In what fisheries experts are calling an historic measure to curb overfishing, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted late last week to reduce the fishing of menhaden by 20 per cent in the coming year. <p>The 20 per cent reduction takes effect July 1, 2013.</p>
In what fisheries experts are calling an historic measure to curb overfishing, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted late last week to reduce the fishing of menhaden by 20 per cent in the coming year.
The 20 per cent reduction takes effect July 1, 2013.
Menhaden, a primary food source for many other Atlantic fish including striped bass, bluefish, cod and swordfish, have come under close scrutiny in recent years as their numbers have declined sharply. The fish is principally harvested and landed in Virginia, but is taken by fishing boats up and down the Atlantic seaboard.
The commission decision to cut the landing to 170,800 metric tons is 20 per cent less than what has been landed on average in the last three years.
Ms. Berger said it was the most well-attended meeting she had seen in 19 years.
Ms. Berger said it was the most well-attended meeting she had seen in 19 years.
More than 350 people crowded into a hotel room in Baltimore on Dec. 14, many carrying placards and signs, to watch the commission debate and deliberate the cuts. Conservation groups and recreational fishermen favor protection of menhaden. A smaller number who attended opposed the cuts. It was not a public hearing, so there was no opportunity for comment, but the crowd in the room registered their position by holding up cards that named their state and said “I support menhaden conservation.”
“This is probably the most well-attended meeting I have ever seen. It was a really interesting process. There were a lot of passionate stake holders on all sides of the issue,” said Tina Berger, a spokesman for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Ms. Berger has worked for the commission for 19 years. She said during the deliberation there were motions on the table to cut the fishing effort from 10 to 25 per cent. “There was a lot of dialogue by the board,” she said. The board members represented 14 states along the eastern seaboard, from Maine to Virginia. Representatives from the National Marine Fisheries Service also attended.
“They tried to strike a balance of what the science is saying and the reliability of the science,” Ms. Berger said.
Discussion and voting went on all day. The final vote was 13 to 3 to reduce the catch by 20 per cent.
Soon after the decision, Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland said in a statement: “Today’s actions by ASMFC goes beyond menhaden. Maryland’s many other fish and marine mammals — the striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, dolphins, ospreys and bald eagles — will also benefit as they use Atlantic menhaden as a primary food source. After overfishing Atlantic menhaden for 52 of the past 54 years, resulting in historical low levels of abundance, overfishing will end and Atlantic menhaden will be given an opportunity to rebuild its population.”
Omega Protein, a Virginia-based company that fishes all along the Atlantic seaboard and has been harvesting menhaden for fish oil, issued a response. “Omega Protein has been fishing these Atlantic waters for a century and no one is more interested in the sustainability of the resource than we are. However, we are disappointed by the ASMFC’s decision to adopt these harvest reductions,” said chief executive officer Bret D. Scholtes.
Once abundant all along the eastern
seaboard, this fall menhaden were seen in Edgartown harbor for the first time in 20 years. Menhaden are filter feeders, like river herring. They feed on algae and phytoplankton.
David Pierce, deputy director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and a voting member of the ASMFC, told the Gazette later that he had made a motion for a 25 per cent cut. “I don’t think it [20 per cent] was enough . . . It was a compromise. It is a beginning,” he said.
Mr. Pierce said that the Massachusetts commercial quota will be one per cent of the 170 metric tons in the new year. “We are all cutting back,” he said.
He concluded: “It was a good outcome. That was one of the best-attended board meetings I have ever attended.
“This all related to an ecological solution. Menhaden are not only forage fish. They have an importance in the ecosystem.”
Comments
This is the first of many
Paul EdgartownThis is the first of many moves that will be needed to restore the fishery around MV and elsewhere. This is a proactive measure, and I support the people who showed leadership to make the changes necessary to sustain the fishery, and help the recovery of other fish that rely on the bunker to feed. Bravo!
That's easy for you to say we
saltydogg reedvilleThat's easy for you to say when your families survival doesn't depend on it like mine does.
It was a public meeting and I
James Price President Chesapeake Bay Ecological Fd. Easton, Md.It was a public meeting and I spoke. I explained why Amend. 2 will fail to protect small menhaden that are crucial to Chesapeake Bay striped bass. My testimony was based on a 6 year study conducted by the Chesapeake Bay Ecological Fd. Unfortuntley most of what the public reads is based on emotion and lack of knowledge concerning the facts regarding menhaden management. A 20 percent decrease in landings that allows the reduction fishery to harvest menhaden less than 8" will fail to protect the Chesapeake Bay forage base. The meeting was politically orchestrated and disgraced fishery management science.
Bye-Bye-Bluefin: What's going
Rayane Bye-Bye-Bluefin: What's going on??!!: Bluefin Tuna fishing in the Atlantic is oseisntbly managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. Thanks to this Commission, virtually every tuna, shark, and marlin species in the AtlBye-Bye-Bluefin: What's going on??!!: Bluefin Tuna fishing in the Atlantic is oseisntbly managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. Thanks to this Commission, virtually every tuna, shark, and marlin species in the Atlantic is at all-time low numbers. This conservation' Commission does not conserve; it does the opposite. So at odds with the World Conservation Union??!! Safina's Blue Ocean Institute's excellent Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood (free, via Internet) relates: Since 1996, the World Conservation Union has listed the western population of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna as critically endangered and the eastern population as endangered. Shockingly different from ICCAT!Well? I am reading Carl Safina's book Song for the Blue Ocean, in which it is all excellently put forth, such fine, clear, incisive writing it is hard to choose, but I quote the pith in this, page 34: Safina quotes Tim Voorheis, a bluefin spotter pilot working for a fishing team whose lead man is an officer of the East Coast Tuna Association: Tim says, To me, the giant bluefin tuna is a symbol of all that is great in the world, every living creature. To me it's the most magnificent creature on earth, maybe even more so than man himself.' Dave Linnney [crew member] says, There's another half to this. My daughter goes to college on tuna fish money. It's very important to me.' Well? Carl Safina is to be thanked for all he is doing to clarify and educate his book Song for the Blue Ocean has been translated to Japanese, to be read where the demand for bluefin is trouble, yes Now, the fish are so depleted that in 2006, U.S. commercial fishers caught only about ten percent of the allowed catch. Not that they weren’t trying; in 2001 a 444-pound bluefin tuna sold wholesale in Japan for $173,600. The price in 2007? Guess! I have lived in Japan for 35 years, seen the economy rise and fall. There's a widening divide in a society that has until recently considered itself to be generally all middle class. Now: an increase of rich vs those pinching to meet costs. The rich do buy and eat the best part of the best bluefin, the fatty toro whereas the best sushi jo-nigiri is for the average shopper a packaged set of 10 or fewer little patties of vinegared rice each topped with a different sliver of raw seafood, only one of which will be tuna: less than 6 cm x 3 cm x 1/2 cm! However, the population is as much as half that of the U.S.A., and still largely fish-eating though the idea of thick tuna steaks on the grill is, uh, largely out of the quesiton. (available variety of other edible, smaller, unendangered fish: huge.) When I introduce wherever I can what I have learned from Carl Safina, I hear Ah, so ka?! Is it that bad? I had no idea! In the work of Safina and in his contagious appreciation for the bluefin and all other endangered marine animals, there is hope and tremendous thanks ongoing.
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