Dr. Louis B. Daniel III
Vice Chair
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
Dr. Daniel and fellow commissioners,
Thank you for this opportunity to make comments. We are encouraged by the commissioners that are continuing holding the course on sustainability and put an end to the industrial slaughter once and for all.
The Atlantic Menhaden situation has become very visible and the actions of the ASMFC commissioners are being watched by thousands of concerned citizens and fisherman. The facts are in and current data has made it very clear that overfishing has occurred 52 out of the past 54 years. Population levels of this species have dwindled from 200 billion fish down 88% to an all time century low of 20 billion fish. Older, egg laden adult fish continue to be taken out of our waters in very large numbers and the overall biomass of menhaden has shrunken dramatically and the bunker have as well.
On my home waters of Raritan Bay in New Jersey, the bunkers have always been very large, with the majority of the fish measuring well over a foot long, over the past two seasons I have noticed that they have shrunken down to 10 inches and smaller.
I see this lack of larger, older fish as yet another warning sign. Never, in over 30 years of fishing the bay have I seen bunkers of this size. Add this to what I have seen over the past 6 years with the complete disappearance of the acres of young peanut sized bunkers that used to trigger our annual fall blitz fishing for stripers, bluefish and weakfish. I realize that this is anecdotal, but as an observant fisherman, this clearly tells me that things are changing for the worse.
As the leader of Menhaden Defenders, fisherman reach out to me all the time, and they are sincerely concerned and worried. Unfortunately, New Jersey, New York and Delaware Bay anglers are the only ones that I hear good news from as they have plentiful bunkers still in the water. The Southern Fisherman are saying the same exact thing as the New England fisherman. The bait fish they all relied upon for good, consistent fishing are gone. The fish that they used to have acres of, have simply vanished.
This isn’t about hurting Omega Protein. This is about hurting the ecosystem, along with thousands of recreational fisherman, and related businesses that all thrive with an abundant menhaden population. To be direct, recreational fisherman have had ENOUGH. We are tired of the future of our waters being determined by commercial interests. We are tired of the greedy needs of a few benefiting at the expense of the masses. The days of ZERO catch limits are over, as there are just too many creatures that depend on this species for survival.
The ASMFC has the opportunity to be on the right side of history and finally alter what we have come to know as the normal historical cycle of this fishery: abundance, overfishing, crash, stop fishing, resurgence. It’s up to all of the commissioners to continue to move forward and protect the remaining menhaden population. This fish is the life blood of our waters and we are all depending on you to continue to make the right decisions and vote with mother nature and not big business.
All of us hope that the ASMFC will consider the ecosystem first as the primary concern, protecting it so that the striped bass, weakfish, bluefish and other species that need menhaden to survive and thrive get their share of menhaden first. History has proven if we do not have enough menhaden for the ecosystem, the system will fail.
Thank you,
Capt. Paul Eidman
Founder, Menhaden Defenders
Well put Paul. Thank you.
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