Fishing groups urge halt to industrial menhaden harvest in the NY Bight

Recreational fishing groups from southern New Jersey to Montauk are calling on the Trump administration to stop the outsized industrial harvest of menhaden because of its effects on fisheries in regional waters.

In a formal request filed Tuesday to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, the coalition of fishing boat captains, bait and tackle shops and partyboats is asking for an immediate seasonal halt to the industrial menhaden harvest in the Bight — ocean waters between New York and New Jersey — to reduce the impact on the region’s fall fishing season.

In addition to an immediate seasonal closure in the Bight, the petition requests the federal government initiate a process that would make the measures permanent from May 1 through Dec. 31 each year.

"Emergency regulations are required to protect the Bight from destructive and wasteful industrial reduction fishing that is having devastating ecological and economic impacts on the Bight and the recreational and commercial fisheries that depend on it," the coalition wrote in their 54-page petition.

Representatives for the biggest menhaden boats at Ocean Harvesters of Virginia and its affiliated Omega Protein point to federal findings that menhaden are not overfished, and they argue that apparent local population declines are largely due to an ever-migrating population.

Ben Landry, a spokesperson for Ocean Harvesters, in a statement to Newsday on Wednesday noted the company has “only fished above Atlantic City one day during the 2026 season.” He said the company’s vessels on that day “traveled as far as Ambrose Channel” in lower New York Bay “while remaining in federal waters.”

The company’s spotter aircraft “routinely survey fish migrations,” he added. “Their presence is not proof that harvesting has occurred or is imminent. The fleet has not found commercially fishable concentrations north of Atlantic City.”

Menhaden, small silver bait fish with a prominent black dot locally known as bunker, are a vital keystone species, feeding everything from whales to osprey, and their declining numbers in the area have already led those who fish for the species in local bays to close shop, Newsday has reported. Bunker are also vital to the mostly predatory fish such as striped bass and blue fish that local charter and partyboats target on their trips. When bunker aren't around, they say, neither are the stripers and blues. 

There are also widespread reports that osprey, which have seen a strong resurgence along the East Coast, are producing fewer surviving offspring because of the reported reduction of bunker in local bays. Even some locals who harvest bunker for bait say the dearth of the fish has impacted their businesses. 

As Newsday reported in August, state commercial bunker landings have dropped from a high of 4 million pounds in 2020 to 727,372 pounds last year. Along the East Coast, one state — Virginia — gets 75% of the quota for menhaden, and Ocean Harvesters is landing all those fish for one company, Omega Protein, a subsidiary of Canada-based seafood giant Cooke Inc.

The largest commercial menhaden fishers use plane spotters, electronic gear and long seine nets to take tons of menhaden on daily runs, along with other species from federal waters. 

"There’s a major problem with these industrial boats getting millions and millions of pounds of bunker," said Ken Hejducek, captain of My Joyce Fishing Charters in Montauk who signed the petition. From his perspective fishing from Montauk to Jamaica Bay, he said, "I do know there’s less bait in the water in the last 10 years than there ever was ... It’s a major problem. Whatever can be done has to be done."

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which manages the bunker fishery as well as species that depend on it, including striped bass, is meeting next month in Rhode Island to examine current rules on the commercial harvest to determine if further restrictions are needed.

Pat Augustine, a former commissioner representing New York, said he believes the oversight body will act to lower the quota.

"I think they’re going to take some action," Augustine said of the AMFMC. Emergency action before that meeting would "have an immediate impact, absolutely," he said. "It’s more food in the food chain, so the more there is the more the fish are going to eat."

Hejducek said the "only logical solution" to improve the recreational catch locally is to "stop the industrial boats from totally decimating the fishery. President Trump and Secretary Lutnick have an opportunity to stop that before more damage is done."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.