Commercial fishing of menhaden hurts the bay and all other fishermen as well

Friday, Sept. 4, 2009

Recently I attended an all-day seminar on menhaden. On the way home I asked my friend who went with me if he could name one thing that was said that would help the Chesapeake Bay. He could think of nothing. That does not make the meeting meaningless. We did learn things; just not the things we had hoped to hear. I have never been to any meeting where I didn't learn something.

There was one speaker who talked about the location of menhaden schools. This was accomplished by airplane. The equipment was able to spot and record the schools. This could be analyzed and even the number of fish in each school could be counted. One slide had a picture of the Chesapeake Bay and where the schools were located. There was one red area that signified that this was the area where the most schools were found. The speaker said that they could not determine why there so many schools in that one particular area. During the question and comment time I asked that the slide of the Chesapeake Bay be put back up, which it was. I stated that the reason for so many schools of menhaden was because that was Patuxent River Naval Air Station and they don't allow any pound nets in the area in case they have to do a rescue; they don't want any obstacles to run into like at night or any to have to go around to get to a rescue site.

Many of the meetings I have attended on menhaden have always had one statement that grates on me like fingernails on the blackboard. "The menhaden are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring." That statement is as close to lie that you can get without actually telling a lie. Yes, these fish are in such an abundance that they can be fished commercially; but at what cost? These fish are at the base of the food chain. It provides food for most of the fish we want to catch and also they are a filter fish; removing algae from the water that is causing so much of the problems for the bay. Don't forget all the birds that also rely on the menhaden: eagles, ospreys, pelicans, cormorants, sea gulls and terns.

Here you have a commercial fishery that is hurting many of the other fisheries. There are many people who don't want to see the watermen of this area disappear. Well, they had better learn how much the removal of menhaden is hurting all the rest of the fisheries, even the crabs. Did you ever watch bluefish attack a school of menhaden? The blues tear them up and the striped bass wait below to pick up the pieces. Those pieces that are missed by the striped bass are picked up by the crabs and other bottom-feeders.

Commercial fishing of menhaden is hurting the bay and all the other commercial fishermen. It is not a way of life; it is big business, with big ships and big rendering plants. It was romanticized in past years when there was a lot of manpower required to perform the functions of catching these fish. Today, with airplanes and factory ships with all the gear mechanized, there is no romance.

This resource belongs to all the people and many people know what will happen if the menhaden fishery collapses. And I just keep asking: Why do we allow this to continue?

Bill Bartlett, Valley Lee