Environmentalists: A study of the Atlantic Menhaden critical of the conservation of types – public news services

A small forage fish near the bottom of the food chain has a significant impact on the survival of several iconic predators along the Atlantic coast, including stripes bass, blue fish and oxa.

A coalition of Group Island Protection Groups and beyond supports a renewed impetus for studies on ecology, the impact on fishing and the economic importance of the Atlantic Menhaden.

Jacklin Higgins, manager of the Forage Fish program on the partnership for the protection of Theodor Roosevelt, said scientists have no current data on the number and fishing status in Menhaden in the Chesapik Bay area.

“This is the largest fishing on the Atlantic coast. This is the third largest volume fishing in the United States,” Higgins said. “We have no information on how much Menhaden are in the bay, how much they should be in the bay, how much they must be left to play an environmental role.”

A bill waiting at the Virginia General Assembly would provide $ 3 million to the Virginia Maritime Science Institute to complete a three -year study of the status and prospects of the fishing population in Menhaden.

Conservation groups, including the Audubon Society, Nature Conservancy and Theodore Roosevelt Partnership for Conservation, support efforts to research. Higgins noted that Menhaden is considered a critical species all over the Atlantic coast.

“They run from Maine to Florida throughout the year,” Higgins explained. “In the winter, they throw caviar along the Virginia and North Carolina. In the spring, they ran to the mouth mainly in the Bay of Chesapik and then move up to north to Maine.”

Rich Hintinger, the first Vice President of the Association of Salt Water Fishermen in Rod Island, said Menhaden was a major food source of stripe bass, one of the most important sports fish in the country.

“Rod Island has a history of Menhaden’s management probably better than most states,” said Hintinger. “Our state regulators began to manage the population for at least 15 or maybe 20 years ago.”

Get more stories like this by email

A critical species of fish in the Bay of Chesapike, the Atlantic Menhaden, can reduce quickly.
Or its number can increase.
There is no data on the population of Atlantic Menhaden, and fishing and conservation groups say this is the problem.

A bill at the General Assembly of Virginia seems to shed light on the populations of Menhaden in Chesapik.

Steve Atkinson, chairman of the Virginia Sports Sport Fishing Association, Salt Water said that the Atlantic Menhaden is a major type and can be overcome in Chesapike.

“They are extremely important as forage fish because they feed fish, like our iconic bass strip, blue fish and trout,” Atkinson explained. “But they also feed mammals, as well as seabirds, like our iconic Osprey. There have been fears for years that they are overcome in Chesapike Bay.”

The bill will provide $ 3 million to study the population of Menhaden in Chesapik Bay. The Virginia Marine Science Institute has developed a study, but Atkinson noted that the study of the study is elusive.

Tyler Nonn, owner and operator of Tidewater Charters, every day fishing for people in the bay. He said his business relies on the population of the healthy oceans in Menhaden. He pointed out that there were times, even the best commercial fishermen were not able to catch adult dumbed.

“Even these guys have problems getting them,” Nonn noted. “The consistency is not available. You know, we will have a few years where it will be good. Many have to do with environmental factors, but taking hundreds of thousands of kilograms of them from the bay is not helping the cause.”

Studies show that about 30% of the striped bass diet is the Atlantic Menhaden.

Atkinson emphasized that often their intercession is facing circular reflections when if there is no evidence to shrink the population of Menhaden, why financing a study? But he claims that the health of the species is worth checking.

“When we raise these problems, the industry usually returns and their comment is the same, which is:” There is no science to support your concern, “Atkinson noted. “We need to get additional science to show them once and for all whether there is a problem with a dumbden in the bay.”

The Atlantic Menhaden is not considered exaggerated throughout the Atlantic coast, but local exhaustion may threaten the populations of Chesapiq Bay.

Get more stories like this by email

It has been 30 years since the wolves were re -introduced to the Yellowstone National Park, a move that remains controversial today – as the colorash’s livestock industry insists on protecting Apex Predator from expansion.

Katie Schneider – a representative of Colorado Wolf with wildlife defenders – said the re -introduction of Yellowstone is one of the most powerful stories of success in the conservation of America and inspired other countries to consider the return of wildlife killed by Europeans expanding be in the west.

“Wolves still inhabit only about 10% of their previous scope in the lower 48, so our work is not done yet,” Schneider said. “And the re -introduction of wolves to the southern rocky rocks here in Colorado is a really exciting next step in this process of recovery, upgrading what we learned at Yellowstone.”

After voters approved the re -introduction in 2020, Colorado Pardx and the wild placed 10 wolves in the Grand Counts and the meeting in 2023 – despite the objections raised by livestock producers, they worry that the carnivorous will receive its product before it is get to the slaughterhouse.

Last week, the agency rejected a petition from manufacturers to block the release of an additional 15 wolves this month.

Colorado pays manufacturers who lose livestock, but Schneider said the lessons learned in Yellowstone show that wolves and people may exist.

She noted that defenders are progressing proven tactics for mitigating conflict in Colorado – including riding, enclosure and hatred – from 2019.

“There are currently 11 different programs offered in Colorado by NGOs and universities and state and federal agencies to support animal producers to prevent conflicts,” Schneider said. “And almost any operation that works to implement these measures has no losses.”

The wolves are very durable. Schneider said only 14 were released to Yellowstone in 1995, and now there are at least a dozen packs inside the park.

She said re -introduction is also a powerful economic engine that brings $ 35 million every year to communities around the park.

“And we know there, the return of the wolves caused a huge impetus to the local tourism industry,” Schneider said. “People from all over the world come just watching wolves in Yellowstone National Park.”

Get more stories like this by email

After a one -month delay, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Wednesday that Grizzly Bears will retain the defenses under the Created species Act, despite the efforts of several Western countries to eliminate them.

The solution is a response to petitions from Montana, Wyoming and Idaho to reassess or delay bears in certain “different segments of the population” – a change that would put the species under the rule of the state.

Andrea shifted, the Carnivore Conservation legal director and a senior lawyer at the Center for Biodiversity, said the agency also proposed deletion of lines between the population segments in full.

“They will look at the bears of Grizzly through their range, where they exist at the moment and where they could exist in the future. And to look at the recovery on a wide scale,” she explained.

The proposed recovery area includes Washington and parts of the northern states of the Rocky Mountains. The agency said in a statement that the change “will provide a comprehensive and scientifically based recovery framework” and increase the likelihood of possibly deleting grizzly bears throughout the region.

The Montana Greg Greg Janforce told X that it was “deeply disappointed” by the Biden administration and what it describes as “a challenge of science and the law”.

Zaccardi said that if the federally proposed more refund area is introduced, state -owned wildlife management agencies will have to adapt.

“Countries will have to pay more attention to the protection of grizzly bears that are in the connectivity corridors where they could connect the population with each other or move to areas such as Bitterroot Selway and carry this area,” she continued, “continued S

The Fish and Wildlife Service in October publishes an updated independent, reviewed evaluation of the species, which writes “compiled the best scientific information”.

Get more stories like this by email