorne is beyond smitten. The chef and owner of the Dabney, the forthcoming restaurant in Blagden Alley, and his two sous-chefs simultaneously release the same sweet, unguarded sound when they lay eyes on the black piglets with their stubby pink legs: Oooooooh!
“They got their little pink socks,” Langhorne says. “They’re so cute!”
Langhorne, former chef de cuisine at the influential McCrady’s in Charleston, S.C., is not shopping for a pet. He’s scouting farmers who might supply his restaurant, dedicated to the flora, fauna and fermented flavors of the Mid-Atlantic. This trip to Cabin Creek is just one of many he has made ahead of the Dabney’s opening later this month. The 30-year-old Langhorne wants to inspect every potential supplier, not just to form a bond with farmers who might be skittish about working with (historically unreliable) chefs, but also to review their agricultural practices. He wants farmers who respect their products as much as he does.
“They’re doing it right,” Langhorne says after visiting two Maryland farms in August with sous-chefs Chris Morgan and Mike Tholis. “They put their animals’ happiness first and foremost. Most other farms, you’ll see some part of the chain where convenience outweighs the happiness of the animals.”
WASHINGTON (Menhaden Fisheries Coalition) — October 5, 2015 — The following was released by the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition:
NOAA Fisheries’ Chesapeake Bay Office has updated its “Menhaden Facts” webpage, confirming the sustainability of the Atlantic menhaden fishery, and stating clearly that Atlantic menhaden is neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing. The update is based upon the most current menhaden benchmark stock assessment, released in early 2015.
The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition credits the stock’s natural resilience for these positive indicators. Years of diligent work by state and federal scientists produced the 2015 Atlantic menhaden stock assessment, considered the most thorough and accurate in the history of the fishery. Its results differ sharply from the prior update assessment, released in 2012, which was broadly criticized for mathematical flaws that underestimated the species’ health.
The results of the 2012 assessment were used as justification for a sweeping 20 percent coastwide harvest cut. As it did then, and now with the support of the 2015 stock assessment, the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition questions the legitimacy of this harvest cut.
Fisheries managers have now affirmed what the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition has long maintained. In January, the latest menhaden stock assessment found that menhaden were in fact being harvested sustainably, with positive indicators such as record low levels of fishing mortality and near-record levels of stock fecundity. In June, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) acted on this news and increased harvests by 10 percent, partially reversing the 2012 cut. And last month, NOAA updated its official menhaden page to reflect these changes.
Both agencies-NOAA and the ASMFC-have now officially declared the species to be sustainably harvested and managed. The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition is committed to continuing that sustainability into the future.
About the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition
The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition is a collective of menhaden fisherman, related businesses, and supporting industries. Comprised of over 30 businesses along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition conducts media and public outreach on behalf of the menhaden industry to ensure that members of the public, media, and government are informed of important issues, events, and facts about the fishery.
View a PDF of the release from the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition
WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – September 29, 2015 – The following excerpt appeared on September 27, 2015 in the Outer Banks Voice. Its author, Russell Lay, is co-owner and journalist at Outer Banks Voice, and an advocate for menhaden fishermen:
Science plays a big role in managing fisheries.
Scientists assess fish stocks, migration patterns, environmental issues – useful data that allow regulators to set policy.
We expect our science to be accurate and unaffected by politics, and as citizens, we expect political actors to treat science in the same manner.
Even Robert Fritchey, the author of Wetland Riders, a history of the Coastal Conservation Association, acknowledges that size limits, creel limits and other restrictions are necessary, and that “the science of estimating recreational discards and mortality is vastly improved.” Which would suggest that if interest groups are put aside, there is some hope science could be used in an unbiased manner to help manage fisheries.
Yet a series of e-mails found their way into the public domain from a 2007 round-robin discussion among several N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries scientists trying to peg a mortality rate for speckled seatrout caught by recreational anglers. See video
It would take a few hundred words to demonstrate where science goes off the rails and how other factors, including interest group reactions, exert an influence on what is expected to be an unbiased, fact-driven process.
The mortality rate is important because it is applied to the estimated landings of recreationally caught species and used to assign “catch quotas” for recreational and commercial interests.
The group of six scientists struggled. They questioned even the scope of the studies. “I have a problem with the adjusted values. The handling effect is a real phenomenon with recreational fishing and is definitely a cause for release mortality . . . this study wasn’t designed to look at stress-related mortality . . . ” said one team member.
They also expressed concerns over small sample sizes, differing numbers based on seasonality and salinity of the water, and a wide variance in mortality rates produced by the studies – from a low of 7.3 percent to a high of 19.4 percent.
For those who skipped the video, one comment by DMF scientist Douglas Mumford angered commercial fishermen already suspicious of state and national studies that were reducing stock assessment numbers in several species and therefore, reducing commercial quotas.
“If we put the 19.4 percent on the table, (recreational) folks will flip out. They’ll tell you there is no way 1 out of 5 fish they release dies,” Mumford wrote.
In the end the group decided to go at the low end and chose a mortality rate of 9.8 percent, even though more than one scientist felt a range closer to 14.8 percent was more accurate.
In 2015, another clash between science and politics took place.
The state Division of Marine Fisheries had ordered a stock assessment of southern flounder, a species many believe is suffering from a decline in North Carolina.
Commercial fishermen dispute those claims, citing rising numbers in commercial landings with no concurrent loss of landings on the recreational side, even while previous restrictions on southern flounder have reduced the catch effort by 137 percent, according to Britton Shackleford, president of North Carolina Watermen United.
Even though the DMF staff recommended against releasing the study, which subsequently failed to pass a peer review, DMF director Dr. Louis Daniel, backed by recreational members of the Marine Fisheries Commission and at-large member Chuck Laughridge (a life member of the Coastal Conservation Association), as well as the CCA and another recreational interest group, the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), declared their intention to move forward on reducing the commercial catch of southern flounder.
Once again, commercial fishermen, noting a study that failed to pass a scientific peer review, saw the “flawed study” still being used to reduce commercial operations, and adding further fuel to the fire regarding whether science or politics was dictating policy at the state level.
While a group of 13 state senators and representatives was able to persuade the MFC to delay taking action on imposing those restrictions until their September meeting, vote counters in Raleigh worry that inland Republicans will follow the CCA lead and allow the MFC to impose restrictions even though the science backing the decision has failed to pass academic muster.
Menhaden was once a major economic contributor to coastal North Carolina communities.
Severe restrictions on menhaden harvesting were imposed in North Carolina and other states based on a 2012 stock assessment from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which claimed the species had been severely overfished by the commercial industry.
Read the full op-ed at Outer Banks Voice