JohnR
04-12-2007, 11:14 AM
I was asked to write up information on the Menhaden Bills in the RI House & Senate and give an overview on the issue. The following is part my opinion and part my understanding of some of the facts. To go through all of the facts (and all of my opinion) would take considerable more Ones and Zeros :hihi: But I do want to get your comments on its honesty and accuracy - Thanks! John
I'm going to give you a short (OK, it started out short), and I feel honest, summary of the pros and cons of the Menhaden Legislations going on at the state level.
Basics:
Menhaden: Atlantic Menhaden (a/k/a Bunker, Pogies) are algae eating fish that are found from Florida to Nova Scotia and are likely the most important bait / forage fish of ALL species in the western Atlantic. These fish are fatty, high in protein and very high in Omega 3. They provide perhaps the best natural diet for all sorts of fish species from Striped Bass, Bluefish, Fluke, Tautog, Tuna, Swords, Flounder, and most anything else more than a foot long that swims, as well as crabs, and lobster. Menhaden is probably the single most important fish in the Atlantic Food Cycle – both to fish and as a result to humans.
I have never directly eaten Menhaden as all reports are that it is absolutely horrible to eat. However, if you have eaten any local seafood you have probably eaten a fish that fed on Menhaden somewhere along the way.
Menhaden is also a significantly sought after commercial fish with a massive industry, mostly run by one company, Omega Protein in Texas. The caught fish is often processed and reduced to be used for everything from cat food, to Omega 3 supplements, to fertilizer. It is also considered on a coastwide basis to be overfished – though this is often debated by the commercial fishery interests.
Here is a great article that does far more justice than I ever could:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/menhaden.htm
Menhaden in Narragansett Bay: Menhaden in the bay is such a tiny miniscule fraction of the entire biomass of the Menhaden stocks that eliminating every fish from the bay will have no significant impact on a coastwide basis. Saving the menhaden or removing them will have no impact on the large scale. Menhaden were so plentiful decades ago that they were routinely found in proportionally massive schools in waters well into the state of Maine. I know a few old timers that repeatedly stated how bountiful these fish were in Maine but that is now well in the past. I know many old salt Rhode Islanders that have stated how much menhaden were available in years past. The last 2 years have seen an uptick in the availability of these fish in our local waters, possibly due to reductions in commercial menhaden fishery pressures in other states, but any increase we have are being fished by Ark Bait.
At the local level, menhaden have a tremendous benefit to the bay. Menhaden feed local fish stocks, considerably, and between adult Menhaden and juvenile Menhaden – often called Peanut Bunker – they are probably the most important forage fish in Narragansett Bay. They are also a favorite for anglers to go run around the bay, find a dozen or two, and use them as bait in the pursuit of other gamefish. In my opinion, the most important and often overlooked aspect of the Menhaden is that they are what is called “Filter Feeders”. What this means is that these large schools of Menhaden, swimming around in the Bay, filter pollution and nutrients (like processed and unprocessed sewage and fertilizer runoff) from the water column. The fish are reported to filter 2.5-4 gallons of water per minute. These fish can play a significant roll in the cleaning of the bay. Currently, the bay water is polluted with septic and sewage runoff, lawn fertilizers, all sorts of nutrient runoffs that create these algae blooms and can create “dead zones” of de-oxygenated water. These dead zones lead to fish kills, shellfish kills (shellfish like quahogs filter out the bottom portions of the water column), and general poor water quality of hypoxia and high nutrient loading of the bay. Menhaden feed on the phytoplankton and detritus of our Bay.
When Ark Bait is seining the fish in the 2-5 weeks they typically spend in the Bay, they are removing significant portions of the available adult menhaden from the bay and advantages the bay the benefits they could provide. Ark Bait uses a spotter plane to fly around the bay to find any concentrated schools of Menhaden and then the vessel goes and nets up everything it can scoop. The net is hauled and the fish are stored. Then they go on to the next set – spotter plane finds the fish, vessel scoops them up. I am not an expert on the Purse Seine fishery and methods but I believe they can do up to 3 sets and hauls in a day. They essentially take and appreciable school of adult menhaden in the Bay that they can reach in navigable waters. Some of the fish schools make it into areas to tightly confined or to shallow to be feasibly harvested. The significant portion of catchable fish is seined.
