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Well now, there we have two views of the meeting I attended two days ago. The first is the RFA view and the second is the CCA view. I attended the meeting on behalf of MSBA. I spent much of my two days of meetings with RFA Lobbyist Mike Doebley & the Chair of the Menhaden Advisory panel, Bill Windley.
Here are my views.
What I think is that we saw the first ever so slight blink or crack in the very powerful commercial Menhaden lobby. The motion that passed sets up a meeting between the Menhaden management board and the Menhaden technical committee at the February ASFMC meeting. The purpose of the meeting is for the two groups to explore ways to incorporate the forage and ecological value of Menhaden stocks into the way they are managed. At the end of this meeting the Technical committee will go about the task of getting new adjusted science to reflect this new direction in the management of Menhaden. The Technical committee will come back with a "preliminary report" six months later. Real substantive changes are a full 1-2 years away, but they are coming.
Many many groups deserve credit for this change in direction. RFA, CCA, and many others including Environmentalists have been banging away on this issue for a very long time.
What bothered me about what I saw and learned this weekend is that the lack of Menhaden in the NorthEast was basically an afterthought. It really was not talked about. I did find out that Menhaden do not follow a North south Migratory pattern like Striped Bass. They migrate inshore to spawn and then move offshore. Not one of the scientists could answer why we get tons of baby bunker in the Fall. As with all aspects of fisheries management, more study is needed and there is no money.
I also attended the dogfish and Striped Bass management board meetings and will post on these soon.
If you are glad I or any other advocates were in attendence remember that we can only go if the clubs and organizations have 1)members and 2) money to send us with your proxy.
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