Saw this graphic and thought it was interesting… Menhaden is important forage for many other species. Species that are heavily regulated by the feds…
I had no idea that 1.5 BILLION pounds of menhaden were harvested commercially every year.
I wonder what impact that has to the species that feed on them.
Just something to think about before hook and line fishermen (commercial or recreational) get the blame for falling fish populations.
It does make one wonder how such a species can sustain itself at that rate of harvest… 1.5 billion pounds…I wonder how many menhaden that actually is? It certainly doesn’t seem that the average fisherman could do anywhere near such damage with a rod/reel.
“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”.
Mismanagement allowed or pushed by the agencies and rubber stamped by regional councils can always be traced to a large financial stakeholder.
The majority of your menhaden harvest is ONE CORPORATION.
You’re only scratching the surface of the problem when you consider what forages on them, Skinnee. The harvest has a HUGE impact on not just species that prey on the menhaden but also on what the menhaden “prey” on. Water quality suffers. Pretty basic science that the management agencies continue to ignore. It’s easier to just blame the ignorant masses of fishermen than to blame environmental factors (or large corporations). I did see where Obama just created the largest MPA in the world in the name of climate change though. It’s in the Pacific and closed to all commercial fishing… yep, that’ll heal the holes in the ozone!
On menhaden:
http://www.fishska.com/reform/article/rfa_submits_public_comment_on_menhaden_11_16/
http://www.thefishingwire.com/story/275849
http://joinrfa.blogspot.com/2013/06/PewZapataOmega.html
Luke 8:22-25
Bush did it…Actually G.H.W.Bush does have ties to it. In 1953 he confounded Zapata Corporation which was a gas and oil exploration company. After he sold his stake in 1966 the company branched out into commercial fishing.In the early 1990`s, it was taken over by Malcolm Glazer ( owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Manchester United) who sold off the oil businesses and formed a shell company named Omega Protein.
Omega protein. One company is responsible for all of the menhaden landings. Look it up and I have heard they have eyes on SC now that the north is getting fished out.
26 Seahunt
Angler’s Dream
And that number is down 25% from 2012.
Its down alot more from previous years, and were no where near the peak back in the day.
Krill is the new menhaden.
It would be nice to see a breakdown of how much menhaden is being harvested in SC/GA. You can find the cause of all of our problems if you follow the money back to some greedy wall street bean counter.
19ft. Carolina Skiff
w/115hp Yamaha 4stroke
27ft. Contender
w/twin 225hp Yamaha 4stroke
What do they do with menhaden? You can only bait so many crab traps.
ZX
You ever heard of fish oil capsules?
Menhaden.
Marinate on that a minute -
Actually its fish meal. As of 2007 at least, they have yet to make a profit selling the oil even though they got a government guaranteed 17 million dollar loan to build a new processing plant.........our tax dollars helping us right ? The only good news is that there are a lot of companies competing with them that use left over fish parts for their omega 3 supplements and their main customers ( asian fish and shrimp farmers) are turning to soybeans for feed. Maybe itll put them under eventually.
If you ever want to know the history of the fishery, theres a book called The Most Important Fish In The Sea by H. Bruce Franklin.You wont believe all the things they did/thought since the 1700`s. Everything from trying to kill off the brown pelican by removing the fish ( they thought the birds were eating too many food fish )to claims that food fish did not eat them. They also thought that since they caught so many sharks, they were actually increasing the food fish population.
Only pogie boats left on the atlantic coast are the ones out of Reedville Va. They run from Hatteras all the way to off Maine
21 Contender
skinnee,
this probably is why all the YFT are gone now as well…
Luke 8:22-25
The 1.5 billion lb landings number is most likely combined landings from Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. The Gulf of Mexico appears to catch most of the 1.5 billion lbs. Gulf still seems to be something of a hotspot for Yellowfin Tuna.
Here is total “reduction fishery” Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic landings through 9/30/14
974 million lbs, 75 percent of this number from the Gulf of Mexico.
https://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st1/market_news/doc77.txt
Here is the total Atlantic landings history from 2012. There’s some great charts showing catch data going back to the 1950’s.
http://www.asmfc.org/species/atlantic-menhaden#stock
The Atlantic menhaden commercial fishery has two major components, a reduction sector that harvests fish for animal feed and fish oil, and a bait sector that supplies bait to other commercial and recreational fisheries. Total commercial landings averaged 464 million pounds from 2008-2012, with approximately 77% harvested by the reduction fishery and 23% harvested for bait purposes.
Here’s and old school report with landings from the 1940’s. Landing seem pretty consistent. Please make note of all the processing plants that were forced to close down south many years ago.
http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/1981MenhadenFMP.pdf
Sea Hunt 207CC,Yam F150
Carolina Skiff (old school model)17’ Suz D50
I think Phin was joking about yellowfins. The menhaden population is probably more important to kings, bluefish, stripers, etc.
There still seems to be plenty of menhaden around. I don’t know how rapidly they reproduce or much about their life cycle. If the fishing does not exceed the fish’s ability to reproduce - I have no problem with the fishery. I do not want to “guess” like the SAFMC does.
Seem to be healthy stocks here, but I know in the Chesapeake Bay it was a serious problem, and a big part of the demise of that fishery. I’ve heard they’re on the rebound in recent years–think there is a harvest ban.
One thing I definitely didn’t know–did you know the life expectancy of menhaden is over 10 yrs? Was surprised by that.
Pat Condon
“Carla Dee”
quote:
Originally posted by breadandbobbersSeem to be healthy stocks here, but I know in the Chesapeake Bay it was a serious problem, and a big part of the demise of that fishery. I’ve heard they’re on the rebound in recent years–think there is a harvest ban.
One thing I definitely didn’t know–did you know the life expectancy of menhaden is over 10 yrs? Was surprised by that.
Pat Condon
“Carla Dee”
Yeah, the population dwindling in the Chesapeake is suspected to have something to do with the weakfish crash and the stripers showing lesions, stress, etc. Omega has some serious political pull and that allowed them to harvest over a sustainable level for years.