The Fishers:
Recreational fisherman and women use menhaden as bait to catch striped bass and bluefish. Most of this bait is purchased from local bait shops (the majority of which support a ban on the seining of Menhaden). Some recreational anglers with boats search out and snag their own bait and some will go to the Ark Bait vessel where they will be given some caught menhaden by Ark Bait. Ark Bait then takes advantage of this opportunity to photograph the smiling angler for future display on how they are such great stewards of recreational anglers (OK, I’ll admit to some sarcasm here on this tactic). The direct impact of all of the recreational anglers on local menhaden stocks – before or after any potential seining ban - are miniscule, tiny in comparison to Ark Bait.
Commercial Lobsterman – in Rhode Island and other New England states - do use menhaden caught by Ark Bait as one of the baits to fill their traps. Though Ark Bait is only in the bay until it is no longer economically feasible to take menhaden, they do provide part of the bait source while they are here. However, ark bait is not the sole supplier of bait for lobster boat operations. They are one supply out of many. I believe that most of the menhaden used in RI, whether for recreational anglers or lobsterman, over the course of the year come from boats in the Mid-Atlantic states. In fact, Ark Bait, after removing what they can in a few weeks in Narragansett Bay, spends most of its time seining for Menhaden in the waters off of the Mid-Atlantic states. Commercial Lobsterman could in fact benefit from healthier stocks of menhaden in the bay as other species like, Striped Bass, would have better forage to eat than the lobsters and fluke we as anglers often find in their stomachs due to the lack of prevalent forage in the bay.
The Benefits:
If a healthy population of adult Menhaden were to spend a sizeable amount of time in the bay due to lack of commercial fishing pressure by this Massachusetts company the bay should reap several rewards.
Healthier fish of existing stops of Striped Bass for example because their best food source will be more available. As stated previously, the striped bass may eat less lobster than they do now if provided a better alternative (menhaden is considered more of a striped bass favorite than lobster and other shellfish). This is good for the bass and good for the anglers that pursue them. Please keep in mind that the economic value of Recreational Fishing in Rhode Island may even EXCEED the economic value of commercial fishing in our state http://www.risaa.org/EconomicStudy07.pdf . The economic value of Striped Bass fishing alone in RI significantly outweighs the benefit to RI from Ark Bait (a Massachusetts company).
Probably most important, a CLEANER Narragansett Bay should result with a healthy population of Menhaden. Again, and I cannot stress this enough, these fish provide a significant, natural cleaning agent into the bay, one that we would be simply mistaken to ignore.
The Cons:
Ark Bait, from Swansea Massachusetts, will need to spend a few extra weeks in the waters they fish once the local Rhode Island supply of Menhaden has been exhausted.
Rhode Island Commercial Lobstermen will not have the temporary, local source of Menhaden that they do for the time the supply from Ark Bait is taken locally.
The Legislation:
There is legislation co-sponsored by several lawmakers to ban the commercial purse-seining of adult Menhaden (a/k/a Bunker, Pogies) in Narragansett Bay.
House 5165 - Introduced By: Representatives Gallison, Kilmartin, Palumbo, Ginaitt, and Gablinske Date Introduced: January 24, 2007
Senate S0311 - Introduced By: Senators Lenihan, and Sheehan Date Introduced: February 07, 2007
http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText07/SenateText07/S0311.pdf
http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/billtext07/housetext07/h5165.htm -
Both state: 20-4.1-2.1. Purse seining prohibited. – It shall be illegal to harvest menhaden by use of purse seine in the Menhaden Management Area.
My personal opinion:
The benefits to Narragansett Bay of banning the commercial Purse Seining take of menhaden so significantly outweighs the temporary impact on one Massachusetts company and the very limited impact on the lobster boats that use menhaden as bait. What many people do not realize is that the amount of time Ark Bait spends in the bay is minimal compared to the exhaustion of the local stock that occurs. Ark Bait still needs to spend the vast majority of its season in other states’ waters and is just one of many boats when in those waters. When the local supply of local menhaden is exhausted in the few weeks the Ark Bait boat is in the Bay, most end users of this bait – local bait & tackle shops and the lobster boats – must get bait shipped from other parts of the east coast.
I am not a commercial lobsterman but in years past I have gone and assisted a friend in his work. I have met a few commercial lobstermen and I know and respect them. It is a profession of great, hard working people that I support. I do not feel that the limited impact on lobster boats – reduced local supply of bait for a shorter period of time – comes close to the tremendous benefits associated with leaving Adult Menhaden to roam the bay with no heavy commercial pressure.
