Fish Story: How Menhaden Ruled the Waves

• Author: Oliver Houck
• Pages: 225-228

225

Fish Story:

How Menhaden

Ruled the Waves

By Oliver Houck

The Most Impor tant Fish in the Sea : Menhaden and Amer ica, by

H. Bruce Franklin. I sland Press. 280 pages.

From the July/ August 2014 issue of The Environmental Foru m.

Years ago Al Capp’s comic strip L’il

Abner introduced an astonishing crea-

ture: the Shmoo. It was abundant

everywhere, fed everyone else, and loved being

killed by hunters. It was the perfect animal. In

fact the Shmoo actu ally exists, only it is a sh

and it does yet another amazing thing: aside

from feeding practically everyt hing else in

the sea, it also eats colossal amounts of algae,

the most vir ulent form of water pollution in

America today and the cause of dead zones on

every coast.

irty years a go a n estimated 20 0 billion

menhaden swarmed the Atlantic coast. More

than ninety percent of them are now gone, but

the shing continues. e hunt ha s moved to

the Gulf of Mexico as well, where we net them for pig food and cosmetics.

Many big-ticket aquatic species that depend on menhaden are in trouble. e

Chesapeake Bay and northern Gu lf of Mexico are in very big trouble. What

is wrong with this picture?

One thing wrong with this picture is that most of us have no idea it exists.

Nor did I, although I have taught sheries law and live in a region where

commercial shing remains major league. After reading H. Bruce Franklin’s

e Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America, I have no more

excuses. His is a beautifully written work, lyrical in its description of the vast