Atlantic Menhaden the Most Important Fish in Narragansett Bay

In the Months of May and June, live lining a Pogie (Menhaden) in the main shipping channel or around any structure is almost a sure thing in the upper bay. 

From Fields Point all the way up the Seekonk and Providence Rivers, fishing the upper bay in the spring has got to be some of the best fishing "anywhere." 

Stripers are drawn into the rivers to feed on schools of Menhaden that migrate into the bay in spring. "Find the bait...find the fish" as the saying goes. 

But this great fishing could be in jeopardy. Rhode Island still allows a Menhaden commercial vessel to take Menhaden in the bay, even though commercial fishing for them is banned in the state.

In my opinion there should be no pogie fishing in the bay at all, if you can't snag a livey to liveline, you have to buy dead menhaden at the bait shop, and there is nothing better than a fresh, live pogie when fishing for strippers and blues. 

Leaving the pogies in the bay would create a fishing tourist industry, similar to Cape Cod or the Florida Keys. Adding up to billions for the state in fishing tourism dollar!

Besides being the primary diet for just about all of our food and game fish in the Atlantic and the Gulf coasts, they clean our bays and estuaries - talk about important!!!

Pogies are filter feeders that live on phytoplankton. Dense schools of menhaden, sometimes numbering in the hundreds of thousands, migrate through ours waters to feed on plankton and detritus. An adult menhaden can filter up to four gallons a minute.  Purging particles that cause turbidity, this filtering cleans the water, allowing sunlight to penetrate and encourage the growth of plants that release oxygen and provide a healthy habitat for fish and shellfish.

Menhaden has long been an important part of our history, they were vital to the first settlers of North America and the development of American agriculture and industry. For most of the 20th century, Menhaden provided the largest catch of any U.S. fishery, exceeding all other fish combined - talk about OVERFISHING!! 

Menhaden clean our estuaries and bays, playing an essential dual role in marine ecology on a scale perhaps unmatched anywhere.

With another great filter feeder, the oyster, near extinction in many of our bays and estuaries by overfishing and pollution, menhaden are left as the only check on deadly phytoplankton explosions. Marine biologist Sara Gottlieb, author of a study on Menhaden's filtering capability, compares them with your own liver: "Just as your body needs its liver to filter out toxins, ecosystems also need those natural filters. "Overfishing menhaden, she says,"is just like removing your liver."

Atlantic Menhaden have nearly been driven to extinction. In summers, schools used to migrated through New England and up to the Canadian border, since the early 90's no large schools of menhaden were observed north of Cape Cod. As government regs were imposed on our food and game fish, most states banned menhaden fishing, except for two, North Carolina and Virginia, most of our commercial catch comes out of the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake, a tidal estuary that once produced more seafood than any body of water on earth, is ecologically a disaster. 

With the lack of Oyster's available, menhaden partners in filtration, the Chesapeake is literally choking with overgrowths of phytoplankton creating dead  zones. Menhaden conservation makes sense, with little hope of the oysters return, Menhaden are critical to the health of our bays and estuaries.

Leaving "natures vacuum cleaners" alone to clean our bays would serve a dual purpose, cleansing the bay and feeding fish.

It would definitely help R.I. tourism industry - I can see it now ! 

Come fish Rhode Island... Home of the Worlds Best Striper Fishing!!! 

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