The Bait Purse-Seine Fishery for Atlantic Menhaden, Brevoortia Tyrannus, in the Virginia Portion of Chesapeake Bay
The Bait Purse-seine Fishery for Atlantic Menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, in the Virginia Portion of Chesapeake Bay JOSEPH W. SMITH and W. BRADLEY O’BIER Introduction oils and fatty acids (Joseph, 1985). this scaling vernacular was likewise Given these qualities and the ubiquitous applied to the menhaden bait gear. One Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyran- nature of menhaden schools, it is not source (Castro et al., 2007) indicates nus, are estuarine-dependent, marine mi- surprising that menhaden are a preferred that the term was coincidently adopted gratory members of the herring family bait for trap or pot fisheries for blue crab for bait vessels and purse-seine gear in of fishes (Ahrenholz, 1991). They are (Van Engel, 1962; Warner, 1976), Amer- Narragansett Bay, R.I. Regardless of the of moderate size, with some specimens ican lobster (The Free Press, 2010), and moniker’s origin, by an unusual nuance reaching over 300 mm in fork length and crawfish (LSU AgCenter, 2008). in Virginia fisheries statutes, regulatory weighing up to 1.0–1.5 kg. Menhaden The purse-seine reduction fisheries authority over the menhaden fisheries are ubiquitous, occurring in coastal for Atlantic menhaden are well-docu- in the Old Dominion resides with the waters of the U.S. Atlantic coast, and in- mented (Nicholson, 1975; Smith, 1991) legislature in the Commonwealth’s habiting most major estuarine systems. and stock assessments are conducted capital at Richmond, and not with the Spring through fall, menhaden form regularly as prescribed in the Fishery Virginia Marine Resources Commission large near-surface schools, which are Management Plan (FMP) for the spe- (VMRC) in Newport News, which regu- the targets of a large industrial fishery cies (ASMFC, 2001).
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