Overfishing of Menhaden on America's Atlantic Coast

[Paul Guris]

This article is a must read for anybody interested in our marine life on the state of the overfishing of Menhaden on the Atlantic Coast and its impact on the ecosystem.  Just one rendering plant is using planes and purse seines to harvest 250-500 million pounds a year, more than any other fish harvest on our coast.  This is a major food source for multiple species of game fish, cetaceans, and seabirds.  I have seen Northern Gannets massing on schools of young Menhaden multiple times.  The fat and oil in a Menhaden make it the best food source for many of these animals.  Read the whole article at:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/mayjune_2012/features/a_fish_story037074.php


One quote from the article puts it all into perspective:

Harvested by the billions and then processed into various industrial products, menhaden are extruded into feed pellets that make up the staple food product for a booming global aquaculture market, diluted into oil for omega-3 health supplements, and sold in various meals and liquids to companies that make pet food, livestock feed, fertilizer, and cosmetics. We have all consumed menhaden one way or another. Pound for pound, more menhaden are pulled from the sea than any other fish species in the continental United States, and 80 percent of the menhaden netted from the Atlantic are the property of a single company.

-PAG
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Paul A. Guris
See Life Paulagics
PO Box 161
Green Lane, PA  18054
215-234-6805
www.paulagics.com
paulagics.com@gmail.com
in...@paulagics.com

[Gail B. Mackiernan %3Ckatahdinss%40comcast.net%3E]

There is a great book about menhaden (now also an excellent film, shown recently on Maryland public TV) called "The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America" by H. Bruce Franklin. It clearly demonstrates how the over-fishing of this species is impacting the marine and estuarine ecology throughout its range, although the film focuses on Chesapeake Bay. There is also a short film about the book on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajZWQ5eur98

In the 1960s, when I first came to the Bay as a grad student, menhaden were far more abundant and the average fish much larger. A friend who worked as a young man on the Reedville VA menhaden boats talks about some individuals being 18" in length -- most are now half that. The species is being growth overfished (fish are not allowed to reach the size which would provide maximum yield) and possibly recruitment overfished as well (not enough fish reach reproductive size to sustain population). In Chespeake Bay there used to be two companies: Reedville Fish & Guano and Omega Protein, the latter is the last company fishing in the Bay. The importance of this species to other fish and fish-eating birds, as well as Bay water quality (menhaden filter algae from water) is immense. Yet the fishery councils continued to say the species is not overfished. But we know a lot more about menhaden's environmental role now than we did in the past  There is a move to reduce take and also, to manage the species as part of an ecosystem, not in a vacuum. Time will tell if this is implemented and if it works...

Gail Mackiernan
Silver Spring, MD

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From: "Paul Guris" <paulag...@gmail.com>
To: "Post Seabird-News" <seabir...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 5:37:42 PM
Subject: [Seabird-News:1643] Overfishing of Menhaden on America's Atlantic Coast

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