The Most Important Fish in the Sea

[Click here for the full Menhaden Matter report.]

	Atlantic Menhaden

Atlantic Menhaden are small, oily fish that play a major role in the health of marine ecosystems up and down the Atlantic Coast. Although petite in stature, menhaden are a vital source of food for a wide variety of fish, seabirds and marine mammals from the Gulf of Maine to Florida.

Menhaden are especially important to the overall health of Chesapeake Bay, the biggest estuary in North America and the third largest in the world. As principal filter feeders of the bay’s waters — second only to oysters, which are already grossly depleted — menhaden feed on plankton and decaying plant matter. They are also the primary source of food for many popular sport and commercial fish, including striped bass, which spawn in the bay and rely on juvenile menhaden for the bulk of their diet.

Insufficient Conservation Methods

Despite the critical role that menhaden play in the ocean food web, currently no conservation measures — including fishing limits — are in place to ensure that menhaden remain at healthy levels within the Chesapeake Bay, an ecosystem critical to the survival of fish and wildlife all along the Atlantic Coast.

	Industrial Menhaden Fishing

The Chesapeake Bay is bounded by two states. Maryland, like most others along the Atlantic coast, has closed its waters to the industrialized harvest of menhaden with purse seines and spotter planes. But Virginia has not. Consequently, one Virginia-based fishing fleet currently takes about three-quarters of the entire East Coast catch of menhaden — or more than 100,000 metric tons of fish — annually from the bay and surrounding coastal waters.

Menhaden Matter — a unique cooperative effort of concerned conservation and recreation organizations, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Coastal Conservation Association, Environmental Defense and the National Coalition for Marine Conservation, has reviewed the available science, including data from the National Marine Fisheries Service and leading universities. Based on these findings, Menhaden Matter concludes that the important role menhaden play in the marine ecosystem is at risk. Common sense conservation measures should be taken immediately by the appropriate management bodies, including the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the 15-state regulatory body that has responsibility for conservation of the stock.

Red Flags

	Menhaden Catch

Recent studies raise a number of red flags about the diminishing ecological role of menhaden:

• The overall number of Atlantic menhaden is near historic lows.



• The population of young menhaden has been at an all-time low for more than a decade. Indices are lowest in Chesapeake Bay for juvenile abundance — the age and size most important as forage for predators, especially resident striped bass.



• The industrial-scale menhaden fishery is concentrated in the Virginia waters of the Chesapeake Bay, taking 75 percent of the coastwide catch from within the bay and nearby waters.



• Predators that depend on menhaden as a food source, most notably striped bass, are showing signs of ecological stress.
  
  
  • A high proportion of striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay are suffering malnutrition and poor body condition.
  
  
  
  • More than half of the striped bass sampled in the bay are infected with mycobacteriosis, a sometimes fatal disease, which typically appears in fish under stress.
  
  
  
  • The survival rate of striped bass in the bay has been declining due to natural causes.
  
  
• The lack of menhaden also could affect sea birds, including loons and ospreys.

Need for Proactive Measures

Any one of these indicators taken alone may not be compelling enough to demand action by fishery managers. But collectively, they signal a potentially serious threat and point to the need for proactive measures to be taken now to protect not only menhaden and the fish that depend upon them, such as striped bass, but also the waters in which they spawn and swim — especially the Chesapeake Bay.

While initial efforts are underway to study the problem, remedial action based on these studies is likely to be years away. In the meantime, the ASMFC does not regulate the number, size or location of menhaden caught in the industrial fishery, despite the fact that nearly every other species they manage have measures in place to protect the stock.

The Menhaden Matter effort wants to be clear. It is not looking to shut down the industrial menhaden industry. To the contrary, it believes that the proactive management of menhaden now will improve the future health of the industry and the Chesapeake Bay.

Menhaden Matter!

They matter to the health of oceans and estuaries. They matter to the viability of recovering stocks of striped bass, bluefish and other species. They matter to other predators, such as loons and osprey. They matter to commercial watermen and recreational anglers who fish for stocks that depend on menhaden. And they matter to businesses and local economies that these fisheries support.

That is why it is critical that the ASMFC:

• Implement proactive measures to protect menhaden now.



• Lay the foundation for an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management in the future.

In that way, the most important fish in the sea can be protected.

Find Out More

• Read the full report, Menhaden Matter (PDF)