Restore our Atlantic Fishery
The Atlantic Ocean off the US coast as shown above has tremendous potential for our country but is being mismanaged by our government. The results of nearly 50 years of federal and state management are shown on the below stock status graphs from NOAA. These are typical of most other species that inhabit our Atlantic coastal waters. How can anyone look at these graphs and not be infuriated. NOAA should be embarrassed. The most significant thing that those graphs show is where we should be. The potential of our Atlantic coastal fishery is incredible-at least a 10-fold increase from where we are now.
From NOAA Stock Smart https://apps-st.fisheries.noaa.gov/stocksmart?app=homepage
The Portuguese were among the first to begin fishing for cod off the Atlantic coast of the US and Canada about 1500. Many nations fished in this rich continental shelf until the 1970’s when the fisheries collapsed from overfishing, particularly from the Soviets who some times had as many as 100 boats fishing in the Grand Banks area. (It should be noted that the starting point in the graph above for cod was after the cod population had been already decimated, so the potential for us could be incredible.) In 1976, the United States extended their territorial waters from 12 nautical miles to 200 nautical miles under the Magnuson-Stephens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). The marine fishery is managed under NOAA. Unfortunately, under MSA, the goal was to maximize the harvesting of the fish called otpimum yield, while maintaining a sustainable stock, not rebuilding the fishery to its historical level. Sustainable is a very low bar. It is a level of population that can be harvested without the species going extinct, yet it is the thing that NOAA brags about as a measure of their success. Under this system the populations of most species have been held to single-digit percentages of their historical levels. How is sustaining a fishery at these low population levels even considered optimum? What is the harm in maintaining a population level at 80%, or above, historical levels? The higher populations of fish would tolerate increased catch limits of most species without affecting their population. While our great Atlantic resource is being mis-managed, our trade balance in seafood is a deficit of $24.2 billion. Over 70% of our seafood is imported.
As if it wasn’t bad enough, NOAA has allowed the foundation of the fishery’s food chain, the forage fish and particularly menhaden (aka pogies or bunker), which are not regulated under MSA, to be depleted to historical low levels. Menhaden have been called “the most important fish in the sea”. More than that, it is a super fish, even a national treasure. It feeds voraciously on algae, and is able to digest cellulose, which takes cows a 4-chamber stomach to do. The fish’s flesh is high in omega 3 fatty acids, which makes it very nutritious. It reproduces in unbelievable numbers and migrates from its home in and around Chesapeake Bay and sacrifices itself to feed predator fish in the entire Atlantic shelf from Maine to Florida. The menhaden, being an oily fish, gives off a scent that attracts their predators, which include striped bass, cod, bluefish, weakfish, and even bluefin tuna, and marine mammals including seals, porpoises and whales. Birds, including osprey, cormorants, gannets, gulls and pelicans also feed on the menhaden. Menhaden served as a replacement for whales as a source of oil in the mid-1800’s, have survived heavy fishing for over 150 years, and is still the most plentiful fish on the Atlantic coast, although its population is now at single-digit percentage of its historical level. Over 150,000 metric tons of menhaden are harvested each year for the menhaden reduction factory, Omega Protein, in Reedville, VA and made into fish oil, fish meal and food for farm-raised salmon in Canada. In fact, Cooke Seafood, a Canadian company, bought Omega Protein so they could have a reliable source of food for their salmon farms. The menhaden are processed into nuggets which are fed to the salmon, which are then exported back to the United States. It’s a crime what they are allowed to do. One of NOAA’s goals is to increase fish farming to make up for our seafood trade deficit, while in doing so, they are destroying the food supply for our Atlantic fishery.
Chesapeake Bay is an amazing nursery for menhaden. When the menhaden leave the bay, they take with them in the form of body mass, nutrients that they have consumed from the bay. These nutrients are then passed on to their predators up and down the east coast. If the menhaden population are restored to its historical numbers, it will have a significant impact on the dead zones caused by excessive nutrients in Chesapeake Bay.
