WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2023 / The Gulf of Mexico menhaden fishing industry supports the development and implementation of Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM). We fully recognize the importance of managing marine resources on an ecosystem basis, as all species within the Gulf of Mexico interact with one another to a varying extent. This position is consistent with the Atlantic menhaden fishery's support for ecological reference points, which were developed, peer reviewed, and implemented for management in 2020.
Our industry has a long track record of using the best science to support the sustainability of the Gulf menhaden fishery. To that end we sought and received the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) globally recognized sustainability certification in 2019. The MSC certification process recognizes our purse seine fishery as sustainable in an ecosystem context, with minimal impact to the environment, including both habitats and other marine organisms.
While there is broad support for EBFM, one of the current challenges in adopting this new system is accurately accounting for the complex interactions between predator and prey species. This includes everything from phytoplankton at the base of the food chain, to apex predators like sharks at the top of the pyramid of trophic relationships. Currently, the Gulf of Mexico does not have a reliable diet database to use when modeling species interactions, and stakeholders should not jump to conclusions as a result of the paper "Identifying trade-offs and reference points in support of ecosystem approaches to managing Gulf of Mexico menhaden." Much more work is needed to understand these interactions, but the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition acknowledges this is a helpful first step.
We encourage the authors of the paper by Igal Berenshtein et al. (2023) to pursue their suggestions for reducing the current uncertainties associated with their calculations of how these species interact, and particularly to better understand the suite of prey available to Gulf predators.
About the MFC
The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition (MFC) is a collective of menhaden fishermen, related businesses, and supporting industries. Comprised of businesses along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition conducts media and public outreach on behalf of the menhaden industry to ensure that members of the public, media, and government are informed of important issues, events, and facts about the fishery.
Press Contact
Bob Vanasse
Stove Boat Communications
(202) 333-2628
[email protected]
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SOURCE: Menhaden Fisheries Coalition