The Atlantic menhaden season opens in May of the year and closes before Christmas from Virginia north, and in mid-January in North Carolina. The small, oily inedible fish are harvested to make heart-healthy fish oil for human consumption, fish meal for use as a high-protein ingredient in livestock feeds, and to be used as bait. Menhaden are also a primary forage fish for sport fish stocks.

There are opposing views as to whether this fishery is in trouble. One side states the resource is healthy and abundant, while the careful eyes of conservation groups like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Chesapeake Bay Acid Rain Foundation see another story unfolding.

In a recent statement released by Richard Gutting, Jr., Executive Director of Seafood For America, he stated, "Atlantic Menhaden Season Ends With Resource Healthy, Plentiful - Menhaden returned in great abundance to the Chesapeake Bay and the mid-Atlantic coast during the 1998 fishing season resulting in record-breaking fall harvests by the nation's menhaden fishermen."

Seafood For America is a non-profit public education program which acts to preserve access to the nation's fisheries on behalf of consumers.

"The menhaden industry recorded record-breaking harvests in October, despite the fact that the Atlantic menhaden fishing fleet was voluntarily reduced by almost one-third at the beginning of this past fishing season," Gutting said. "The menhaden resource remains healthy and abundant."

Atlantic menhaden, which have been studied scientifically for nearly 150 years, typically shows a natural multi-year pattern of ebb-and-flow, Gutting said. The recent downward phase of the cycle now appears to be reversing itself.

"Even when the Atlantic menhaden resource was at its lowest point, the commercial harvest still only accounted for a fraction of the total biomass," Gutting said. "The Atlantic menhaden resource is in no danger of overfishing."

Gutting said that claims by some recreational fishing and other groups that the menhaden resource is in trouble are not based on good science and often represent political agendas unrelated to responsible fisheries management.

"We repeatedly see situations in which well-meaning individuals misinterpret very localized conditions into inaccurate conclusions about the entire Atlantic Coast menhaden fishery," he said. "Unfortunately, erroneous claims that the menhaden fishery is in peril are also being made to facilitate the fund-raising and organizational goals of certain advocacy groups."

Claims that harvesting menhaden hurts sports fish stocks by depriving them of forage have also been shown to be without merit, the Seafood For America Executive Director said. Recent sportfishing columns report so many striped bass in New Jersey's "loaded" waters that "you can walk on 'em." In Virginia, anglers in the state's Saltwater Fishing Tournament registered a record 6,133 trophy fish. "This is hardly the record of a resource in trouble," Gutting said.

"The [statement] released [by Seafood for America] apparently seeks to balance what it views as biased assertions by others that the menhaden resource is "in peril." Unfortunately the approach taken in the release is also biased and can only be dismissed as vested interest propaganda," said Chesapeake Bay Foundation Senior Scientist, Bill Goldsborough.

"It is no more accurate or defensible to say the menhaden resource "...remains healthy and abundant" than it is to claim the resource is in trouble. In fact there is abundant evidence to suggest the latter. So much so that the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission's Menhaden Board recently unanimously decided to call for a complete revamping of the menhaden management process. The Board's decision was driven primarily by the report of an independent peer review of Atlantic menhaden science and management which noted among other things that the stock had suffered recruitment failure throughout the 1990's, that the stock range had shrunk, and that prospects for the future condition of the stock were not good. There is no corroborating evidence to suggest that increased catches in late 1998 in the purse seine fishery indicate "the downward phase of the cycle ...[is]... reversing itself" as claimed in the release. In fact, given that it is not unusual for stock collapses to be preceded by increased catches, it is just as defensible to call for caution given the circumstances. The menhaden industry representatives involved in the ASMFC process have so far been reasonable and constructive participants in the effort to improve management of the fishery. Rhetoric has been minimal on both sides of that table. In contrast, the rhetoric is thick in the Seafood for America press release, and notwithstanding the claim that it is responding in-kind to similar hyperbole, it does a disservice to the industry. Exaggerated claims and misinformation do not help advance the debate," Goldsborough said.

The Chesapeake Bay Acid Rain Foundation takes the declining Atlantic Menhaden stocks and links it directly to the ecological health of the Bay. They state, "The declining forage base for larger predator species, such as striped bass, bluefish and weakfish in the Chesapeake Bay, has raised concern about the percentage of Atlantic menhaden that are being harvested from the Chesapeake Bay. During the 1997 summer and fall season, large numbers of adult male striped bass over 18" were exhibiting signs of poor nutrition and starvation. The Atlantic coast menhaden population has declined 58% since 1991, while landings in the Chesapeake Bay have remained relatively high averaging 150,000 metric tons per year and actually increased to approximately 160,000 metric tons in 1997. Approximately 60 percent of the total landings for the entire east coast were harvested from Virginia's portion of the Chesapeake Bay during the 1997 season. Atlantic menhaden are an extremely important link in the coastal marine food chain, transferring enormous amounts of nutrients into forage biomass and at the same time, improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. No other fish has the capability to replace this unique species that can filter the plankton from more than a million gallons of water in 180 days...The National Marine Fisheries Service should reduce the harvest of Atlantic menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic coast until a significant improvement in reproduction occurs and the population increases to a healthy level that will benefit the commercial fishing industry as well as the many species of birds, mammals, and fish that depend on this valuable resource. The ecology of the Chesapeake Bay and the entire Atlantic coast depend on a large, healthy population of Atlantic menhaden. "

The claims backed by scientific, measurable data point to one conclusion — Atlantic Menhaden is a fishery in need of management. Conservation efforts should to be stepped up and statements made by organizations that, on the surface, claim to represent the consumer should be suspect.

For more information contact...
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation or
The Chesapeake Bay Acid Rain Foundation