This video shows what is happening in Chesapeake Bay. https://vimeo.com/969405454?share=copy
The operation of a reduction factory is a net loss to the American economy because menhaden left in the ocean are much more valuable than if they were harvested. Left in the water, they feed more valuable fish for human consumption, but more significantly, the feed the fish that provide recreational opportunities up and down the east coast. There’s no logical reason why harvesting menhaden for reduction should be allowed to continue. In the Chesapeake Bay area alone, there has been a significant loss of jobs. “The over harvest of menhaden in the Chesapeake bay, (their estuary) wiped out an entire $11 million winter striped bass fishery along the Virginia Beach oceanfront. With all the hotels being booked by fisherman, with all the extra Charter boats in the inlet and from other areas fishing the area, with over 540,000 residents in Virginia Beach alone, and don’t forget all of the restaurants locally selling breakfast, lunch, and dinners to travelers to fish for Striped Bass within 1to 3 miles off of the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Hotel workers. Tackle shops, all the merchants at the oceanfront stores, cooks, and golf courses jobs and revenue lost. Don’t forget to add in North Carolina’s off the beach Striped Bass fishery that is gone now too. There’s another million or two bucks and a few hundred jobs.” (Captain Bill Pappas, Virginia Beach) Omega Protein only employs about 350 people. Fish farms don’t have a lot to offer when it comes to recreation.
Forage fish populations are at an all-time low. Menhaden, whose numbers are in the billions, are spread thin from Maine to Florida. If menhaden numbers are lw, predator fish will switch to what is available. Atlantic herring, which are managed by NEFMC, saw their numbers drop 88% from 2014-2021, which I suspect is due to this prey-switching. Young of other species are subject to prey-switching, everything from cod to striped bass. Scarcity of forage fish are reflected in the bait prices. Herring has jumped from 16 cents a pound at the dock to 70 cents now. Menhaden jumped from 10 cents a pound to 35 cents a pound in 2022 and are probably a lot higher now. The high price of bait was a disaster for lobster fishermen, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo provided disaster relief money for the fishermen but made no effort to address the issue with herring. Instead she went back to her higher priority of building windmills. Among the fishery scientists, there is a general assumption that there is an unlimited amount of forage fish “out there”. In fact, one of the scientists working on Ecological Reference Points said the same thing, and when talking about menhaden, mentioned that if the menhaden weren’t available, the striped bass could switch to herring. This is after herring numbers had dropped 88%. In the big picture, we don’t need to know all this minutia, we know that it is a fact that if we want to have a growing population of predatory fish, very soon we will run out of forage fish.
We moved to RI when my wife and I retired in 2003, and I took up surfcasting at that time. From what I have heard from fellow surfcasters, in the 1960’s and 1970’s, they could catch cod, pollock and hake from the shore at various places in Narraganset. Commercial fishermen caught cod right off Pt. Judith. There were a lot of herring and menhaden around and there was even a reduction plant in Galilee. The Norwegians have been fishing for cod for about 10,000 years, and my distant cousin in Norway can catch cod from his dock at his summer home on the coast. Why can’t we do that here?
What needs to be done is to permanently close the Atlantic coast to menhaden harvesting for reduction. That’s it. All it takes is an executive order. President Bush closed federal waters to commercial striped bass and red drum in 2007 by execuive order. The forage fish will take care of the rebuilding, and it won’t cost a thing. The menhaden will lead the recovery with an explosive growth in numbers like nobody’s seen before. Menhaden’s growth will take predator pressure from other forage fish and young of all species, leading to an expansion in population of valuable fish such as cod, halibut, striped bass and tuna like nobody’s seen before. All that is necessary to sit back and count the fish.
