Stinky Fish Back in the News

The Chesapeake Bay world is getting ready for some action on the Menhaden issue.  In particular, the ASMFC is getting ready to make new policies on the Menhaden take in the Bay, and conservationists are lining up to make sure that the next set goals restrict harvest enough to allow the population to rebound some.

Maryland Attorney General Gansler is asking ASMFC to dramatically increase the threshold for overfishing, to 15% of their maximum spawning potential.  Even that seems chintzy to me, but it would be a huge step forward.

Chesapeake Bay Action Plan, a blog by people I sometime agree with, and more often disagree with (I find them a bit shrill most of the time) is asking for the same 15% limit, and an overall management target of 40%.  They base this on the importance of Menhaden as food for two important and charismatic species:

As scientists, policymakers, and conservationists dedicated to the health of the Chesapeake Bay, we note that the diet of rockfish (Morone saxatilis) and Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) have changed radically due to the decline in menhaden numbers: Surveys in Chesapeake Bay show menhaden now account for less than 8 percent of the diet of rockfish when historically menhaden comprised as much as 70 percent of the prey consumed by adult rockfish; and in the 1980s, more than 70 percent of the fish delivered to Osprey nests were menhaden, which dropped to less than 27 percent of the Osprey diet in 2006 in the same area studied.

Scientists believe that this drop in menhaden consumption may have led to serious problems for these two species: Striped bass in the Bay have shown signs of malnourishment and infections with mycobacteriosis. In 2006, surveys of Osprey nests found that only four of every 10 chicks survived to fledge, well below the 1971 levels of the DDT-era when fewer chicks were hatching but nearly eight of 10 survived to fledge. Chicks were hatching in 2006, but they were starving in the nest as adult Osprey were delivering nearly three times less fish and fish not as nutritious as menhaden to nestlings. See Dr. Bryan D. Watts, Director, Center for Conservation Biology, College of William and Mary, Chesapeake Wildlife in the Balance, Richmond Times-Dispatch, October 19, 2011.

Read the rest of the letter, and if you feel moved, write (or post an e-mail) to ASMFC recommending this course of action.  You could do worse than to cut and past their recommendations:

We would urge the adoption of these new 15%/40% MSPs and an accelerated implementation of management measures to achieve the minimum 40 percent management target including a risk-averse coast-wide total allowable catch (TAC). The TAC should include specific quotas that substantially reduce the industrial reduction fishery, especially from the Chesapeake Bay. More than 400 million pounds of menhaden were harvested for this fishery in 2010.

You can submit your comments to comments@asmfc.org.