Again, I feel that the benefits of closing this type of fishery significantly outweigh the negative impact this may have on Ark Bait.
I'm going to give you a short (OK, it started out short), and I feel honest, summary of the pros and cons of the Menhaden Legislations going on at the state level.
Basics:
Menhaden: Atlantic Menhaden (a/k/a Bunker, Pogies) are algae eating fish that are found from Florida to Nova Scotia and are likely the most important bait / forage fish of ALL species in the western Atlantic. These fish are fatty, high in protein and very high in Omega 3. They provide perhaps the best natural diet for all sorts of fish species from Striped Bass, Bluefish, Fluke, Tautog, Tuna, Swords, Flounder, and most anything else more than a foot long that swims, as well as crabs, and lobster. Menhaden is probably the single most important fish in the Atlantic Food Cycle – both to fish and as a result to humans.
I have never directly eaten Menhaden as all reports are that it is absolutely horrible to eat. However, if you have eaten any local seafood you have probably eaten a fish that fed on Menhaden somewhere along the way.
Menhaden is also a significantly sought after commercial fish with a massive industry, mostly run by one company, Omega Protein in Texas. The caught fish is often processed and reduced to be used for everything from cat food, to Omega 3 supplements, to fertilizer. It is also considered on a coastwide basis to be overfished – though this is often debated by the commercial fishery interests.
Here is a great article that does far more justice than I ever could:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/menhaden.htm
Menhaden in Narragansett Bay: Menhaden in the bay is such a tiny miniscule fraction of the entire biomass of the Menhaden stocks that eliminating every fish from the bay will have no significant impact on a coastwide basis. Saving the menhaden or removing them will have no impact on the large scale. Menhaden were so plentiful decades ago that they were routinely found in proportionally massive schools in waters well into the state of Maine. I know a few old timers that repeatedly stated how bountiful these fish were in Maine but that is now well in the past. I know many old salt Rhode Islanders that have stated how much menhaden were available in years past. The last 2 years have seen an uptick in the availability of these fish in our local waters, possibly due to reductions in commercial menhaden fishery pressures in other states, but any increase we have are being fished by Ark Bait.
At the local level, menhaden have a tremendous benefit to the bay. Menhaden feed local fish stocks, considerably, and between adult Menhaden and juvenile Menhaden – often called Peanut Bunker – they are probably the most important forage fish in Narragansett Bay. They are also a favorite for anglers to go run around the bay, find a dozen or two, and use them as bait in the pursuit of other gamefish. In my opinion, the most important and often overlooked aspect of the Menhaden is that they are what is called “Filter Feeders”. What this means is that these large schools of Menhaden, swimming around in the Bay, filter pollution and nutrients (like processed and unprocessed sewage and fertilizer runoff) from the water column. The fish are reported to filter 2.5-4 gallons of water per minute. These fish can play a significant roll in the cleaning of the bay. Currently, the bay water is polluted with septic and sewage runoff, lawn fertilizers, all sorts of nutrient runoffs that create these algae blooms and can create “dead zones” of de-oxygenated water. These dead zones lead to fish kills, shellfish kills (shellfish like quahogs filter out the bottom portions of the water column), and general poor water quality of hypoxia and high nutrient loading of the bay. Menhaden feed on the phytoplankton and detritus of our Bay.
When Ark Bait is seining the fish in the 2-5 weeks they typically spend in the Bay, they are removing significant portions of the available adult menhaden from the bay and advantages the bay the benefits they could provide. Ark Bait uses a spotter plane to fly around the bay to find any concentrated schools of Menhaden and then the vessel goes and nets up everything it can scoop. The net is hauled and the fish are stored. Then they go on to the next set – spotter plane finds the fish, vessel scoops them up. I am not an expert on the Purse Seine fishery and methods but I believe they can do up to 3 sets and hauls in a day. They essentially take and appreciable school of adult menhaden in the Bay that they can reach in navigable waters. Some of the fish schools make it into areas to tightly confined or to shallow to be feasibly harvested. The significant portion of catchable fish is seined.
