The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition is a collective of menhaden fishermen, related businesses, and supporting industries.
Precautionary Catch Limits on Forage Fish Unlikely to Benefit Predators
The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries, whose membership includes MFC members Omega Protein, Lund’s Fisheries and Daybrook Fisheries:
The study finds that, for many predator species, extra-precautionary management of forage fish is unlikely to bring additional benefits.
The study, from Drs. Chris Free of the University of California-Santa Barbara, Olaf Jensen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington, examines decades of historical abundance data of both forage species and their predators, and uses mathematical models to determine to what extent predator populations benefited from increasing abundance of their forage fish prey. Of the 45 predator populations examined, only 6, or 13 percent, were positively influenced by extra forage.
Read more about the research here.
Atlantic Menhaden: Fishing By the Numbers
According to an analysis from the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition, between 2004-2013, the menhaden fishery only harvested an average of 6.4 percent of the total menhaden population. This leaves over 93% of menhaden left in the ecosystem as forage for birds, fish and other sea creatures. Menhaden fishing mortality, which hit an all-time low in the last assessment, is dwarfed by natural mortality, which accounts for predation and mortality from other causes outside of the fishery.
MENHADEN FISHERIES
Atlantic Menhaden
Gulf Menhaden
MENHADEN USES
Menhaden & Nutrition
Menhaden as Bait
