ASMFC Eases Menhaden Restrictions

Catch cap eased on menhaden, 'backbone' of East Coast fisheries

East Coast fisheries regulators agreed Tuesday to allow a modest boost in the catch of Atlantic menhaden because scientists now believe the little oily fish on which so many other species depend are not as scarce as previously thought.

The decision by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission comes 2 1/2 years after the interstate panel ordered commercial harvests slashed by 20 percent in response to scientific warnings that menhaden had been fished to a historic low, threatening other species, including Maryland's state fish, the striped bass.

The nearly unanimous vote to lift the catch cap by 10 percent represents a compromise between commercial fishermen, who contend that they can safely harvest many more, and conservationists, who remain worried that there still are not enough menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay to sustain striped bass, known to many as rockfish.

"We're heading in the right direction," said Robert T. Brown Sr., president of the Maryland Watermen's Association, who asserted that there are plenty of menhaden in the bay.

David Sikorski, an Ellicott City angler and a leader of the Maryland chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association, said that while recreational fishermen thought it was too soon to raise the cap, they were glad the commission pledged to develop new limits based on how many menhaden need to be left for other fish to eat.

I regard 10% as within the noise of fisheries data (prove me wrong), and thus this increase in the Menhaden catch is not really serious, just a nod to the commercial fishery. In my experiences on the Bay in recent years, I have not seen the vast schools of Menhaden that used to course by off shore.