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Marine Fisheries Board Declines to Make Science-Based Reduction to Atlantic Menhaden Catch Limit
Revised models indicate the need to cut commercial quota by more than half to rebuild striped bass populations, but ASMFC Menhaden Management Board vote today reduces catch limit by a mere 20 percent
Despite a 2025 stock assessment indicating that Atlantic menhaden biomass is one-third lower than previously estimated – and an immediate need to cut the coastwide menhaden quota by more than 50 percent to support striped bass rebuilding – the Menhaden Management Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted today to reduce 2026 commercial catch by only 20 percent. The decision, which will likely prevent striped bass and other predators largely reliant on menhaden like bluefish, weakfish, spiny dogfish, and ospreys from having sufficient forage, was a disappointment for conservation and recreational angling organizations.
“Rebuilding the Atlantic striped bass population has always involved more than just regulating striped bass harvest. It’s also about ensuring that enough of their key food source, Atlantic menhaden, remains available in the water,” said Chris Macaluso, director of the Center for Fisheries for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “The Menhaden Management Board’s decision to adopt only a 20 percent reduction in menhaden harvest, despite the science and input from ASMFC’s own scientists who highlighted the risks, makes it more challenging to achieve striped bass recovery by 2029. This step falls short of fully advancing more than a decade of progress toward ecosystem-based management and undermines public trust in the process.”
Three years ago, the Menhaden Management Board voted to increase the Atlantic menhaden catch limits for the 2023-2025 fishing seasons when the best available science indicated it was warranted.
The Board’s decision, made at the agency’s annual meeting in Delaware, ignores its own management framework based on “ecological reference points” (ERPs) — clear, science-based limits that tie menhaden harvest directly to predator health – and new estimates that show there are 37 percent fewer menhaden off the Atlantic coast than previously estimated. The Board also declined to vote for additional coastwide menhaden quota reductions beyond the 2026 fishing season, dodging additional quota cuts for 2027 and 2028 that could have collectively reached an ERP-based reduction that the recreational angling community called for after three years. The Board instead favored revisiting the issue in 2026 to determine if additional reductions are needed.
Notably, three years ago the Menhaden Management Board voted to increase the Atlantic menhaden total allowable catch for the 2023-2025 fishing seasons when the best available science indicated it was warranted. However, now that the best science indicates a reduction in catch is needed, the board has declined to reduce the catch to align with the ecosystem-based management model.
In early October, the ASMFC released its 2025 Atlantic menhaden stock assessment update, which indicated that the coastwide menhaden biomass is lower than previously estimated and suggested that slashing the coastwide catch limit by more than half would be necessary to ensure sufficient forage for rebuilding populations of striped bass. The Board’s decision today is not expected to achieve the standard 50/50 probability of not exceeding the ERP fishing mortality target – the precautionary approach that would dictate risk-tolerant, science-based management – and instead results in a 100 percent chance of exceeding the target in 2026.
“Today, the Menhaden Management Board chose to abandon ecosystem-based management and will be leaving less menhaden in the water to fuel our coastal ecosystems and sportfishing economies,” said Ted Venker, conservation director for the Coastal Conservation Association.
Unlike traditional single-species models that only measure the health of one species like menhaden, ERPs explicitly weigh the tradeoffs between menhaden harvest and effects on predator populations — in this case, most notably striped bass, also known as rockfish.
TRCP and partners successfully advocated for ERPs to be considered in menhaden management starting in 2020. The expectation of all involved in the process was that this methodology would drive future management decisions, even though following ERPs is not mandated for the ASMFC.
“We will continue working with the ASMFC, anglers, and conservationists to ensure that menhaden harvest reductions go beyond 20 percent and align with the ecosystem’s needs and the board’s stated commitments,” Macaluso said.
The Menhaden Management Board also voted today to initiate an addendum to specifically address Chesapeake Bay Management, which will develop options for quota periods which distribute menhaden removals more evenly throughout the fishing season, as well as options to reduce the Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishing Cap ranging from status quo to a 50 percent decrease. This process could yield significant benefits to the Bay ecosystem, which has faced multiple concerns in recent years, including osprey breeding failures due to chick starvation in many parts of the Bay.
More information about the broad importance of Atlantic menhaden is available on TRCP’s Forage Fish Recovery Page.
Banner image courtesy David Mangum
Deer Season – Hunting & CWD: Prepping for the Pennsylvania Season
As TRCP’s Jim Kauffman prepares for a new deer season in Pennsylvania, he reflects on tradition, responsibility, and staying vigilant about CWD to help keep our herds – and our hunting heritage – strong.
