This Menhaden Issue Needs To Be Discussed

[Spot77]

....and i finally learned what the "reduction industry" is.


Here's a new article from this week's Capital:

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/new...ous-shape.html

Outdoors: Menhaden in precarious shape
By CHRIS D. DOLLAR, For The Capital
By CHRIS D. DOLLAR, For The Capital

Capital Gazette Communications Published 10/09/11
For hundreds of years, fueled by humans' rapacious appetite for fresh seafood and false notion that stocks were inexhaustible, fish and shellfish have been pulled out of bays and oceans at an unsustainable rate. Cod, striped bass, sturgeon, and oysters headline the list of species that at some point have been fished to near zero. Unless things change, and fast, add menhaden to that list.

A key food for rockfish, birds and sea mammals, menhaden are in trouble. The most recent stock assessment by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission revealed overfishing has occurred in 32 out of the last 54 years. Even scarier is that East Coast menhaden populations are estimate to be only 8 percent of its historical abundance. Today, one-fifth of the bunkers caught are used for bait by sport and commercial fishermen. The rest - about 150,000 tons - is caught by reduction fishery, run by Omega out of its Reedville plant. There, this key forage is cooked down into industrial oils for cosmetics and vitamins or ground into chicken feed or meal for farmed fish.

The fight to get the ASMFC's attention regarding menhaden's downward spiral goes back at least to the late 1990s. Although he wasn't quite the lone voice in the wilderness, Jim Price of the Chesapeake Bay Ecological Foundation didn't have a full chorus behind him when he expressed concerns that something was wrong with bay stripers and that perhaps a lack of menhaden in their diet might be a contributing factor. Early on, some scientists scoffed, but today his initial premise has proven to be spot on.

Virginia Institute of Marine Science researchers have since discovered that Mycobacterium shottsii, a new species of bacteria, is largely responsible for an outbreak among Chesapeake stripers causing lesions and early mortality. These findings only strengthen the argument that bay rockfish aren't getting nearly enough protein. Historically, rockfish primarily ate protein-rich menhaden. Today, bunker makes up less than 10 percent of bay stripers diet. That insufficient numbers of menhaden translates into a less-than-healthy rockfish population is a logical correlation.

In 2006, a bay-wide cap on the Chesapeake menhaden harvest went into effect with great fanfare and optimism. Part of that plan was to use LIDAR, the acronym for ''light detection and range'' in which pulses from a laser measure the properties of a target, to try and determine how many bunker were in the bay. But LIDAR didn't work; bay waters were too deep and particulate matter presumably skewed the laser's effectiveness.

That initiative, however, set the table to ratchet up pressure on the ASMFC to do something to slow the menhaden decline. Bruce Franklin's book, ''The Most Important Fish in the Sea'' published in 2007, was a game changer. Menhaden became cause celebre.

Could 2011 be the year when sustainability trumps maximum harvest, money and political clout?

"Chances are better than ever that meaningful action will be taken to better manage menhaden," said Richen Brame, Atlantic States fisheries director for the Coastal Conservation Association.

On its website, CBF fisheries policy chief Bill Goldsborough called the potential action a "landmark thing for menhaden. This is what we've been fighting for for years."

The ASMFC is considering options that would limit overfishing, lower the harvest target, which would provide a buffer against overfishing, and give resource managers better tools to constrict the harvest to meet that management target. All of Maryland's fishing groups have the details on their websites. On Tuesday, the Department of Natural Resources will host a public hearing beginning at 6 p.m. at its headquarters in Annapolis. You can also email your opinion directly to the ASMFC at tkerns@asmfc.org. The public comment period ends at 5 p.m. on Nov. 2.

For nearly two decades I've made my living, such that it is, from the Chesapeake. I owe it far more than it owes me. Status quo menhaden management has yielded nothing but a bleak future for this vital forage and the gamefish, birds and marine mammals that depend upon them. The good news is that given the chance menhaden can reproduce quickly. To ASMFC members: here's your chance to get it right-it's a slam dunk. Don't dilute your responsibilities to the marine resource and public by settling for watered down measures.

