In a familiar move, Omega Protein—the foreign-owned company that operates all menhaden reduction fishing vessels in the Atlantic—is pointing to an updated coastwide stock assessment for menhaden as evidence that their practices aren’t harming fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay. While the assessment shows that menhaden are not overfished from Maine to Florida, there are no scientific data specific to the Bay that assess the impacts of the reduction fishery on predator species like striped bass.
We know that 30 percent of the striped bass diet is composed of menhaden and the Bay accounts for 70 to 90 percent of the Atlantic striped bass stock. Why is it that we still allow the menhaden reduction fishery to harvest hundreds of millions of menhaden that serve as critical forage for our nation’s most iconic saltwater gamefish? Learn more about what this latest stock assessment means for the Bay and how you can take action.
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