The Fishing Line: Menhaden’s Mission

Fall fishing is now delivering its promise. The stripers are moving in and the winds are slowing down. Time to make your move both on the water and off. Read on for a last call for comments on the Menhaden quotas. But first, some local reports.
Sterling Harbor reports tog fishing is good around the bridges and jetties and bluefish around the inlets and beachfront. Look for the bird plays to get in on the bluefish action. Plenty of schoolie stripers remain in the back bays and can be caught using top water lures such as Smack-It’s, Chug Bugs or soft plastics like Storm Swim Shads and the like.
Capt. Chuck, Sea Star III, is still fishing. Unfortunately the winds kept him from getting out striper fishing sooner. However the croakers, weaks, and blues were more than happy to provide some entertainment for his fares. He’s going striper fishing from here on out, everyday until Christmas.
BUNKER NEWS: “Calling any one fish the most important fish in the sea might seem a bit hyperbolic. But Atlantic menhaden is so essential to the health of the coastal Atlantic that it is called just that by fishermen and conservationists alike.” (Matt Tinning, executive director, Marine Fish Conservation Network, www.conservefish.org) “Managers at the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission are finally responding to the public outcry to restore menhaden abundance by proposing new, more conservative fishing levels that would leave more menhaden in the water to play their vital ecological role.”
Tinning’s press release goes on to ask fishers to get involved and let their concern be known before the hearing and vote on Nov. 9. (Public comments can be submitted until 5 p.m., Nov. 2)
Captain Paul Eidman is also hoping you will take time to be heard on this important issue which affects us all. Eidman speaks in fair and well-balanced terms. He emphasized in an interview with me that the main focus of his group Menhaden Defenders is moderation.
As Tinning says, this fish is a mainstay of ecological balance and Eidman, a captain who fishes in the Raritan Bay area of NJ, is seeing what captains here in Cape May area have told me: Fewer peanut bunker to feed the stripers; fewer young; fewer spawning. This seems to be even more evident in the upper regions of the Northeast and the lower areas of the Chesapeake. “Every stage of development of the Menhaden is food for something.” Disregard for anecdotal evidence while waiting for better science to catch up, is a disaster in the making.
Captain Ray told me the schools of Menhaden used to be massive here and provided a tremendous food source. Plus, he added, they are algae feeders and help with water quality, especially in back bays and large areas like the Chesapeake Bay.
“Our back bays used to be boiling with what we call peanut bunker or baby Menhaden. We would see them early in the year and watch them grow from 1 inch to 5 or 6 inches. T
hey were all over the back bays and marina areas…Without this high protein food source for game fish many species have to look for other food sources so they have to eat the young of other fish or their own which isn’t good of any species. When you take away one of the biggest food sources for game fish you find the game fish do not grow quite as fast and fat as they should. They turn to crabs and anything else they can find.”
According to Eidman, 80 percent of the bait fish used in New England, comes from New Jersey. A situation complicated by the depleted herring population. Local (Cape May) commercial fisheries now depend on Menhaden for lobster fishing.
Everyone has a stake in Menhaden. The November decision by the ASMFC is critical for all. You can post your comments on Eidman’s Web site www.menhadendefenders.org/
Send your fishing reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. All pictures submitted, if they don’t make it in the print version, can be seen on the Herald’s Web site www.cmcherald.com, click on community, then fishing and boating.