Commercial Menhaden Fishery in the Chesapeake Bay (Spencer Mottley)

 

    Today I thought of a topic to blog about that would relate perfectly with our current class discussion on 

oceans and commercial fishing. The topic I am going to discuss in today's blog is the commerical

menhaden fishery in the Chesapeke Bay and the negative effects it has on this unique eustarine ecosystem. 

Did you know that commerical menhaden fishing in the Chesapeake Bay is controled by one large foregin

owned company? Yes you herd that right, a company called Omega protein based out of Canada is the

only commerical mehaden fleet in the cheasapeke bay, with the fleet itself being based out of Reedvile

Virgina and only being allowed it fish on Virgina's portion of the Chesapeke Bay. Despite being the only

fleet comerically harvesting this fish in the bay "the large-scale industrial fishery harvests more than 100 

million pounds of menhaden from Virginia's Bay waters each year" according to the Chesapeake 

Bay foundation. With countless amounts of mehaden being elimated from the bay every year 

many anamals found in and around the Chesapeke Bay that predate on mehahadden includeing ospreys, 

rockfish, bottlenose dolphins, bluefish and bald eagles are left with a smaller forage base. While certain 

species like bald eagles and bottlenose dolphins have seen a large population increase in the Chesapeke 

Bay region in recent years, mostly due to a large reduction in polution in the Chesapeke Bay and it's 

tributaries. Other species like ospreys and rockfish have seen a large population decline in recent years 

that can at least partly be traced to the lack of mehaden in the Chesapeke Bay for them to feed on. The 

menhaden fishes position at the base of the food web is often why it's refered to as "the most important 

fish in the bay" because almost every predtory anaimal in the bay feeds on them.

    This discusion about the current unsustainable menhaden fishery in the Chesapeake Bay leaves me with 

a few questions and a additional thought. My first question is, why are some species faring the loss of a 

food source (menhaden) better than others are? The second question I have is how do we make this fishery 

more sustainable and equitable? My answer to the first question is, likely due to the fact that certain 

species rely on the menhaden as a food source more heavily than others do. Species that have more 

opurtunist feeding habits may be able to get by through simply feeding on other types of prey items that 

are less impacted by commerical fishing than the menhaden. While other species that are more specialized 

feeders may not be able or willing to shift their feeding habits in this manner. My answer to the second 

question is, by first handing the fishery back to local fishermen, by not allowing foregin enties to fish in 

our waters and secondly by only allowing commerical mehadden fishing to occur in the ocean to ensure 

fish nursey grounds (which often occur in esturaies) are not being disrupted by commerical fishing 

activity. One additional thought I have about this topic is, the joint disatification seen by both 

enviromentalist and recerational anglers in regards to the current state of the mehadden fishery in the bay. 

This in theory should make future action on this issue a fairly bipartisan effort. Enviromentalist 

are dissatisfied due to the unsustainable nature of the current fishery and it's negative implcations on the 

bay ecosystem, recerational anglers are dissatisfied due to the fact it's significant reducing an important 

forage base for many popular sportfish like rockfish.

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