[reds]

Originally Posted by Spot77

....and i finally learned what the "reduction industry" is.


Here's a new article from this week's Capital:

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/new...ous-shape.html

Now you need to realize that the problem is not in Maryland and the rec fishing clubs here are trying to put people out of business that are not part of the reduction industry.

[gullfinder]

Originally Posted by reds

Now you need to realize that the problem is not in Maryland and the rec fishing clubs here are trying to put people out of business that are not part of the reduction industry.

---UNFORTNUALY THE RESULTS ARE FELT IN MARYLAND
----We are a Nursery State For ALL the East Coast--We RAISE , Striped Bass, Bluefish, G & Speckled Trout , Flounder, & the fish in question , Alewies---

---Blues & Alewies Hatch in Ocean & come into upper Bay waters to Semi-Mature --E. G.--Peanut Bunker & Pocket Rocket Blues --Its OK for us to grow Em Till they leave at First Frost ---BUT< BUT,

--The Reduction Fleet BELOW IN VA. Intercepts The MATURE ALEWIES & then we ( Fishermen & Preadator Fish ) DO NOT have the Mature Alewies to feed our Needs ---
--Large Blues (Gorrillas)--16--24 Pounds Stay below where Food Is Plentiful --Grey Trout ( Tiderunners)up to 16 Pounds No longer Come North with the Spring Rockfish Migration --Same Reason --Door Mat Flounder no longer enter into that Migration --Same Reason --

--The Mature Alewies Are Filter Feeders , --we have NONE--Oysters are Filter feeders --we have few or NONE,---Alewies ? --Strong STATE & FEDERAL LOBBY --Headed by ________some of ya like me know who this --_____________ IS !!!!Reedsville Needs the local Income , Va. Needs the TAX base--Is it fair to Believe this will Change --HELL NO!!!!--BUT if the Early Spring Migration North of the Mature Fish was Allowed by a Season's ASMFC DATE Change on the Netting Fleet , we then WOULD get a Fair Share up North --I'm Sure the ASMFC " Suits " are aware of this ---But the Intestinal Foritude is Lacking & the ole "You scrach my back & i'll Scratch Yours" VOTE mentality is at its Formost of thier thoughts --The hell with Maryland's Fisheries wants & needs & 3 Decades of Requests on this SAME SUBJECT !!!!---

--As to the OYSTER FILTER filtering situation --We , Listned to the DOO GOODERS & TREEHUGGERS & closed the Restoration of Shells Projects on Maryland Bottoms ---WASTE OF MONEY it was Cried from the rooftops ---B S --If a oyster Spat dosen't Start , So Be It it ,You have provided a New HARD BOTTOM for Pan Fish , Flounder, Rockfish, Trout ,Black Sea Bass, Oyster Toads, Lizzard fish etc. to Live & Feed --the "BLUE RIDGE MOUNTIAN" Sized oyster shell accumulation in Crisfield Is a Shamefull Example of "State wasted Money" save em but never use um --We don't have PLASTIC BOTTLE Mountains in Md. --Why Oystershells ?---
---So what is Our East Coast Classic Answer , Ignore it it will go away--A meeting once in a while---A few Bucks for another Study ---Let Maryland Fisheries Continue to Stew in thier own Silt laden World ---Provided At No Charge by Penna.--
--In Closing --

--No Mature Bait fron the South --Plenty of Pollution & Silt From the North --We are a Forgiveing bunch Huh?---Wait till the Spring Hearings before the ASMFC -It will be get on your Knees & Pray for a Few of THIER FISH ---geo.

