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 think about choices for precautionary administration of the Chesapeake Bay industrial menhaden fishery, together with time and space closures, to account for seabird and fish weight loss program wants at vital factors of their life cycles. The workgroup shall be organized over the approaching weeks and can begin the method of considering by way of what future administration measures for the Bay menhaden fishery may appear to be, to decrease the stress that ospreys and different menhaden predators are going through in one in all America’s most vital estuaries.
Menhaden are baitfish that play a necessary function 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 also be Maryland government director of the Chesapeake Bay Basis. The group ought to start to reply among the questions that conservation teams have had for years in regards to 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,” stated 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 couple of 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 in regards to the standing of osprey within the Chesapeake Bay, and the issues these birds of prey are at the moment going through. Information exhibits that ospreys in some elements of the Bay are notably reliant on oil-rich menhaden as meals for his or her younger, particularly within the spring and summer season 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 elements of the Bay are unsuccessful in elevating sufficient younger every year to maintain steady long-term populations, due partially to a scarcity of meals availability for younger chicks.
Whereas the Atlantic menhaden fishery is already managed to account for the weight loss program wants of a number of fish predators, corresponding to striped bass and bluefish, to go away sufficient forage within the water for these fish to eat, osprey should not explicitly included in that administration construction regardless of their clear reliance on menhaden of their diets. Up to date inventory assessments shall be revealed in fall 2025, which is able to basically 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 should not detailed sufficient to find out how the menhaden fishery is impacting the ecosystem in particular zones, corresponding to throughout the Chesapeake Bay area, the place harvest is concentrated.
“Setting particular laws tailor-made to regional variations in harvest, based mostly on what we all know now, is a method to handle the menhaden fishery in a precautionary method till the inventory evaluation science can catch up,” stated Jaclyn Higgins, forage fish program supervisor for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “We have now a variety of longstanding seabird information that has been collected for many years, which exhibits us the ebb and movement 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 vital chick-rearing timeframe.”
Higgins says that establishing laws that go away extra menhaden within the water within the Bay at vital occasions, based mostly on osprey wants and the wants of different Bay predators, is a perfect method to develop upon the ecosystem-based administration framework that the ASMFC already makes use of to handle this iconic forage fish.
“The TRCP is happy to help this motion in direction of additional refining the ecosystem-based administration of the Atlantic menhaden fishery,” Higgins stated. “Refining the spatial elements of the ASMFC’s menhaden administration construction will additional enhance the sustainability of this fishery, and can permit for extra predators to have ample 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 function 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 out of doors companies to a standard objective.
