“We need to start looking at the overall health of the ecosystem. It’s not just about how many fish we need to leave in the water to maintain the population in perpetuity. It’s also about understanding how many fish we need to leave in the water to feed the whales, the dolphins, the striped bass, and the blue fish. This is the direction fishery management needs to head toward.”
For those of us from the East Coast, our coastal heritage is deeply rooted in a history of fishing. Fresh seafood, salty ocean air, and a connection to ocean wildlife are just a few of the things we take pride in.
The team at PK Health Gear recently spoke with Benson Chiles, Executive Director of the Founding Fish Network (FFN), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. FFN is dedicated to protecting and improving marine fisheries and their ecosystems. Their mission is to safeguard and rebuild fish populations through conservative management and habitat protection. This includes the prevention of overfishing, protecting critical marine habitats to ensure long-term economic and social benefits. Because of funding from organizations like 1% for the Planet, the team at FFN can make real progress in improving these ecosystems.
Our conversation with Benson taught us how funding towards fishery management and regulating fishing laws lends itself to a bigger picture: Preserving the abundance of many of the fish we rely on to keep our marine ecosystems healthy and thriving. Not to mention, Benson’s passion for fishing and improving the conditions of marine life and our ocean ecosystems is infectious.
Benson, tell us about the Founding Fish Network. What areas are you involved in?
The Founding Fish Network works to protect and enhance marine ecosystems, particularly fisheries. To do that, we have to create effective management systems for these fisheries that assure there are plenty of fish to feed all the predator species—like whales, dolphins and, game fish—on the East coast. Our goal is to rebuild these species in the face of a changing climate.
One of the focal points of the Founding Fish Network is the forage fish crisis, which we currently face on the east coast. We’re experiencing a collapse of all the species that feed the marine ecosystem, including Atlantic herring, menhaden, shad, river herring, and mackerel. These fish stocks are essential to the fishing economy and to the ecosystem of the Atlantic Ocean...and they're all in bad shape.
What factors have led to these fish species being in danger?
For centuries, we've been blocking the spawning opportunities for fish of these species like river herring and shad. In New England, many of the forage species on the east coast were depleted by our damming of rivers. Fish who travel from saltwater to freshwater to spawn—known as anadromous species—are unable to do so if dams block their path.
Atlantic herring stay in the ocean to spawn, but the primary cause of their decline is overfishing. A large-scale fishery for Atlantic herring is conducted by large fishing vessels called midwater pair trawlers. They tow a mesh net the size of a football field between two vessels and catch mostly everything in its path because the mesh is so small. This industry has depleted the Atlantic herring population in tandem with climate change. It’s all interrelated: We haven’t left enough fish in the water to withstand the changing climate.
What does the strategy look like for rebuilding the stock of these fish species?
Fishery managers need to try to increase the odds of success in spawning. The more mature fish left in the water, the better the odds of a successful spawn. There are many things fishery managers cannot control: The weather, onshore development, or environmental factors like climate change. All these factors contribute to the reproductive success of Atlantic herring. The one thing they can control is fishing effort: How many fish are taken out of the water? Given the recent stock assessment, which shows that Atlantic herring are overfished, and cannot rebuild until 2031, managers must immediately and dramatically reduce catch to levels approaching zero.
You mentioned dams being a major disruption to some fish species being able to spawn successfully. How can we move towards real progress in this area?
Dam removals are key for river herring and shad to be able to reproduce in the river systems. With the help of Patagonia and other conservancy organizations, several removals have taken place over the years, resulting in substantial river runs, especially in Maine.
However, even with dam removals in southern New England, we’re still not seeing the expected rebound of anadromous fish stocks. This is because of something called bycatch by the midwater trawl fleet: Atlantic herring trawlers also catch river herring and shad along with the Atlantic herring they are targeting. One tow of a net could wipe out a whole river system of river herring or shad in the Connecticut river.
We need to start looking at the overall health of the ecosystem. It’s not just about how many fish we should leave in the water to maintain the population in perpetuity. It’s also about understanding how many fish we need to leave in the water to feed the whales, the dolphins, the striped bass, and the blue fish. This is the direction fishery management needs to go.
The reason we haven’t heard of these fish is partly because people don’t eat menhaden. It’s not a fish you’d take home to cook for dinner. But it is very nutritious for predator species, so it has a major role to play in the ecosystem. In fact, Atlantic menhaden is arguably the most important forage species on the East Coast. It feeds any predator species you can think of. It’s a prolific fish and has been an important part of our country’s history. Menhaden were used by Native Americans to fertilize corn crops, and when whale populations collapsed, menhaden oil was used for lamp oil.
The fish is caught for two purposes: About 30% is used for bait in the lobster and crab. The other 70% is for the reduction fishery. This is where they catch fish, process them, heat them, grind them, and turn them into fish meal and oil for use as pet food, salmon feed, and other aquaculture operations.
I love to fish, and to be outdoors. I love being in a healthy ecosystem. This is a personal passion I have pursued for more years than I would like to admit. I like to catch striped bass and bluefish that rely on menhaden. I’ve been working on forage fish work since 2005, since before there were even catch limits on menhaden.
I met the team at the Founding Fish Network and started collaborating with them some years ago when they invited me to be a guest speaker at one of their lunches.
Through quarterly social and educational events, FFN started to focus on fixing the problems we were learning about. That’s how we got started with the forage fish work. It makes me happy when I see lots of little peanut bunker—that's what they call baby menhaden—swimming around in schools. They’re beautiful. This is my profession, but it’s also my passion and I love the work that I do.
As told to Justine Baldwin