[reds]

Originally Posted by gullfinder

---UNFORTNUALY THE RESULTS ARE FELT IN MARYLAND
----We are a Nursery State For ALL the East Coast--We RAISE , Striped Bass, Bluefish, G & Speckled Trout , Flounder, & the fish in question , Alewies---

---Blues & Alewies Hatch in Ocean & come into upper Bay waters to Semi-Mature --E. G.--Peanut Bunker & Pocket Rocket Blues --Its OK for us to grow Em Till they leave at First Frost ---BUT< BUT,

--The Reduction Fleet BELOW IN VA. Intercepts The MATURE ALEWIES & then we ( Fishermen & Preadator Fish ) DO NOT have the Mature Alewies to feed our Needs ---
--Large Blues (Gorrillas)--16--24 Pounds Stay below where Food Is Plentiful --Grey Trout ( Tiderunners)up to 16 Pounds No longer Come North with the Spring Rockfish Migration --Same Reason --Door Mat Flounder no longer enter into that Migration --Same Reason --

--The Mature Alewies Are Filter Feeders , --we have NONE--Oysters are Filter feeders --we have few or NONE,---Alewies ? --Strong STATE & FEDERAL LOBBY --Headed by ________some of ya like me know who this --_____________ IS !!!!Reedsville Needs the local Income , Va. Needs the TAX base--Is it fair to Believe this will Change --HELL NO!!!!--BUT if the Early Spring Migration North of the Mature Fish was Allowed by a Season's ASMFC DATE Change on the Netting Fleet , we then WOULD get a Fair Share up North --I'm Sure the ASMFC " Suits " are aware of this ---But the Intestinal Foritude is Lacking & the ole "You scrach my back & i'll Scratch Yours" VOTE mentality is at its Formost of thier thoughts --The hell with Maryland's Fisheries wants & needs & 3 Decades of Requests on this SAME SUBJECT !!!!---

--As to the OYSTER FILTER filtering situation --We , Listned to the DOO GOODERS & TREEHUGGERS & closed the Restoration of Shells Projects on Maryland Bottoms ---WASTE OF MONEY it was Cried from the rooftops ---B S --If a oyster Spat dosen't Start , So Be It it ,You have provided a New HARD BOTTOM for Pan Fish , Flounder, Rockfish, Trout ,Black Sea Bass, Oyster Toads, Lizzard fish etc. to Live & Feed --the "BLUE RIDGE MOUNTIAN" Sized oyster shell accumulation in Crisfield Is a Shamefull Example of "State wasted Money" save em but never use um --We don't have PLASTIC BOTTLE Mountains in Md. --Why Oystershells ?---
---So what is Our East Coast Classic Answer , Ignore it it will go away--A meeting once in a while---A few Bucks for another Study ---Let Maryland Fisheries Continue to Stew in thier own Silt laden World ---Provided At No Charge by Penna.--
--In Closing --

--No Mature Bait fron the South --Plenty of Pollution & Silt From the North --We are a Forgiveing bunch Huh?---Wait till the Spring Hearings before the ASMFC -It will be get on your Knees & Pray for a Few of THIER FISH ---geo.

So what you are saying is let the bait fisherman, crabbers and charter fishermen take the hit with the reduction Industry.

I don't agree. Any reduction in harvest should be aimed specifically at the Reduction Industry and the bait fishermen should be exempted.

This is not the case as proposed and the Bay Foundation, MSSA and CCA is perfectly willing to through them under the bus to get at the cause of this problem.

[gullfinder]

Originally Posted by reds

So what you are saying is let the bait fisherman, crabbers and charter fishermen take the hit with the reduction Industry.

I don't agree. Any reduction in harvest should be aimed specifically at the Reduction Industry and the bait fishermen should be exempted.

This is not the case as proposed and the Bay Foundation, MSSA and CCA is perfectly willing to through them under the bus to get at the cause of this problem.

--Basicly Reds , I'm Saying Just allow the Early Run of MATURE ALEWIES to pass the Va. Reduction Fleet Ships in the Early Spring buy Adjusting Thier BEGINING Date, Let some Pass to continue North to Upper & Mid Bay --geo.

www.Anglerswanted.com

[Spot77]

Some good info on Menhaden:

http://chesapeakebay.noaa.gov/fish-facts/menhaden

2 interesting things:

They claim that Croakerare the only by-catch of the Menhaden fishery and that the number of Croaker caught is insignificant.

There's some info in there that I found helpful to plan my next few fishing trips with.