Menhaden Fisheries Coalition Corrects Misleading Statements from Chesapeake Legal Alliance and Southern Maryland Recreational Fishing Organization

REEDVILLE, VA / ACCESSWIRE / December 21, 2023 / The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition addresses five inaccurate and misleading statements made in a recent press release by the Chesapeake Legal Alliance and the Southern Maryland Recreational Fishing Organization regarding their petition for rulemaking to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC). A brief overview of inaccuracies, expert statements, and scientific findings is listed below, followed by a more detailed discussion of each false claim.

Factual Inaccuracies:

• Menhaden Population:
  • CLA Claim: Menhaden populations in the Bay are declining.
  • Coalition Response: Current scientific data does not support the claim of a decline in the portion of the coast-wide menhaden stock in the Bay. The stock assessments indicate a stable and healthy population.
• Overfishing and Ecosystem Impact:
  • CLA Claim: Overfishing of menhaden is causing declines in sportfish, osprey, marine mammals, and diet shifts.
  • Coalition Response: This statement is contradicted by evidence. Menhaden is neither overfished nor is overfishing occurring. The issue with striped bass, as addressed in the 2022 Atlantic Striped Bass Stock Assessment Update, is primarily due to historic overfishing by the recreational community, not menhaden fishing.
• Striped Bass Fishing Moratoria:
  • CLA Claim: Dire conditions are leading to considerations of moratoria on striped bass fishing seasons.
  • Coalition Response: Ending menhaden fishing is not a solution for striped bass recovery. Other factors significantly impact striped bass populations, and this approach oversimplifies the issue.
• VMRC's Approach to Reduction Fishery:
  • CLA Claim: VMRC has failed to restrict the reduction fishery, allowing maximum harvests.
  • Coalition Response: VMRC has adhered to ASMFC guidelines, opting for a conservative, precautionary harvest limit rather than the maximum allowable. This approach reflects responsible and cautious management.
• Data Reliability:
  • CLA Claim: Outdated and unreliable data are used for fisheries regulations.
  • Coalition Response: The data utilized by ASMFC, surveys, and assessments are current, reliable, and validated by the scientific community. These are considered state of the art and the ASMFC is the first body to use ecosystem-based management in the United States. The science is not considered outdated or unreliable except by specific advocacy groups.


Authoritative Statements and Assessments:



• Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: "The ERP assessment ... is an ecosystem model that focuses on four key predator species (striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, and spiny dogfish) and three key prey species (Atlantic menhaden, Atlantic herring, and bay anchovy). ... Under the ERPs, Atlantic menhaden are neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing."(ASMFC website)
• Dr. Robert Latour, Chair, Menhaden Management Advisory Committee, VMRC: "You've heard a lot about localized depletion...in my opinion are speculative at best." (Public meeting, December 6, 2022)
• Shanna Madsen, Deputy Chief of Fisheries Management, VMRC: "Actually a much more conservative management than we often times use for managing other species, in the name of guarding the ecosystem." (Public meeting, December 6, 2022)
• Pat Geer, Chief of Fisheries Management, VMRC: "Even if we stop menhaden fishing altogether in Virginia, striped bass will not recover." (Public meeting, December 6, 2022)
• Joseph Gordon & Aaron Kornbluth, Pew Trusts: "…the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission…unanimously [adopted] a system under which catch limits on [menhaden] will account for the needs of its predators and the broader health of the environment. The East Coast's largest fishery is now one of the world's foremost examples of modern, ecosystem-based management in action." (Press Release, August 5, 2020)
• Whit Fosburgh, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership: The adoption of Ecological Reference Points "will spur healthier menhaden and gamefish while supporting the recreational fishing economy along the eastern seaboard." (Press Release, August 5, 2020)
• Mike Leonard, American Sportfishing Association: "A healthy Atlantic menhaden stock, and quotas that account for the needs of predators, is the science-based management we look for to help support a healthy ecosystem and the sportfishing opportunities it provides." (Press Release, August 5, 2020)

Scientific Findings:

• February 2020 and August 2022 Assessments: The ASMFC Atlantic Menhaden Board accepted results from Single-Species and Ecological Reference Point Assessments. These assessments confirmed that menhaden are neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing, with a healthy reproductive capacity and sustainable fishing mortality rates.
• Chesapeake Bay Program Workshop, 2014: A comprehensive study showed that Bay predators consume a wide array of forage items, with many species more prevalent than menhaden.

Annual Surveys: Coastal menhaden stock assessments, including Chesapeake Bay surveys, reveal consistent young menhaden abundance, with no signs of decreasing trends.

Detailed Discussion

In August 2020, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted to alter management strategies for Atlantic menhaden, by requiring consideration for the ecological role that menhaden play in the food chain. The Commission adopted the ecological management system, which considers the needs of predator species. Menhaden is the first fishery on the east coast to shift to an ecosystem management approach.

As noted above, when the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission adopted these Ecological Reference Points (ERPs), both recreational fishing interests and the environmental activist community initially praised the decision. However, once the science behind these ecological reference points was applied in practice, and it was determined that menhaden fishing levels already left sufficient menhaden in the water for prey, these groups changed their tune.

Having failed to use ERPs against the commercial menhaden fishery, they reverted to the hyperbolic accusations of the past, and efforts in opposition to the commercial menhaden fishery, and the jobs and economic benefits it provides began anew.

