Lets Save Menhaden: Our Bays and Estuaries Depend On It

Gulf Menhaden

In the 1950s when populations were healthy, pogies (menhaden) were capable of meeting the prey demand of striped bass, bluefish and supporting other fisheries.

The 1950's catch records show 8yr. old fish were fairly common 10yr. old fish were also in the spawning stock.

Year 5+ fish are the most important of the spawning stock. Five year fish or older produce up to 10 times more eggs than first-spawn Yr. 2 females.

Atlantic Menhaden usually do not become sexually mature until the end of their second year, after which they reproduce until death. A young, sexually mature female can produce roughly 38,000 eggs, while a fully mature female can produce upwards of 362,000.

The eggs hatch in the open ocean and the larvae drift to sheltered estuaries via ocean currents. The young spend a year developing in these estuaries before returning to the open ocean. At this early stage, they are commonly known as "peanut bunker". 

Eggs are buoyant and hatch within 2 to 3 days depending on the temperature. The larvae will spend 1 to 3 months in waters over the continental shelf. Larval fish will enter the Bay in late winter and early summer. The larval fish will move into lower salinity waters in estuarine tributaries while juvenile and immature fish remain in the Bay until the fall.

From 1988 to 1993 the oldest fish in the spawning population, were decimated on their summer feeding grounds, in the gulf of Maine, leading to a collapse in their northern regions.

The Soviet Union and a Maine company contracted to supply menhaden to Russian factory ships to be processed. Geee....I  wonder who that was!!!! 

The collapse reflected in menhaden bait landings, which were down 98% in the New England region during the early 1990s.

The NMFS created an index, in the 80's to estimate egg production, that indicated older menhaden from the New England region had the potential to contribute 39 percent of the overall menhaden egg production for the fishery.

The massive factory ship operations in the Gulf of Maine severely reduced egg production.The commercial fishery largely depends on age 2 menhaden.

In 2005 approximately 72 percent of the commercial landings by number were sub-adult menhaden (ages 0-2).

The removal of menhaden, mostly age 2 fish, raises concern that the menhaden are being caught before they even reach spawning age.

Menhaden Clean our Waters 

Also known as mossbunker, bunker, and pogy, menhaden are omnivorous filter feeders, feeding by straining food particles from water. 

They travel in large, slow-moving, and tightly packed schools with open mouths. Filter feeders typically take into their open mouths "materials in the same proportions as they occur in ambient waters". Menhaden primarily eat phytoplankton (microscopic plants); although, since they are omnivorous, they take in a small portion of zooplankton (microscopic animals).

Even though most other related fish (in the family Clupeidae) eat zooplankton, "Menhaden primarily consume phytoplankton, that is, algae and other drifting bits of decaying vegetable matter.

The ecological significance of this difference can hardly be overstated."

In 2005, commercial landings fell to 146,860 mt, the lowest level since the NMFS began keeping records in 1940.

In 1991 the NMFS published a marine fisheries review titled: "Assessment and Management of Atlantic and Gulf Menhaden Stocks." The summary cautioned: "

The expansion of fishing on the spawning stock in New England waters concurrently with increasing fishing pressure on pre-spawning menhaden off Virginia and North Carolina in the fall prompts concern for maintenance of the Atlantic menhaden resource".

With the increase of striped bass, caution is needed because the data can significantly overestimate spawning stock if the natural mortality rates (predation) are not taken into account.

The NMFS  continues to estimate menhaden spawning stock levels that are supposed to guarantee good recruitment, even though the data indicates a healthy spawning stock doesn't exist and menhaden recruitment has continued to remain low for more than a decade.

The menhaden population is in big trouble, with the high percentage of spawning stock being harvested and the low levels of recruitment. It's not good to fool with "mother nature."

If this subject interests you, please comment, especially the Providence River fishermen that fish the rivers.

Together we stand , divided we fall!!!! Thanks for reading.