The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Fee workgroup will eye precautionary, Bay-specific menhaden fishery administration measures to guard predators like ospreys and striped bass
(Washington, D.C.)—The Menhaden Administration Board (MMB) of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Fee voted yesterday to determine a workgroup to contemplate choices for precautionary administration of the Chesapeake Bay industrial menhaden fishery, together with time and space closures, to account for seabird and fish food regimen wants at vital factors of their life cycles. The workgroup will probably be organized over the approaching weeks and can begin the method of pondering by way of what future administration measures for the Bay menhaden fishery would possibly appear to be, to decrease the strain that ospreys and different menhaden predators are dealing with in considered one of America’s most essential estuaries.
Menhaden are baitfish that play a vital position in marine meals webs, offering an important meals supply for not solely ospreys, however many bigger species like striped bass, redfish, whales, dolphins, and seabirds.
The movement to determine a workgroup, which was unanimously supported by the MMB, was put ahead by the Maryland ASMFC delegation’s Allison Colden, who can be Maryland government director of the Chesapeake Bay Basis. The group ought to start to reply a few of the questions that conservation teams have had for years concerning the menhaden fishery’s impression on the Bay ecosystem, and can suggest potential sustainable options for the ASMFC to deliberate.
“We’re seeing some main ecological purple flags within the Chesapeake Bay,” mentioned Allison Colden, CBF Maryland government director. “From struggling osprey populations to dismal menhaden bait landings, it’s clear that further precautions are wanted.”
Chesapeake Bay residents and scientists have been sounding the alarm a few lack of menhaden within the Bay resulting in decrease osprey chick-rearing success. This led to the MMB inviting the U.S. Geological Survey to make a presentation on Aug. 6 to tell the Board concerning the standing of osprey within the Chesapeake Bay, and the issues these birds of prey are at present dealing with. Information reveals that ospreys in some components of the Bay are significantly reliant on oil-rich menhaden as meals for his or her younger, particularly within the spring and summer time months throughout chick-rearing season when male ospreys should usher in further meals to feed their mate and offspring. Lately, the numbers have proven that ospreys in components of the Bay are unsuccessful in elevating sufficient younger annually to maintain secure long-term populations, due partially to an absence of meals availability for younger chicks.
Whereas the Atlantic menhaden fishery is already managed to account for the food regimen wants of a number of fish predators, similar to striped bass and bluefish, to depart sufficient forage within the water for these fish to eat, osprey aren’t explicitly included in that administration construction regardless of their clear reliance on menhaden of their diets. Up to date inventory assessments will probably be printed in fall 2025, which can primarily mannequin how menhaden have been interacting with the Atlantic ecosystem lately, and can assist managers set applicable harvest quotas in future fishing seasons. Sadly, these evaluation calculations aren’t detailed sufficient to find out how the menhaden fishery is impacting the ecosystem in particular zones, similar to inside the Chesapeake Bay area, the place harvest is concentrated.
“Setting particular rules tailor-made to regional variations in harvest, based mostly on what we all know now, is a solution to handle the menhaden fishery in a precautionary method till the inventory evaluation science can catch up,” mentioned Jaclyn Higgins, forage fish program supervisor for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “We’ve a variety of longstanding seabird information that has been collected for many years, which reveals us the ebb and move of osprey populations alongside the Atlantic. We all know that osprey chicks aren’t getting sufficient to eat within the Chesapeake, and we all know they’re reliant on menhaden in that essential chick-rearing timeframe.”
Higgins says that establishing rules that depart extra menhaden within the water within the Bay at vital instances, based mostly on osprey wants and the wants of different Bay predators, is a perfect solution to increase upon the ecosystem-based administration framework that the ASMFC already makes use of to handle this iconic forage fish.
“The TRCP is happy to assist this motion in the direction of additional refining the ecosystem-based administration of the Atlantic menhaden fishery,” Higgins mentioned. “Refining the spatial parts of the ASMFC’s menhaden administration construction will additional enhance the sustainability of this fishery, and can permit for extra predators to have adequate entry to this vital forage species into the long run.”
The workgroup expects to current their findings to the MMB at its October 2024 assembly.
For extra details about the important thing position menhaden and different forage fish play in marine ecosystems, go to TRCP’s forage fish restoration web page.
Learn the web model of the information launch right here.
Based in 2002, the TRCP is the biggest coalition of conservation organizations within the nation, uniting and amplifying the voices of sportsmen and girls by convening searching and fishing teams, conservation organizations, and outside companies to a typical objective.
