The following letter is being submitted on behalf of Robert Vanasse, the Executive Director of the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition (http://menhadencoalition.org/). Based in Washington, D.C., the Coalition is a collective of menhaden fishermen, related businesses, and supporting industries, and comprise over 30 businesses along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Contact information for verification purposes is included below.
Your recent story on Atlantic Menhaden (Menhaden: still struggling under weight of corruption, January 17, 2016) incorrectly states that menhaden are overfished and that the stock is at unsustainably low levels. The figures cited are based on old stock assessments that have been widely recognized as flawed and inaccurate. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the interstate agency that manages menhaden stock assessments, acknowledged these flaws, with the Commission’s Menhaden Technical Committee stating in 2012 that they undermine “confidence in the assessment results to provide management advice.”
In 2015, the ASMFC produced a new assessment, the most comprehensive study of the menhaden stock to date. The Commission completely revised the assessment’s methods and models to address the inaccuracies that had plagued previous reports. As a result, the 2015 assessment measures the menhaden population more accurately than ever before; it found that menhaden were not overfished, nor were they experiencing overfishing
The results of the 2015 assessment point to a downward trend in menhaden landings, and highlight the fact that menhaden fishing mortality is at an historic low. It found that the menhaden population that had been regularly underestimated by prior assessments is much healthier than both previous assessments have indicated and what your article claims. Menhaden is an abundant resource according to the latest assessments, and the data presented in the article is misleading and out of date.
Thank you.
Robert Vanasse
Executive Director
Menhaden Fisheries Coalition
(202) 333-2628
bob@savingseafood.org
This letter makes me wonder how some folks can sleep at night. The statistics offered are based
upon models and assessments that show that the menhaden are not overfished. As a wise man once
said, 90% of all statistics can be made to say anything 50% of the time, or my favorite; there are three
types of lies, lies, damn lies and statistics. And lastly, facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable. I think I have made my point.
There is no backing evidence that menhaden are an abundant resource (compared to what scenario?). This letter misleads and deflects the real harm being done to the Chesapeake Bay. The catching of menhaden by means of purse-seine trapping has a residual effect on all fishing wildlife contained in the bay area being fished. It is known as by-catch and includes, sea turtles, rock fish, blue fish, porpoise/dolphin channel bass and other miscellaneous bay creatures that get caught up in the
menhaden feeding frenzy induced by the very method of purse-seine trapping.
The fact that the fisheries want to move closer to shore only means they want (need to?) expand their fishing areas.
There is a simple solution to this problem and it is twofold. First, move the menhaden fishing off
shore to the ocean side to allow a grow back period of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay. This would require a cost increase to the fisheries and a guaranteed push back from them and their lobbyist in
Washington/Richmond. Secondly, when allowed back in the bay, allow only a certain number of trawlers per season and a decreased purse-seine trap size to scale back the number of menhaden caught (and thus reducing by-catch as well). Couple that with a stringent regulatory count per trawler. Lastly, the regulating of the industry needs to be taken out of Richmond Legislator’s hands and placed in the proper channels at VMRC. The menhaden population is critical to the overall health of the bay. They are the main food for the larger species and insure their growth and sustainability.