Statement on Menhaden Conservation to the asmfc from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, October 11, 2011
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| Statement on Menhaden Conservation to the ASMFC
from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, October 11, 2011 Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to present this statement on menhaden conservation from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. I am Capt. John Page Williams, CBF’s Senior Naturalist. Today, the coastal stock of Atlantic menhaden has fallen to 8 per cent of what it would be if we didn’t fish it. That’s the lowest level on record for this “keystone species,” which forms a critical link in the food webs of our Atlantic coast. The most recent stock assessment indicates that we have overfished it for 32 of the last 54 years. Those numbers should warn us that a stock collapse is a real possibility. Haven’t we learned anything from the Chesapeake’s blue crabs over the past few years and the Atlantic coastal stock of rockfish in the 1980s? Given these strikingly low numbers, we must allow the Atlantic menhaden stock to rebound, just as we did for rockfish and crabs. That 8 per cent level is way below the 40-70 per cent range that scientists recommend for forage species that support predator fish like rockfish, bluefish, red drum, cobia, flounder, speckled trout, and gray trout, plus sea birds like brown pelicans, ospreys, gannets, and loons. Somehow we’ve ignored that information, despite clear, well-documented danger signs like undernourished and diseased rockfish. We are simply not leaving enough menhaden in our coastal waters to sustain the fish and birds that have depended on them for thousands of years. In the 1950s, menhaden made up 70 per cent of the rockfish diet up and down the Atlantic coast. Today that figure is 8 per cent, and scientific studies clearly link the change to a worrisome increase in natural mortality. We have seriously reduced the “carrying capacity”, the numbers of predator fish and birds that the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic coast can feed. So what should we do? We must allow this prolific species to replenish itself before it crashes. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation strongly supports the current alternatives of a 15 per cent threshold and at least a 30 per cent target for the interim, to reduce pressure on the fish while minimizing effects on the fishery. At the same time, we feel that as the coastal menhaden stock increases, ASMFC should consider adopting a 40 per cent target. In closing, I have to ask “How smart are we? Must we crash a valuable natural resource before we get religion and respond effectively? Or will we heed the warning signs and back off before a crash?” The second course is much more responsible and less expensive in the long run, for both the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and us, the human community that it supports. Thank you for the opportunity to make this statement. 453 words Directory: files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Integer programming and game theory files -> 4 Integer Programming files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. Objective files -> Pop Warner History files -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose files -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d files -> Hanban – asia society confucius classrooms network 2010 request for proposal files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations Download 5.74 Kb. Share with your friends:
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