Can I get a show of hands from anglers who remember when the bunker schools in Long Island Sound were as common as seagulls and were measured not in square feet but in acres?
One, two, three ... gee, not too many. But that was a long time ago.
No, these days sighting an acre of bunker churning up the surface in the Sound is a rare thing indeed. And when it happens, the once football field-sized schools are usually smaller than the end zone.
Well, at last that situation has drawn the attention of a group that controls Atlantic Coast fishing.
Last week it was reported here that the Atlantic States Marine Fishing Commission had moved toward taking much-needed action on limiting striped bass catch quotas, both commercial and recreational. Now ASMFC's Menhaden Management Board has approved a motion to develop a management plan for menhaden (bunker) aimed at improving the stock and increasing abundance from current meager levels.
Known as Addendum V to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic menhaden, the measure sets a new over-fishing threshold of 15% on the maximum spawning potential. The Management Board also agreed on the need to establish a long-term ecosystem menhaden management plan.
Forming as it does the basis of the Atlantic's marine food chain, it is not an exaggeration to call menhaden the most important fish in the sea. Once making up 70 percent of the striped bass' diet, a Virginia study found that the oily forage fish now comprises only 8 percent of the striper's diet. (Could stripers be making up the difference with baby flounder?) Bluefish are equally affected by the decline.
Ken Hinman, president of the National Coalition for Marine Conservation, while expressing disappointment that the board failed to allow public comment on the full range of more conservative menhaden plan options, said the adopted plan "could provide a number of conservation benefits for menhaden, including the first coast-wide catch limits, an end to over-fishing and an increase in spawning stock."
The largest commercial menhaden taker is Omega Protein, based in Reedville, Va., which annually grinds up half a billion pounds of the fish for industrial oils used in cosmetics flooring, animal feed and health supplements. Chances are those yellow "fish pills" you are taking were made from processed menhaden. It is estimated that in the last 25 years, menhaden numbers in the Atlantic have declined by 88 percent.
Until a public outcry forced the State Legislature to ban them, Omega and other companies sent big factory boats north to sweep up Long Island Sound's bunker in giant purse seine nets, using aircraft to spot the schools.
Now much of Omega's massive unrestricted menhaden haul is taken in the open ocean, long before the schools ever reach Long Island Sound. One can only pray that the menhaden board's action is not too little, too late and that we'll see a bunker comeback.
Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/default/article/Bunker-comeback-at-last-an-issue-1319689.php#ixzz1ITonFgpO
One, two, three ... gee, not too many. But that was a long time ago.
No, these days sighting an acre of bunker churning up the surface in the Sound is a rare thing indeed. And when it happens, the once football field-sized schools are usually smaller than the end zone.
Well, at last that situation has drawn the attention of a group that controls Atlantic Coast fishing.
Last week it was reported here that the Atlantic States Marine Fishing Commission had moved toward taking much-needed action on limiting striped bass catch quotas, both commercial and recreational. Now ASMFC's Menhaden Management Board has approved a motion to develop a management plan for menhaden (bunker) aimed at improving the stock and increasing abundance from current meager levels.
Known as Addendum V to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic menhaden, the measure sets a new over-fishing threshold of 15% on the maximum spawning potential. The Management Board also agreed on the need to establish a long-term ecosystem menhaden management plan.
Forming as it does the basis of the Atlantic's marine food chain, it is not an exaggeration to call menhaden the most important fish in the sea. Once making up 70 percent of the striped bass' diet, a Virginia study found that the oily forage fish now comprises only 8 percent of the striper's diet. (Could stripers be making up the difference with baby flounder?) Bluefish are equally affected by the decline.
Ken Hinman, president of the National Coalition for Marine Conservation, while expressing disappointment that the board failed to allow public comment on the full range of more conservative menhaden plan options, said the adopted plan "could provide a number of conservation benefits for menhaden, including the first coast-wide catch limits, an end to over-fishing and an increase in spawning stock."
The largest commercial menhaden taker is Omega Protein, based in Reedville, Va., which annually grinds up half a billion pounds of the fish for industrial oils used in cosmetics flooring, animal feed and health supplements. Chances are those yellow "fish pills" you are taking were made from processed menhaden. It is estimated that in the last 25 years, menhaden numbers in the Atlantic have declined by 88 percent.
Until a public outcry forced the State Legislature to ban them, Omega and other companies sent big factory boats north to sweep up Long Island Sound's bunker in giant purse seine nets, using aircraft to spot the schools.
Now much of Omega's massive unrestricted menhaden haul is taken in the open ocean, long before the schools ever reach Long Island Sound. One can only pray that the menhaden board's action is not too little, too late and that we'll see a bunker comeback.
Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/default/article/Bunker-comeback-at-last-an-issue-1319689.php#ixzz1ITonFgpO
Definately an issue raising more attention. I used to fish out of Reedsville. You could smell the town 50 miles away down wind. Summer before last, after seeing almost no bunker schools in the Niantic area, finally had a day with large schools moving in. Right behind them were two trawlers that were pulling nets between the line from Black Point to Millstone. I thought that was well inside the legal minimum to shore, but I don't know for sure. Once the large commercial operations fish them to beyond recovery, they will simply scour for whatever is left. Hope there is something left for my kids to fish for.