Menhaden Action Alert
ACTION ALERT!
REFORM MENHADEN MANAGEMENT
Data Nightmares DRIVE extreme over-harvest of CRITICAL forage fish.
Join ASGA in Calling for Nationwide Reform of Menhaden Management
Forage fish like menhaden are the foundation of our coastal ecosystems — connecting sunlight and plankton to every predator we care about, from stripers to redfish, ospreys to dolphins. But new science reveals serious errors in the Atlantic assessment that permitted overfishing by 275,000,000+ pounds per year. At the same time, Louisiana’s menhaden fishery has no quota and state officials are considering reopening protected buffer zones to industrial harvest. Our Association is deeply concerned by the recent news and unimaginable overfishing of “the most important fish in the sea”. These errors have the potential to reverberate on two coasts to the detriment of the resource and its stakeholders.
Massive reductions are needed and managers must “take the cut”!
ASGA will be submitting a comprehensive letter to ASMFC Menhaden Board representatives, as well as notable public officials before the Board meetings on October 28th, 2025. Join us in calling for national reform of a massive industry operating outside loose guardrails!
Years of overfishing need correction!
Our Outlook for Menhaden in the Atlantic:
A tremendous error occurred in the stock assessment. Improved science shows us that the natural mortality (M) estimate used in the 2019 Atlantic Menhaden assessment (M = 1.17yr-1) drastically overshot the average historic M estimate (M = 0.51yr-1) by over two times, despite all using the same dataset. By using the positively biased M estimate in the 2019 assessment, M was inaccurately assumed to be much greater than it truly was, resulting in an extreme overestimation of available Atlantic Menhaden biomass. This ultimately means far fewer menhaden are present in the Atlantic than previously assumed. Consequently, fishing mortality (F) has a much greater effect on the Atlantic Menhaden population than estimated in the 2019 assessment. Furthermore, four flaws were found in a large-scale tagging study including, underreporting fishing effort by 33.5%, 28% of tags not included, tag recovery efficiency was overstated, and tag reporting underreported by 13%. This all adds up to what fishermen have been saying for years, far too many menhaden are being removed from the ecosystem.
Now a 55% reduction in the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the Atlantic is required to course correct. The menhaden fishery has not caught their quota in recent years. In 2023, they fell 22.2% short of the TAC. In 2024, they were 29.4% below the TAC. That means that any reduction of less than 30% will not save fish. On paper, the 55% reduction looks daunting but this action is only a 34% reduction in what is actually harvested annually!
Take the Cut!
The reduction must be made at the Menhaden Management Board hearing on October 28! Managers should act switly with an immediate reduction in the TAC from 233,550mt to 108,450mt.
- Ignore the requests to “phase in” the reduction! The TAC has increased by 27% with 4 separate increases since 2013. None of the increases were “phased in”. If you can instantaneously grant the right to harvest more, you can do the same to harvest less!
- We recommend that the Board initiate an addendum to address reallocating the catch from the reduction fleet to the bait fishery.
Our Outlook for Menhaden in the Gulf:
Defend Buffer Zones
On November 6th, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission will meet and consider initiating a Notice of Intent to open closed areas (buffer zones) to the reduction fishery. Recreational anglers in Louisiana have supported new restrictions on redfish, speckled trout, and flounder in recent years. The buffer zones were the only limitation on a menhaden fishery that harvests approximately a billion pounds of menhaden per year with no upper limits. This cannot continue. We all share the resource. The bias on regulations is tangible and undeniable. Louisiana is working towards adopting the Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management model from the Atlantic. Members of ASGA worked on EBMF for years. We hope Gulf managers can learn from the tremendous mistakes made in the Atlantic. Reductions in the harvest of menhaden in the Atlantic could result in increased effort and landings in the Gulf if precautionary action is not taken.
Take Meaningful Action
- An annual quota (Total Allowable Catch) should be placed on the Gulf menhaden fishery, averaging the last five years of harvest. This quota can be reevaluated after the next gulf menhaden benchmark stock assessment.
- Maintain existing area closures (buffer zones). Consider expansion of the buffer zones to include time and area closures to protect spawning aggregations of fishes, including species of high recreational importance.
- Implementation of standardized extruder devices on all reduction fleet vessels to minimize bycatch as per the most recent bycatch study.
- We strongly suggest a review of the offshore shrimp fishery as the bycatch of adult redfish is 5 to 10 times that of the menhaden reduction fleet.
JOIN OUR CALL FOR REFORM!
The cascading impacts of removing billions of forage fish from the resource are not fully understood. The ecosystem has needs and menhaden are a critical link between photosynthesis and protein for predatory animals. We tend to push fisheries too far and then struggle to rebuild. Menhaden are a foundational component of the food web. We cannot afford more mistakes and must take the reductions in the Atlantic while implementing guardrail management in the Gulf.