Unable to blame the low biomass of striped bass on a lack of menhaden, rather than on the recreational overfishing that caused it, many in the recreational community have ignored the facts and scientific determinations. They have reverted to the disproven arguments holding menhaden availability to blame.

Meanwhile, the environmental activist community has turned their focus to birds of prey, specifically the osprey. Recently they have made claims that any real or perceived problems with the osprey population or reproduction are due to a lack of available menhaden, because of the existence of the commercial menhaden fishery. It's the same script, but with a different protagonist.

1. Menhaden Population Decline Claim:

"The best available science shows that menhaden populations in the Bay are in decline."

Contrary to this claim, no scientific evidence indicates that portion of the coast-wide menhaden stock in the Bay is declining.

The theory of a population decline in the Bay, in the absence of a coast-wide decline, is termed "localized depletion." Dr. Robert Latour, Professor of Marine Science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William & Mary, and Chairman of the Menhaden Management Advisory Committee at the VMRC, addressed this topic at a VMRC public meeting on December 6, 2022:

"You've heard a lot about localized depletion, I will say for the record, I do not believe we can show that that has happened, and we do not have the data to show that that has happened. There are three things that you need. One is an estimate of abundance in the Bay, a residence time of those fish in the Bay, and movements between the Bay and the near coastal zone, and all three of those things are absent from the data sources that are available to us. So, any comments regarding localized depletion, in my opinion are speculative at best."

2. Overfishing and Ecosystem Impact Claim:

"As overfishing of menhaden continues, there is a strong and direct correlation with declines in the population of sportfish, osprey, and marine mammals, along with forced shifts in diet away from their primary food source of menhaden."

This statement is not accurate. Menhaden has not been overfished for more than two decades, and overfishing is not currently occurring.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's statement on menhaden abundance reads:

"In February 2020, the [Atlantic menhaden] Board accepted the results of the Atlantic Menhaden Single-Species and Ecological Reference Point (ERP) Assessments and Peer Review Reports for management use. The single-species assessment acts as a traditional stock assessment using the Beaufort Assessment Model (BAM), and indicates the stock is not overfished or experiencing overfishing relative to the current single-species reference points. The ERP assessment evaluates the health of the stock in an ecosystem context, and indicates that the fishing mortality (F) reference points for menhaden should be lower to account for menhaden's role as a forage fish."

"In August 2022, the Board accepted the results of the Single-Species Update Assessment. Under the ERPs, Atlantic menhaden are neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing. In 2021 population fecundity (FEC), a measure of reproductive capacity of the population, was above the ERP threshold and target and fishing mortality (F) was below the ERP overfishing threshold and target."

3. Striped Bass Fishing Moratoria Claim:

"The situation is so dire that Bay states are considering moratoria on fishing seasons for striped bass, and Maryland has already partially closed its striped bass season this summer."

The issues with striped bass are primarily due to a long history of overfishing by the recreational community, as highlighted in the 2022 Atlantic Striped Bass Stock Assessment Update. Even though overfishing has ceased, striped bass remains overfished.

The 2014 Chesapeake Bay Program workshop on forage items in the Bay, which examined stomach contents of Bay predators, found many other forage items occurring more frequently and in larger quantities than menhaden.

Pat Geer, Chief of Fisheries Management at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, stated at a public meeting on December 6, 2022, "Even if we stop menhaden fishing altogether in Virginia, striped bass will not recover."

4. VMRC Management of Reduction Fishery Claim:

"Despite these grave conditions, the VMRC has failed to restrict the reduction fishery, allowing the maximum harvest each year that is permitted under the federal maximum limits."

This statement misrepresents the situation. The VMRC determined the amount of menhaden fishing based on ASMFC guidance, which they refer to as "federal maximum limits." The ASMFC recommended a conservative harvest level, lower than the maximum allowable based on stock assessments.

This was addressed by Shanna Madsen, VMRC Deputy Chief of Fisheries Management at the public meeting of the VMRC on December 6, 2022. When asked by a commissioner, if the current management of menhaden is "the same kind of management that we use for other species?" Ms. Madsen replied, "Actually a much more conservative management than we often times use for managing other species, in the name of guarding the ecosystem."

5. Data Reliability in Fisheries Regulation Claim:

"For more than a decade, outdated and unreliable data from population surveys along the Atlantic Coast -- and not in the Bay -- have been used to justify fisheries regulations that fail to protect the public, Bay fishing communities, and the Bay ecosystem."

The data used by the ASMFC, the surveys, and the assessments are not outdated, and are not considered unreliable by stock assessment scientists, nor in fact anyone except recreational fishing advocates.

In fact, ecosystem modeling was first used on Atlantic menhaden before any other species in US fishery management.

The coast wide menhaden stock assessment also uses Chesapeake Bay fishery independent seine and trawl surveys for a composite annual young of year index. Menhaden young of year relative abundance has been good in many recent years with no sign of decreasing. All of the Maryland and Virginia finfish surveys sample menhaden in the Bay for an annual relative abundance index.

The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition remains committed to factual, science-based fisheries management and conservation practices.

About the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition
The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition (MFC) is a collective of menhaden fishermen, related businesses, and supporting industries. Comprised of businesses along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition conducts media and public outreach on behalf of the menhaden industry to ensure that members of the public, media, and government are informed of important issues, events, and facts about the fishery.

Press Contact
Bob Vanasse
(202) 333-2628
bob@stoveboat.com

SOURCE: Menhaden Fisheries Coalition

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