National Coalition of Marine Science (NCMC) President Ken Hinman was invited to testify at a House Fisheries Subcommittee hearing May 8th on a pair of bills to protect Atlantic menhaden. HR 3841, authored by Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), would prohibit the commercial harvest of Atlantic menhaden for reduction purposes while giving the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and NOAA Fisheries 5 years to study the role of menhaden as forage for striped bass and other predators; report on the impact of the reduction fishery on the food web; and recommend future sustainable fishing policies. HR 3840, the Atlantic Menhaden Conservation Act, introduced by Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ) along with Gilchrest, similarly declares a moratorium on catching menhaden to reduce to fish meal and oil until the ASMFC develops regulations that take menhaden’s ecological role into account.

Hinman emphasized that the current cap on catch in Chesapeake Bay expires in 2010, and NCMC is concerned that the ASMFC will not fulfill its promise to implement ecosystem-based catch limits by then without the threat of Congressional intervention. He recommended that, instead of using a moratorium on industrial fishing for menhaden to supercede the interstate management regime that is in place, congressional intervention could be used to reinforce that regime. He asked the bills’ authors to reverse their approach and pass legislation that would impose a federal moratorium beginning in 2011 if the ASMFC has not amended its Atlantic Menhaden Fishery Management Plan to set catch limits that explicitly account for the needs of the many fish, seabirds and marine mammals that depend on menhaden as a key source of prey. The recommendation was well-received and we are discussing ways to revise their legislation to provide a federal “hammer” to compel the states to follow through on their commitments, as was done successfully with the 1984 Atlantic Striped Bass Act. Check out all of Kens testomony here

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