The Fishers:
Recreational fisherman and women use menhaden as bait to catch striped bass and bluefish. Most of this bait is purchased from local bait shops (the majority of which support a ban on the seining of Menhaden). Some recreational anglers with boats search out and snag their own bait and some will go to the Ark Bait vessel where they will be given some caught menhaden by Ark Bait. Ark Bait then takes advantage of this opportunity to photograph the smiling angler for future display on how they are such great stewards of recreational anglers (OK, I’ll admit to some sarcasm here on this tactic). The direct impact of all of the recreational anglers on local menhaden stocks – before or after any potential seining ban - are miniscule, tiny in comparison to Ark Bait.
Commercial Lobsterman – in Rhode Island and other New England states - do use menhaden caught by Ark Bait as one of the baits to fill their traps. Though Ark Bait is only in the bay until it is no longer economically feasible to take menhaden, they do provide part of the bait source while they are here. However, ark bait is not the sole supplier of bait for lobster boat operations. They are one supply out of many. I believe that most of the menhaden used in RI, whether for recreational anglers or lobsterman, over the course of the year come from boats in the Mid-Atlantic states. In fact, Ark Bait, after removing what they can in a few weeks in Narragansett Bay, spends most of its time seining for Menhaden in the waters off of the Mid-Atlantic states. Commercial Lobsterman could in fact benefit from healthier stocks of menhaden in the bay as other species like, Striped Bass, would have better forage to eat than the lobsters and fluke we as anglers often find in their stomachs due to the lack of prevalent forage in the bay.
The Benefits:
If a healthy population of adult Menhaden were to spend a sizeable amount of time in the bay due to lack of commercial fishing pressure by this Massachusetts company the bay should reap several rewards.
Healthier fish of existing stops of Striped Bass for example because their best food source will be more available. As stated previously, the striped bass may eat less lobster than they do now if provided a better alternative (menhaden is considered more of a striped bass favorite than lobster and other shellfish). This is good for the bass and good for the anglers that pursue them. Please keep in mind that the economic value of Recreational Fishing in Rhode Island may even EXCEED the economic value of commercial fishing in our state http://www.risaa.org/EconomicStudy07.pdf . The economic value of Striped Bass fishing alone in RI significantly outweighs the benefit to RI from Ark Bait (a Massachusetts company).
Probably most important, a CLEANER Narragansett Bay should result with a healthy population of Menhaden. Again, and I cannot stress this enough, these fish provide a significant, natural cleaning agent into the bay, one that we would be simply mistaken to ignore.
The Cons:
Ark Bait, from Swansea Massachusetts, will need to spend a few extra weeks in the waters they fish once the local Rhode Island supply of Menhaden has been exhausted.
Rhode Island Commercial Lobstermen will not have the temporary, local source of Menhaden that they do for the time the supply from Ark Bait is taken locally.
The Legislation:
There is legislation co-sponsored by several lawmakers to ban the commercial purse-seining of adult Menhaden (a/k/a Bunker, Pogies) in Narragansett Bay.
House 5165 - Introduced By: Representatives Gallison, Kilmartin, Palumbo, Ginaitt, and Gablinske Date Introduced: January 24, 2007
Senate S0311 - Introduced By: Senators Lenihan, and Sheehan Date Introduced: February 07, 2007
http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText07/SenateText07/S0311.pdf
http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/billtext07/housetext07/h5165.htm -
Both state: 20-4.1-2.1. Purse seining prohibited. – It shall be illegal to harvest menhaden by use of purse seine in the Menhaden Management Area.
My personal opinion:
The benefits to Narragansett Bay of banning the commercial Purse Seining take of menhaden so significantly outweighs the temporary impact on one Massachusetts company and the very limited impact on the lobster boats that use menhaden as bait. What many people do not realize is that the amount of time Ark Bait spends in the bay is minimal compared to the exhaustion of the local stock that occurs. Ark Bait still needs to spend the vast majority of its season in other states’ waters and is just one of many boats when in those waters. When the local supply of local menhaden is exhausted in the few weeks the Ark Bait boat is in the Bay, most end users of this bait – local bait & tackle shops and the lobster boats – must get bait shipped from other parts of the east coast.
I am not a commercial lobsterman but in years past I have gone and assisted a friend in his work. I have met a few commercial lobstermen and I know and respect them. It is a profession of great, hard working people that I support. I do not feel that the limited impact on lobster boats – reduced local supply of bait for a shorter period of time – comes close to the tremendous benefits associated with leaving Adult Menhaden to roam the bay with no heavy commercial pressure.
Again, I feel that the benefits of closing this type of fishery significantly outweigh the negative impact this may have on Ark Bait.