Menhaden! Narragansett bay's most Important Fish
From fields point all the way up the Seekonk and Providence rivers,fishing the upper bay in the spring has got to be some of the best fishing anywhere,drift a live Pogy(menhaden) is
almost a sure thing.Stripers are drawn into the rivers to feed on the schools of pogys that migratein spring."Find the bait find the fish"as the saying goes.Rhode Island still allows a menhaden seining vessel to take the menhaden in the bay,even though commercial fishing for them is banned in the state
In my opinion there should be no pogy fishing in the bay at all,if you can't snag a live one to liveline,you have to buy dead ones at the bait shop,and there is nothing better than a live pogy when fishing for stripers and blues.Leaving the pogys in the bay would create a fishing tourist industry,similar to Cape Cod or the Florida keys.
Besides being the primary diet for just about all of our food and game fish in the Atlantic and the Gulf coast,they clean our bay's and estuaries,talk about important!!!
Pogys are filter feeders that live on phytoplankton. Dense schools of menhaden, sometimes numbering in the hundreds of thousands,migrate through ours waters tofeedon plankton and detritus.An adault menhaden can filter up to four gallons a minute. Purging particles that cause turbility,this filtering cleans the water,allowing sunlight to penetrate and encourage the growth of plants that release oxygen and provide a healthy habitat for fish and shellfish.
Menhaden has long been an important part of our history,they were vital to the first settlers of North America and the development of American agriculture and industry.For most of 20th century, menhaden provided the largest catch of any U.S. fishery,exceeding all other fish combined,talk about overfishing!!Besides providing food for almost all gamefish that swim the Atlantic and Gulf coasts ,they clean our estuaries and bays,playing an esential dual rolein marine ecology on a scale perhaps unmatched anywhere.
With another great filter feeder, the oyster,near extinction in many of our bays and estuaries by overfishing and pollution,menhaden are left as the only check on deadly phytoplankton explosions.Marine biologist Sara Gottlieb,author of a study on menhaden's filtering capability,compares them with your own liver:"Just as your body needs its liver to filter out toxins,ecosystems also need those natural filters."Overfishing menhaden,she says,"is just like removing your liver."
Atlantic menhaden have nearly been driven to extinction.in summer,schools migrated through New england and up to the Canadian border,since the early 90's no large schools
of menhaden were observed north of Cape Cod.As government regs were imposed on our food and game fish,most states banned menhaden fishing,except for two,North Carolina and Virginia,most of our commercial catch comes out of the Chesapeake Bay.TheChesapeake,a tidal estuary that once produced more seafood than any body of water on earth,is ecologicaly a disaster.With the lack of oyster's,menhaden partners in filtration,the Chesapeake is litteraly choking with overgrowths of phytoplankton creating deadzones,Menhaden conservation makes sence,with little hope of the oyster's return,menhaden are critical to the health of our bay.
Leaving the menhaden in the bay would serve a dual purpose,cleansing the bay and feeding fish.It would definately help tourism,I can see it now !
Come fish Rhode Island... Home ofGiant Stripers!!!
Menhaden! Narragansett bay's most Important Fish
By: Paul Beaudette
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