LOUISIANA PROPOSES INNOVATIVE NEW MENHADEN RULES

 

About one month ago, a purse seine boat, surprised and frightened by the size of its menhaden catch, cut its net loose, thereby dumping close to 900,000 dead fish less than a mile off the Louisiana coast.  The incident created quite a stink, both literally and figuratively, as the rotting mass of baitfish commanded the attention of everyone in the immediate vicinity.

Recreational fishermen, various conservation groups, and some charter boat captains were dismayed by the waste.  Menhaden are one of the key forage species along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, and many people are concerned that the menhaden fishery, which removes somewhere between 600 and 900 million pounds of menhaden from Louisiana waters each year, is removing baitfish needed to sustain healthy stocks of speckled trout (spotted seatrout), red drum, and other species.

Louisiana state fisheries managers appear unconcerned.  They note that the entire fishery removes only about 2% of the Gulf’s menhaden population; killing 900,000 fish, which amounts to less than one-tenth of one percent of annual landings, has a trivial impact on the menhaden stock.  In the words of Jason Adriance, who works for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries,

“A couple million extra is insignificant.”

Of course, the menhaden nets don’t only kill, and sometimes waste, menhaden.  It’s fairly typical for the fish that feed on menhaden to shadow the schools, even when they’re not actively feeding, occasionally taking a cripple that might happen by, and sometimes exploding into a more active feeding mode.  When the purse seines surround a big menhaden school, it’s not unusual for the nets to surround and kill some of the predators, too.  And because the seines are very large and hang deep in the water, so that they can be effective when fished well offshore, they often reach all the way to the bottom when fished in the shallow nearshore sea, scraping up various unwanted animals whether or not such critters were paying attention to the menhaden passing overhead.

Thus, the Louisiana news site nola.com reported that

“Anglers spotted a large amount of bycatch, including redfish, floating belly-up among the menhaden.  Photos of the dead fish began making the rounds with recreational fishing groups this week.”

Omega Protein Corporation, a United States subsidiary of the Canadian conglomerate Cooke Seafood and the intended processor of the menhaden that were spilled, has expressed little remorse over the incident.  Again quoting nola.com,

“The menhaden fishing boat was a victim of its own success, said Omega spokesman Ben Landry.

“’We’ve been experiencing some really, really big schools down in southwest Louisiana,’ he said.  ‘The captain thought he brought back 500,000 pounds.  Turns out it was a lot more than that.’

“The net was so overloaded that a larger ‘mothership’ could not safely get the fish aboard.  The captain ordered the net cut free just before it ripped open and drifted away.

“’He knew he’d lose the net because it had gotten too heavy,’ Landry said.  ‘’Then the weight of the fish ripped the net.’

“Having to cut a net is rare, but large net tears happen two to three times a year, Landry said.”

So the menhaden boat didn’t just leave 900,000 rotting menhaden floating around in its wake.  It also left behind a 1,500-foot net, to work whatever mischief an abandoned net of that size can do when allowed to drift around coastal waters on its own.

But then, the menhaden processors were never good corporate citizens.  As nola.com reports,

“Plaquemines health officials and environmental groups have been raising alarms about Daybrook Fisheries processing plant in Empire for decades.  The plant’s own safety manager filed a lawsuit in March alleging that the plant willfully spews large amounts of fish waste into the Mississippi River and other nearby waterways, and has resisted taking basic precautions to avoid spills.

“Omega’s Abbeville plant has been the source of odor complaints from towns more than 20 miles away.  Among the environmental violations was a $1 million fine in 2017 for twice dumping large volumes of polluted water into the Vermillion River.

“In 2019, Omega agreed to pay $1 to resolve allegations that the company obtained a government loan by falsely certifying compliance with clean water laws…”

Massive fish kills, torn and lost nets, the bycatch and waste of valued food and sport fish, and water quality issues are nothing new nor unusual for the menhaden purse seine fleet.  As I reported earlier this year, the same thing has been going on in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay.  If you live, boat, swim, or fish in waters that host one of the large-scale menhaden fisheries, you get used to seeing that sort of thing, even if you never really become inured to it.

However, what’s happening in Louisiana right now is something new.  The Commonwealth of Virginia has long tolerated and actively supported the industrial menhaden fishery, and whatever abuses it might heap upon the state’s waters and the citizens who seek to enjoy them.  Louisiana seems to be far less compliant.  While the state still doesn’t believe that the menhaden harvest is causing harm to local ecosystems, it seems to have a very strong aversion to the waste of marine resources and the abandonment of fishing gear in public waters.

Thus, Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announced that it has

“adopted a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prohibit the waste of fishery resources and abandonment of menhaden purse seine gear during fishing operations

“The proposed rule would:

>  Prohibit abandoning menhaden purse seine gear during the course of fishing operations or while on the water and establish a 48-hour window to remove all gear before it is considered abandoned.

>  Establishes marking requirement for gear that is released to facilitate retrieval and warn of navigational hazards by the released gear.

>  Would require notification to LDWF within 2 hours of any release of menhaden.

>  Requires that all reasonable attempts be made to retrieve menhaden and bycatch from the environment in the event of a release.

>  Defines that a violation of these rules shall be considered a waste of a fishery resource subject to civil fine and restitution and abandonment of gear shall be considered a commercial littering violation.”

Comments will be accepted on the proposed regulations through January 5, 2023.

It’s far too early to tell whether such proposed regulation will be adopted and, if it is adopted, what form the final regulation will take.  However, the Louisiana proposal is notable on a number of counts.

First, it represents the first attempt, in any state, to address the problem of menhaden spills in coastal waters.  Up until now, such spills, even when caused by the intentional actions of vessel crew, have been treated as if they were unavoidable acts of God, and not the result of human actions and human error.  For the first time, in any state, Louisiana would hold the menhaden fleet accountable for the spills and resultant problems that they cause.

The Louisiana proposal also recognizes the spills for what they are—the avoidable waste of a public resource.  Hopefully, the concept of waste of a fishery resource will extend beyond merely the menhaden, to the food fish and gamefish that are killed as bycatch in the menhaden fishery.

Finally, and perhaps most significantly in the long term, should the proposed regulations become law, a violation would not only subject the fishermen to civil fines, but also a payment of restitution, to compensate the people of Louisiana for their loss of the benefits provided by the wasted menhaden and, again, hopefully also the loss of fish killed as bycatch in the menhaden nets.

In recent years, much of the criticism leveled at the industrial menhaden fishery has focused on its removal of important forage fish from the ecosystem, and the supposed impact such removal has on marine predators.  Unfortunately, we still lack clear and unambiguous scientific studies which demonstrate that the menhaden fishery is doing real and measurable harm to coastal ecosystems.

The Louisiana proposal shifts the debate from the hypothetical ecosystem harm caused by the menhaden fishery to the very real waste of living marine resources attributable to menhaden spills, the potential hazards associated with abandoned nets, and redressing the harm that flows from such actions.

In charting its new course, Louisiana is showing other states the path that they ought to travel, if the industrial menhaden fishery is ever to be held accountable for its excesses, and properly brought under fishery managers’ control.