Quote:
Originally Posted by MAKAI
I read that a menhaden can filter the phytoplankton in up to five gallons of water a minute. This helps prevent algae blooms. The clearer water means sunlight can penetrate deeper which promotes the growth of oxygen producing plants.
|
The speaker was David Bengtson, nice guy and knows his stuff!
As far as the other stuff, if you dig into the science behind the filtering claim, it turns out adult (the size that are captured commercially) filter large plankton (i.e. zooplankton) the small algae and phytoplankton pass right through their gill rakers... so this argument is not really accurate... Google Seagrant Menhaden symposium, there is a lot of info in that report. I'm not sure on the science for this next line, as it comes from my head, BUT there is a leap there that if there is a ton of pogies, eating all the zoo plankton, then there are less of them to prey on the algae and phytoplankton, and maybe you'd still have low-oxygen events and such.
that being said, I am 100% Omega and the reduction boats catching billions of lbs/year... but putting the devil moniker on the bait boats probably isn't that fair, especially when they are catching a targeted, monitored quota like they do in RI
Paul,
NAO is a cycle (or a quasi-cycle) not an anomaly...
we can have long chats about it at some point. it doesn't just impact fisheries. But I bet it also has a huge impact on fish that spawn offshore and then migrate inshore i.e. pogies!
Threaded Mode