The board that oversees the menhaden fisheries up and down the Atlantic Coast will reduce the catch limit for the species by 20% next year.

The Atlantic Menhaden Management Board, which is a part of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), voted Oct. 28 to decrease the total allowable catch (TAC) to less than 190,000 metric tons, down from 230,000 metric tons set for the 2025 TAC.

The decision frustrated both fishers, who will have to reduce their landings, and conservationists, who believe the measure doesn’t adequately address menhaden’s role in maintaining other species, namely striped bass.

“If we’re revisiting this in one year, we shouldn’t be considering anything more than a 10% cut which would be a 0% chance of overfishing in the first year,” said Dustin Delano, former menhaden fisher and chair and chief strategist of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, said at the meeting.

“The ASMFC failed to fully respond to the science, jeopardizing the ability of menhaden to fulfill their role in the food chain,” Chesapeake Bay Foundation forage campaign manager Will Poston said in a statement. “This lack of meaningful action is not only risky for menhaden, but also the many fisheries and small businesses that depend on a thriving ecosystem.”

A stock assessment released by ASMFC last month suggested a more than 50% cut to the catch limit was needed to maintain targets for the striped bass population. The large cut to menhaden catch would have increased the chances of reaching the target striped bass population, according to the commission’s modeling.

Menhaden are considered an important ecological species because of all the other species that eat them, including osprey, marine mammals, and other fish such as striped bass, spiny dogfish, weakfish, and bluefish.

The commercial fishing industry catches menhaden to use both for bait and to make fish meal and fish oil, although the reduction industry is focused in the southern Atlantic. The Ocean State prohibits menhaden takes that will be used for reduction and has a relatively small commercial industry. Rhode Island’s allocation of the menhaden catch is less than 1% of the total limit coast-wide.

Although the ASMFC report recommended reducing the menhaden TAC, it isn’t considered an overfished species.

The reason for the large reduction recommendation is because of a change in how the biomass of the population is calculated, according to Nicole Lengyel Costa, an environmental policy analyst at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

Costa helped review the models that went into the stock assessment and recommendation and served as a proxy for Jason McNamee, DEM’s deputy director for natural resources on the menhaden management board.

“Stock assessment models are very complex,” said Costa, explaining some of the math that goes into them.

The biggest driver of the recommendation that catch be limited was a change to the assessed natural mortality for the species, which was much lower in this model than in previous studies.

Natural mortality accounts for the deaths that aren’t related to fishing. Somewhat counterintuitively, when an ASMFC working group realized it should lower the natural mortality, that brought the total biomass and thus the population of the menhaden down.

“In fact, the biomass was about 60% higher in the previous assessment than the current assessment,” Costa said.

Considering the new population information, which was much lower than previously believed, the current catch limit would make it so there were likely not enough menhaden for other key species to eat, especially striped bass.

Reducing the TAC is meant to “really support those predator species,” Costa said, “to make sure that there’s enough menhaden out there to support those predator populations. Positives in reducing the TAC could be that there’s more forage available for these predator species, but obviously the negative in reducing the TAC is the socioeconomic impact to the industry.”

Some members of the board suggested reducing the TAC by 50% next year and then incrementally, to increase the chances of reaching striped bass targets, but those motions failed.

“This is the TAC that is informed by the best available science and setting the TAC higher may not provide enough menhaden to fill their role in the ecosystem,” said Matthew Gates, a representative for Connecticut from its Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

“When the science shows that the board is justified in increasing the total allowable catch for this fishery, we have done so,” said Allison Colton, an attorney for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. “I would encourage this board to think just as we were confident in increasing the total allowable catch when the science says we should, that we need to be as willing to take reductions when the science indicates that that’s warranted as well.”

While many scientists and conservationists argued the 50% cut would be the best science-based decision, fishers from around the country attended the meeting to say that the 50% cut was too drastic and would quickly and sharply decrease landings, income, and jobs.

Kenny Pinkard, a retired fisher and vice president of United Food and Commercial Workers Junior Local 400 from Virginia, asked the board to consider the lower TAC reduction.

“These gentlemen work hard and they care about their jobs, and the message that you give today is the message that they’re going to have to go back home and tell their wives or tell their children,” said Pinkard, asking the fishers in the room to stand up. “So we do not like cuts. Of course we don’t.”

Ultimately, only Virginia and Pennsylvania voted against the 20% reduction. The catch limit will take effect for 2026 and could be revisited by the board again for 2027.