Fisheries commission makes 9% cut in menhaden quota; LI conservationists sought more

An interstate fisheries commission on Tuesday approved a 9% reduction in next year’s coastwide quota for menhaden in a move that fell short of conservationists’ hope for a larger cut amid reported impacts to osprey, striped bass and recreational fishing.

The Tuesday night vote by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission after hours of public comment in Rhode Island Tuesday will reduce the overall landings of the keystone fish also known as bunker to 170,000 metric tons next year, from a current 186,840 metric tons. In 2028, the fishery will see another reduction, to 155,000 metric tons — representing a 15% cut from today’s quota.

Three-quarters of the entire coastwide quota for menhaden is held by the state of Virginia, and one company, Ocean Harvesters, working for its affiliate, Omega Protein, harvest most of the fish.

The Virginia-based ships' use of long nets and airplane spotters to track and capture large schools of menhaden along the coast have alarmed conservationists and recreational fishermen, who report depleted fisheries along the entire coast. After industrial "reduction" of menhaden, Omega sells processed oils and solids for cosmetics and animal feed among other uses.

Advocates for Ocean Harvesters and Omega, during the three-hour meeting, expressed opposition to the original proposal Tuesday that would have reduced the total coastwide quota by 39%, saying it would have disproportionate socioeconomic impacts on the Virigina communities that harvest and process the fish.

"Let's get some data before we make any moves on this," said Virginia commissioner James Minor. Maine and other New England lobstermen who use bunker for bait also opposed the broader cuts.

But recreational fishermen and conservationists wanted a much bigger cut, and some had called for an emergency closure of industrial menhaden fishery in the waters off New York and New Jersey. They also called for a more equitable division of the coastal quota, 25% of which is now divided among a handful of states, including New York. The commission is taking up further measures on the menhaden fishery on Wednesday. 

The commission’s Tuesday vote for a small quota cut was "a complete failure of management," said Jaclyn Lunaas, forage fish manager for the The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. The conservation group had pushed for a reduction of 39%. Without meaningful reductions, she said, species that have been impacted by the depletion of bunker will "continue on that trajectory" of decline.

Marty Gary, New York's commissioner on the ASMFC and the state Department of Environmental Conservation's director of marine fisheries, told the commission he'd heard complaints "everywhere I travel" of a scarcity of bunker, a decrease in the size of the fish, and reports of the wider impacts. "I know our public has told us resoundingly they want to see more [bunker] fish left in the water," he said. 

As Newsday has reported, Long Islanders conservationists and recreational fishermen have reported an array of impacts from what they see as industrial overfishing of bunker in the past two years. Newsday has reported bunker have been largely absent from area bays in the spring and fall seasons when baymen traditionally caught them and when osprey breed here. Records show drastic drops in the number of osprey chicks raised to adulthood in New York and along the coast.

Author and marine ecologist Carl Safina, professor at Stony Brook University, in an editorial last month argued that something more than commission action on quotas is needed.

"The costs of continued depletion are intolerably high," he wrote. "What’s needed immediately is federal legislation to assume federal management of this species, and the closure and termination of the menhaden reduction fishery."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.