Gulf menhaden 



Brevoortia patronus 

 Adult 



5 cm 



(from Fischer 1978) 



Common Name: gulf menhaden 

 Scientific Name: Brevoortia patronus 

 Other Common Names: Pogy, shad, large-scale men- 

 haden, sardine, menhaden ecailleux (French), lacha 

 escamuda (Spanish) (Fischer 1978, NOAA 1985). 

 Classification (Robins et al. 1991) 

 Phylum: Chordata 

 Class: Osteichthyes 



Order: Clupeiformes 



Family: Clupeidae 



Value 



Commercial : The Gulf menhaden fishery dates back to 

 the turn of the century, and developed into a major 

 industry after World War 1 1 (Lassuy 1 983, Smith 1 991 ). 

 This is a unique American fishery that is vertically 

 integrated, that is, menhaden processing companies 

 generally own the vessels, the gear, the processing 

 facilities, and often the spotter aircraft used to find the 

 fish schools (Newlin 1 993, Smith pers. comm.). Crews 

 are hired to fish for the length of the fishing season. 

 Although schools of Atlantic thread herring are occa- 

 sionally harvested by this fishery, vessels are designed 

 to fish specifically for menhaden, and are not convert- 

 ible to other fisheries (Smith pers. comm.). Except for 

 a few small bait purse-seiners, vessels from other 

 fisheries do not "free-lance" and sell their catch to the 

 menhaden plants. The gulf and Atlantic menhaden 

 fisheries combined supported the second largest com- 

 mercial landings by weight in 1995 (O'Bannon 1996). 

 Landings of gulf menhaden in that year were 463,900 

 mt valued at $51 .9 million. Landings of gulf menhaden 

 in 1996 have been estimated at 479,400 mt (Smith 

 1997). Traditionally the majority of the landings are 

 taken in the north central Gulf of Mexico. Menhaden 

 are harvested from April to October as they move into 



moreshallow inshore areasfromtheirwintering grounds 

 on the middle part of the continental shelf (Lewis and 

 Roithmayr 1 981 , Vaughan and Merriner 1 991 ). Pres- 

 ently, the gulf menhaden purse-seine fishery for reduc- 

 tion extends for 28 weeks, from mid-April through late 

 October (Smith pers. comm.). Up to 90% of the catch 

 is made within ten miles of the northern Gulf of Mexico 

 shoreline (Leard et al. 1995). Fishing grounds in the 

 Gulf extend from Apalachee Bay, Florida to Matagorda 

 Bay, Texas, but the heaviest fishing is in Louisiana and 

 Mississippi waters (Christmas and Etzold 1 977, Nelson 

 and Arenholz 1986). This fishery is currently consid- 

 ered to be fully exploited and appears reasonably 

 stable under present conditions of age composition, 

 life span, and effects of environmental factors (Vaughan 

 and Merriner 1991). At present, long-term average 

 annual yields of 544.3 thousand mt are considered 

 realistic. 



From 1990 to 1993, approximately 86% of the gulf 

 menhaden catch for reduction came from the Louisi- 

 ana coast, 6% from Texas, 5% from Mississippi, and 

 3% from Alabama (Leard et al. 1995, Smith pers. 

 comm.). Five reduction plants operated in 1996, at 

 Moss Pt. MS, Empire LA, Morgan City LA, Abbeville 

 LA, and Cameron LA (Smith 1996). Menhaden 

 schools are located by spotter planes who notify large, 

 refrigerated carrier vessels, known locally as pogy 

 boats. Two purse seine boats from the carrier vessel 

 encircle the school with a net. The captured school is 

 then pumped into the hold of the carrier vessel and 

 taken to the reduction plant on shore for processing 

 (Simmons and Breuer 1964, Nicholson 1978, Smith 

 1 991 ). Menhaden are used primarily forthe production 

 of fish meal, fish oil, and fish solubles. The fish meal 

 and oil are in high demand for use in poultry and other 



134 



