Where Did the Menhaden Go?

The menhaden, a fish that can produce 700,000 eggs at the flip of a gill, was long one of the leading population exploders in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Loaded with oil and bone, the eight-inch fish is about as welcome at a dining table as last Friday's halibut. Still, it is avidly sought by commercial fishermen because its oil is used in everything from lipstick to paint, and its meat and bones can be ground into high-protein animal feed.

In recent years, however, the menhaden has been in decline, and with it all of the largest U.S. fisheries, which dropped from a peak 1961 catch of 2.3 billion lbs. to 1966's 1.3 billion. The worst hit area has been the mid-Atlantic, where poundage dived from 130.2 million in 1965 to 17.4 million in 1966 --and last month, as the fishing craft set out for another season, the outlook was dim. Spotter planes that precede the boats saw few menhaden schools.

Some fishermen, like Otis Smith, who operates fleets and processing plants in New Jersey and Delaware, did not think it even worthwhile to join the chase. Others reduced their fleets: J. Howard Smith, Inc., of Port Monmouth, N.J., for example, sold one of its newest boats to an ocean-research firm.

Why did the fish disappear? No one is sure, but Peck Humphries, president of Standard Products Co. in Virginia's Tidewater country, thinks it is simply a passing phase: "The biologists have some theories for the decline, but usually the fish make liars out of them."

Rejecting charges that the industry, with its immense catching capacity furnished by purse nets 200 fathoms long and ten fathoms deep, might have overfished, Otis Smith blames current shifts. "The cold belt now extends out 40 miles," says Smith, "and out there the water's too clear and the fish avoid the net." Aggravating the situation is the fact that fishermen, unable to net menhaden at sea, have moved into the spawning fields of Chesapeake Bay. According to Biologist Kenneth Henry of North Carolina's Bureau of Fisheries, 94% of the fish caught north of Cape Hatteras in 1966 had not spawned.

Dr. Henry and his associates began their menhaden study back in 1955 with a $100,000 grant from Congress. Now, with the fish disappearing, he is using $600,000 of federal funds to study its physiology and behavioral patterns. Says he: "We hope to balance the natural growth of the fish against the intensity of fishing." The industry, meanwhile, is moving to what it hopes will be more productive waters. The Gulf of Mexico is one possibility. Gulf menhaden, a separate species, is still abundant. Another possibility is the fishing beds off Nova Scotia and Newfound land, where herring runs plentifully and can be used as a substitute for menhaden. In fact, Litton Industries and W. R. Grace see a potential boom in herring, and have teamed up with the Newfoundland government to test new fishing and processing techniques.

Perhaps a rush on herring would take the pressure off the menhaden. At worst, the species will go the way of the West Coast sardine, which in 1936 supplied a haul of nearly 800,000 tons--but has since dwindled to about 950.

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