Commentary: Menhaden Quota Reduction Mandate

Guest Commentary by Jeremy Cox, Courtesy Bay Journal

Menhaden Catch Cut to Help Striped Bass, But is it Enough? by Jeremy Cox, Bay Journal

One of the most crucial fish in the Chesapeake Bay’s aquatic food web is getting more protection from potential overfishing, but not as much as some environmentalists and state fishery managers had wanted.

The vote by the commission’s Menhaden Management Board was 13–5 in favor of the 10% reduction, with state delegations from Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Rhode Island in opposition. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission That means the maximum commercial harvest in agreed Oct. 20 to cut the allowable commercial all East Coast waters for 2021 and 2022 would harvest of Atlantic menhaden 10% from what it be 194,000 metric tons. A 51,000-metric ton cap has been the last three years. on how much of the menhaden catch can come The commission’s decision marked a historic shift in the way it establishes catch levels. Traditionalfrom the Chesapeake Bay would remain unchanged. ly, policymakers have relied on abundance and During the annual meeting of the commission, death rates of a single species to make that call. which regulates migratory species in state waIn August, commission members switched to an ters, backers of a measure to reduce catches by “ecological reference point” that accounts for 20% fell short of the support required for approvmenhaden's value as food for predators, especial- al. ly striped bass. “In any good marriage, there has to be a comproWhile the menhaden population is considered mise,” said A.G. "Spud" Woodward, a retired relatively robust, striped bass numbers are low. Georgia fisheries manager who is the board’s The big dilemma for regulators: Should the small, chairman. oily fish be managed for the small striped bass population that exists now or the larger one they envision building? Every Chesapeake Bay watershed state on the board — Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia — sided with the 10% cut.

Most of the Atlantic menhaden harvested from the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic coast are caught in purse seines like these deployed by a fishing fleet operating for Omega Protein Corp. of Reedville, VA.Photo: Dave Harp

A gradual reduction in the annual catch will help soften the economic blow to the seafood industry, said Steven Bowman, a board member and head of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the state’s tidal fishery regulator.

phon about $1 million annually from the fishing industry in New Jersey alone, said Jeff Kaelin, former chair of the ASMFC board’s advisory panel and a government relations specialist with Lund’s Fisheries in New Jersey. “We have to consider the people that are in- “It’s millions of dollars coastwide to not realize the volved in this as well,” he said. Virginia is home catches we had last year and in previous years,” base of Omega Protein Corp., the largest menha- he added. den harvester in Chesapeake and Atlantic waters. It employs 260 people at its processing plant in Reedville, VA. The steepness of the harvest reduction may have been a point of contention at the meeting, but the use of the new ecological reference point While most of the menhaden harvest gets pro- wasn’t. Justin Davis, assistant director of Connecticessed into animal feed and human dietary sup- cut’s marine fisheries program, called the change plements, a significant portion of the catch is used “a brave step” that should lead to a more cautious as bait for other fisheries. A 20% cut would si- approach toward menhaden’s management. He

called on his fellow board members to adopt the consider their importance to predators. The newly 20% cut. reduced harvest limits demonstrate that the new At that level, the seafood industry would have a 50-50 chance of causing more menhaden deaths tack is working, said Chris Moore, a Bay Foundation ecosystem scientist. than the goal set by the commission, according to “The new lower limit will help ensure that striped the agency’s scientists. With the 10% cuts, the bass will have an abundance of forage, which is chances of that happening rise to 58% in 2021 vitally important to a successful rebound of this and 52% in 2022, they said. population,” Moore said in a statement. “The new But other members pushed back, stating that there are plenty of menhaden for the current number of striped bass, which are also known as quota will also support a healthier ecosystem for a variety of fish, bird, and marine mammal species that fuel the success of many local businesses.” rockfish. And the annual menhaden catch rou- Omega Protein maintained after the meeting that tinely falls short of the regulatory limit, providing it preferred no change in the catch. But the 10% an extra buffer, they said. decrease “is not an unreasonable step toward The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other environmental groups have urged regulators for years moving to ecological management of the species,” the company said in a statement. to look beyond menhaden’s economic value to

They might not look like much, but in their millions menhaden are critical to the health of Chesapeake Bay and other estuaries, in addition to the health of the striped bass populations that reside there.