The management must be focused on RESULTS. KISS-Keep It Simple Stupid. A simple goal is: Continuous Population Growth of Atlantic Fishery Species. I suggest a management system where statistics will be used to measure growth and detect issues, while science will be used to resolve issues. That would be the simplest way to manage the fishery and give the greatest visibility of what is happening so that issues can be promptly addressed. One of the biggest problems will be to avoid increasing harvest limits too rapidly. Continuous growth must be maintained, it will be a trade-off between how much to harvest and how long it will to meet the end goal of rebuilding the fishery to historic levels.
A growing population would be a healthy population and would be in no danger of going extinct, so revise MSA to throw out the meaningless term “sustainable”. Replace it with “Healthy and Growing”. The hypothetical terms “Optimum Yield” and “Maximum Sustainable Yield” should also be thrown out and replace the determination of acceptable catch limits (ACL) on results.
Scientific management sounds great, but it results in what is called “analysis paralysis”. ASFMC recently went through this with what they called Ecological Reference Points, which was intended to evaluate the role of menhaden as a forage species for other fish in the ecosystem. After 10 years, they decided to reduce the acceptable catch limit (ACL) by 10% in an effort to rebuild the striped bass population. This was in effect for 2 years, 2021-2022, then for 2023-2025 the ACL was increased by 20% to the highest ACL in 12 years. I suspect that this was the result of pressure to utilize the additional menhaden in the reduction factory. In the VA legislature, they just failed for the third time to pass a bill to fund a 2-year study of menhaden in Chesapeke Bay. In the US Congress, they failed for the second time with bill that will “account for the role forage fish play in the marine ecosystem,” which is already being done by ASFMC.
The restoration of the Atllantic fishery is something that recreational and professional fishermen, charter boat captains, lobstermen, environmentalists and all those who enjoy a meal of delicious, fresh, and healthy wild caught seafood will support.
I will send this letter to the President and DOC Secretary. If you support my approach, I would love to get your comments and/or endorsement.
Thank you,
Bruce Kindseth email: bkindseth@cox.net
I have received comments from the following:
Fred Akers, Operations Manager, The Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association &River Council “I read your letter and agree with your premise. MSY(maximum sustainable yield) and OY(optimum yield) have largely failed to achieve sustainable fish species and fisheries. You could add Atlantic Mackerel, River Herring and Shad to the depleted forage fish, and weakfish, striped bass, and bluefish to the depleted predators. The ASMFC, MAFMC and NEFMC are all founded on built in conflicts of interest, where the commercial interests drive MSY to the absolute limit.”
Professor John Waldman, diadromous fish specialist and author of “Running Silver, Restoring Atlantic Rivers and Their Great Fish Migrations”. “Thank you for your thoughtful note. I agree that the U.S. has done an awful job managing Atlantic fish stocks I myself focus on diadromous fishes and I believe what we’ve done to them is one of America’s greatest conservation failures. The declines have been as much as an unbelievable six orders of magnitude. And yes, sustainability is a low-level target.”
Captain Bill Pappas, Virginia Beach, “The over harvest of menhaden in the Chesapeake bay, (their estuary) wiped out an entire $11 million winter striped bass fishery along the Virginia Beach oceanfront. With all the hotels being booked by fisherman, with all the extra Charter boats in the inlet and from other areas fishing the area, with over 540,000 residents in Virginia Beach alone, and don’t forget all of the restaurants locally selling breakfast, lunch and dinners to travelers to fish for Striped Bass within 1 to 3 miles off of the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Hotel workers. Tackle shops, all the merchants at the oceanfront stores, cooks, and golf courses jobs and revenue lost. Don’t forget to add in North Carolina’s off the beach Striped Bass fishery that is gone now too. There’s another million or two bucks and a few hundred jobs.”
The following have also expressed support
Narragansett Surfcasters
401 Custom Lures
Wicked Schoolie Custom Lures
I reached out to an ASFMC member and a NSFMC staff member and asked if they felt that the low forage fish population was an issue. Neither replied, which means that either they don’t know or it is an issue.