The Bay’s Most Important Fish

By Henry S. Parker

The Bay’s most important fish is in trouble. Striped bass, you’re thinking. After all, this iconic, valuable species anchors a recreational fishing industry that supports over 100,000 jobs and contributes billions of dollars to the region’s economy. But the fish referred to is the decidedly less glamorous menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, aka pogy, bunker, bug-mouth, and fatback. 

Atlantic menhaden, a type of herring, range from Nova Scotia to Florida and are abundant in Chesapeake Bay, a major nursery for the species. Silver-colored, they average over a foot long, live 10 to 12 years, and swim in large schools near the water’s surface. They filter-feed on plankton, sieving out the tiny organisms on their gill rakers. In turn, they’re devoured by striped bass, harbor seals, bluefin tuna, dolphins, ospreys, bald eagles, and even humpback whales. Menhaden mature at age two and spawn in the spring and fall, over the continental shelf. Larvae drift into coastal inlets where they remain until maturity. Adults summer in Chesapeake Bay and other estuaries and migrate to deeper waters from fall to spring. 

Humans don’t dine on the oily menhaden, and no one fishes them for sport. Still, they’ve been described as “the most important fish in the sea,” for their commercial and ecological value. Harvested since Colonial times, the menhaden fishery has been a massive, industrial-scale enterprise since the mid-1800s. The fish are swept up by purse seines, large nets that may be a mile long and 650 feet deep. “Reduction factories” once processed the fish into lamp oil and fertilizer. Today’s major products are fish oil and fishmeal for pets, livestock, aquaculture, and poultry. 

From the 19^th century, scientists suspected menhaden overfishing – but the fishery kept expanding. The harvest peaked in the 1950s at about 700 thousand metric tons. Over 20 factories, from Maine to Florida, operated reduction factories. By the 1960s the fishery was in steep decline. Fisheries managers mandated catch restrictions; most states, including Maryland, banned purse-seining; and factories shut down because of a scarcity of fish. Today the industrial menhaden fishery is largely confined to Virginia and only one processor remains – Omega Protein, Inc., a Canadian company operating in Reedville, Virginia.

Still, 200,000 metric tons of Atlantic menhaden are landed annually, making it the second largest fishery in the country, after Alaskan pollock. Three-fourths of the menhaden catch comes from Virginia where, employing purse-seiners, Omega Protein harvests 750 million fish a year. A third of these, amounting to 51,000 metric tons, comes from the Virginia side of Chesapeake Bay. That has raised concerns.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission manages menhaden fishing. Its multistate management plans include consideration of the fishery’s effects on the food web. Stock assessments show that, overall, the species is doing well – not overfished or declining in numbers. But the plans address the entire Atlantic coast and don’t look closely at Chesapeake Bay. Meanwhile, Bay menhaden numbers are dropping with resultant disruptions of the Bay’s ecology. Two leading indicators are striped bass populations and osprey reproductive status. 

Striped bass (rockfish) and ospreys depend on menhaden for feed. Sixty percent of the western Atlantic’s rockfish spawn in Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Lately, drops in their numbers suggest that falling menhaden populations are responsible. Similarly, recent alarming declines in osprey fertility rates have been attributed to insufficient food from reduced menhaden stocks. 

So why not just further restrict the Bay’s menhaden catch, specifically targeting Omega Protein? There are two complications. First, we don’t have solid information on the extent of and reasons for menhaden declines in the Bay, and the associated ecological impacts. Second, politics has intervened. 

Scientists, conservationists, recreational fishermen, and others have long advocated for more Bay-centered menhaden research and management. Supportive Virginia legislators have introduced bills to accomplish this. In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly authorized the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to oversee the state’s menhaden stocks. So far there has been little effective action. 

Menhaden science advocates grew hopeful when a multi-stakeholder coalition (including scientists, conservationists, and even Omega Protein) held a workshop in 2023. The group proposed that the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences conduct a multiyear menhaden research program for the Bay, with a price tag of $2.7 million. The Virginia General Assembly has not yet funded the study, despite three additional legislative efforts in early 2025. Some have charged Omega Protein with deliberately obstructing the study implementation. The company has a strong lobbying arm and has donated substantially to Virginia politicians.

Despite these roadblocks, there are encouraging signs that the political tide is finally turning for improved menhaden science and management for Chesapeake Bay.

We can hope.

Henry “Hank” Parker is a scientist and writer who previously lived in Annapolis and now resides in Vermont.