Predators are an important factor that is often overlooked in fisheries management. Several methods are available today to incorporate predators into management models, a practical step toward ecosystem-based managment.

Watch this new animation from The Pew Charitable Trusts to learn more!

From whales to striped bass, important marine animals eat smaller fish and organisms to survive. These prey, or “forage fish,” in the food web are critical to a healthy ocean ecosystem. But people are not doing enough to ensure the abundance of prey species to feed valuable fish populations and marine life.

The need to protect this basic prey, which ranges from mackerel and menhaden to herring and anchovies, is growing more urgent. Populations of some of these small fish have plummeted. Millions are scooped up by industrial fishing gear and ground into fertilizer and pet food. Millions more are caught by accident in trawler nets.

Check out this new fact sheet from The Pew Charitable Trusts.

AMHERST, Mass. – Despite modern designs intended to allow migratory fish to pass, hydropower dams on major Northeast U.S. waterways, including the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers, have failed to let economically important species such as salmon, shad and river herring reach their spawning grounds, say a team of economists and fish ecologists including Adrian Jordaan of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Should regulators limit the catch of Atlantic menhaden?
Menhaden is not overfished

By Monty Deihl
Deihl, a native of Reedville and fifth-generation menhaden fisherman, is director of fishing operations for Omega Protein.

Atlantic menhaden, the largest fishery on the East Coast, is vital to many hard-working Virginia communities. It supplies the reduction industry in Reedville, and bait for fishing businesses statewide. With the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission setting new catch limits this December, the potential impact on Virginia watermen, especially in the Northern Neck, is huge.

The Virginian-Pilot
November 26, 2012

Virginia lawmakers don't know much about fisheries management, but that hasn't stopped them from overseeing menhaden, the oily baitfish that plays a vital role in the marine food chain and the economy of the Northern Neck.

Members of the General Assembly have persistently rejected measures turning authority over to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, which is charged with regulating all other fisheries.

An amendment pending approval by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission next month might be enough, however, to lead lawmakers to finally recognize their own limitations.