Fish in the News

Two fishy stories in the Chesapeake Bay news, neither of which are compelling posts alone:

Little fish are most valuable when left in the sea, researchers say:

The smallest fish in the sea are more than twice as valuable when they’re eaten by bigger fish than when they’re caught by humans, according to a report released Sunday by a scientific task force.

The 120-page analysis by the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force — a group of 13 scientists specializing in everything from fish ecology to marine mammals and seabirds — underscores the growing concern researchers have about the fate of forage fish, including anchovies, mehaden, herring and sardines that serve as food for bigger fish, sea birds and marine mammals.

Yep, the big fish do eat little fish...  In most insufficiently regulated fisheries, fishing concentrates on the big fish until they are scarce to the point of becoming uneconomical to fish, and then moving on down to the smaller forage fish.  It's called "fishing down the food chain."

Here in Chesapeake Bay we have the relatively rare case where the forage fish, Menhaden supports the biggest fishery, while the Stripped Bass population is healthy enough that we are seriously worried about reduced menhaden populations affecting the ability of Striped Bass to grow and survive.

Shark fin bans gather steam in coastal states

Efforts to restrict the shark fin trade - which is illegal in four states and has prompted legislation in at least six others - have stirred a noisy public debate about how best to protect a top ocean predator whose numbers are shrinking.

While the United States boasts some of the world’s toughest restrictions on shark fishing, requiring sharks to be brought in with their fins attached, proponents of the measure argue more needs to be done.

“This is everyone’s problem,’’ said Eric Luedtke, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, which is considering banning the sale and trade of shark fins, an Asian delicacy, much to the ire of some fishermen and restaurant owners.

Luedtke noted that large sharks off the East Coast have declined by 90 percent compared with historic levels, leading to an explosion in the Chesapeake Bay’s cownose ray population, which in turn wiped out some oyster beds.

“The reality is sharks don’t recognize state boundaries; they don’t recognize international boundaries,’’ he said. “What’s bad for oceans elsewhere is bad for oceans here.’’

But some Asian-American businesses that serve shark’s fin soup, as well as fishing operators who catch sharks legally, oppose the bans, which went into effect in Hawaii in 2010 and in California, Washington, and Oregon last year.

 It should be banned in US waters. Period.