NJ fishing guide urges public to speak out against overfishing

My name is Capt. Paul Eidman and I am a New Jersey fishing guide on the Jersey shore. I’ve been on the water my entire life, as was my father, his father and my great grandfather. As a fishing guide, I depend on abundant schools of Menhaden, or Bunker as we call them to attract the striped bass, bluefish, weakfish and everything else clients fish for. Without bunker, our sport of saltwater fishing, as we know it would be ruined.  

Concerned fisherman and others always ask me what’s going on with the bunker. It’s a complicated subject, but to sum it all up, the story is that over the past 25 years we have lost over 90 percent of our bunker population to the unregulated netting by the commercial fishing fleet. Hard to believe that bunker are the only fish around that are still unregulated. These companies can take as many fish as they want. There are NO limits.


Onboard view of an Omega Industrial bunker haul



Small scale, traditional inshore bait seine netter

bunker are highly sought after by several bait netting companies in the Mid Atlantic for use as commercial lobster and crab bait, but by far the biggest volume of fish is taken by one company called Omega Protein Inc.

Omegas East coast division factory ships and spotting planes come out of a small port in Reedville, on the Virginia side of the Chesapeake bay. Omega is the only company lands a greater volume of fish than every other fishery in the United States. As we speak, Omega Protein is vacuuming up Menhaden from our coastal waters at the rate of over 150,000 tons per season. The company grinds the bunker into fish meal and oil, for use in a zillion products, including pet foods, animal feed and fish oil pills.

Chinese catfish sold as SWAI or BASA in America

Over 50% of Omega Proteins sales revenue come from Asia, which means that America’s fish are being ground up and shipped off to China. Fish that we eat all the time are raised in huge farms all over Asia. Farm raised Salmon, Tilapia, Shrimp, and Swai/Basa (catfish) are all fed American menhaden meal, while our stripers, blues and tuna starve in the Atlantic.

Tilapia fattened up on Menhaden Meal to get to market faster

To make things worse, when those Chinese fish are fattened up for the market, many are shipped back to the U.S. for consumers to purchase. Cheap bagged up frozen fish lining the end caps at Walmart or your local grocer have become the norm and economically depressed American families are buying them up nationwide. America’s fisherman could be the ones profiting from abundant bunker, but instead, our bait fish are shipped 7,000 miles away to feed tilapia.


Meanwhile, our gamefish are scrawny and hungry. 70% of the stripers in the Chesapeake bay have mycobacteriosis, or MYCO a life threatening disease related directly to malnutrition. There’s fewer bunker for everyone. Stripers are out competing weakfish for food and eating weakfish juveniles when they cant get enough Menhaden. Our ecosystem, fisherman and related business are going to go down in flames if we don’t cut back NOW on the numbers of bunker the industry catches.



MYCO lesions on a Striped Bass

Future sustainability depends upon a lot of things, but it all starts this fall. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries commission (ASMFC) will be deciding just how much to cut back the menhaden catch. It’s up to you to stand up and let them know how important the bunker are to you. Tell them that you are expecting them to do the right thing and vote with mother nature and not against it.

Fresh Bunker in baskets for bait shops

A rebuilt, abundant stock of bunker would have immense benefits for small business up and down the coast, from bait and tackle stores to charter boats, marina operations and to independent fisherman using cast nets that supply our bait shops.

But if we don’t act, we risk collapsing our bunker population even further- with 90 percent already gone, how much more can we afford to sacrifice? We want our stripers and we want our blues- we need our bunker.

Omega fishing with no end in sight

Let’s stand together to make sure that corporate greed and lobbying don’t win over common sense. Reach out to us at the Menhaden Defenders website or on Facebook and get involved today. Follow us on twitter. Our ocean and fishing depends on you!