Each summer, as the days grow shorter and trail cameras start lighting up, I feel that familiar pull toward deer season. The ritual of scouting, planning, and preparing connects me to the same woods my dad and grandfathers hunted. But in recent years, there’s been a new layer of responsibility for that preparation: staying informed about Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and how it affects the deer and the places I love to hunt.
Last season brought long days, snow, and new challenges, but also memories that I’ll never forget, especially carrying out a buck on my back, in the dark, with my grandfather’s rifle, and sharing venison with friends and family. Like many Pennsylvanians, I cherish these traditions and the public lands that make them possible.
Pennsylvania has a rich tradition of deer hunting camps, and each fall many Pennsylvanians (including me) look forward to pursuing deer in its northern forests. I am fortunate to reside in a region where deer are plentiful, so opportunities also exist to hunt deer at home. Rich agricultural lands with woodlots and forest patches are widespread, and the public lands of the ridge and valley province offer ample deer hunting opportunities. Undulating forested ridges run throughout most of central Pennsylvania, framing semi-developed valleys with productive farmlands. Many of the ridge tops are public land, offering an opportunity to pursue deer that utilize these forests to grow fat on corn and soybeans in the valleys below. The Appalachian Trail runs along the southernmost ridges here, facilitating access to deeper deer haunts, if you are willing to put a few miles on your boots. So before heading to camp, I often pursue deer closer to home.
The downside of hunting in southern Pennsylvania is facing the reality of CWD. The disease was first detected in wild Pennsylvania deer in 2012, and it has continued to spread across the Commonwealth. Each year, positive cases identified outside of established Disease Management Areas (DMAs) warrant DMA expansions and the potential for changing regulations. So, each preseason, I consult the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) regulations to determine whether I will be hunting in a DMA to plan safe carcass movement, butchering, and disposal.
In mid-summer, Pennsylvanians purchase their antlerless tags that determine the Wildlife Management Units where they can pursue does. This is a good time to check the CWD regulations and plan for proper field care and butchering. Fortunately, the areas that I plan to hunt this year still fall outside of Pennsylvania’s CWD DMAs. But this could certainly change in the future as the disease continues to spread – and it is always important to check so you can stay informed about current regulations and requirements. Keep in mind that even if you are hunting outside of Pennsylvania’s DMA areas, you can still get your deer tested if you choose to do so. Testing provides peace of mind to be certain that your deer is not CWD positive, while providing the PGC with additional surveillance data.
During the late summer of this year, I began the usual process of learning a new section of public land on a ridge top closer to home – walking the terrain, looking for signs, and hanging cameras. As summer transitioned to fall, I also spent time at many of my former haunts throughout the northern tier, monitoring conditions and thinking about a game plan for the upcoming seasons. In general, Pennsylvania is having a good mast year, and acorns are plentiful throughout many regions of the state. Scrapes and rubs are becoming more prevalent as bucks prepare for the impending rut, which peaks in Pennsylvania during mid-November.
The 2025 season will be the first in a very long time that Pennsylvanians have had the opportunity to hunt on most Sundays throughout the fall, thanks to bipartisan legislation that repeals a long-standing ban on Sunday hunting. This legislation provides the PGC with full authority to decide which hunting seasons can include Sunday hunting. By permitting Sunday hunting, we now can extend our hunting opportunities and make hunting more accessible to those with limited time to spend afield. I am certainly looking forward to that opportunity.
For hunters preparing this fall, it’s worth taking time to check the PGC’s latest guidance on CWD testing, carcass disposal, and best practices—even if your hunting area lies outside a Disease Management Area, talk with your local processor about their disposal methods or encourage hunting partners to get deer tested if they hunt within or near a DMA. Every step we take helps protect the deer herds that define our seasons.
As hunters, we’ve always cared for the land and wildlife that sustain us. Learning about and adapting to CWD is just the next chapter in that long tradition of responsibility—one that ensures we can keep sharing these woods, and these memories, for generations to come.
With the Pennsylvania deer seasons fast approaching, I look forward to spending time at deer camp with friends and family. Regardless of success, I am certain this fall will provide another round of memories and stories to tell. Check back in at the conclusion of the season – hopefully I’ll have some good news to report.
Deer Season – Hunting and CWD.
This new TRCP series shares the personal deer hunting stories of three staff members while exploring the practices aimed at addressing the spread of chronic wasting disease. This season, we invite you to follow along and take part in preserving what we love most about deer hunting.
As deer seasons open across the country, hunters are packing gear, checking maps, and preparing for the moments that define another fall outdoors. But today’s deer hunters face new challenges – chief among them, the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a 100-percent fatal neurodegenerative wildlife disease that affects members of the deer family. While more and more hunters are finding CWD in their backyards, it remains a source of confusion for many.
From pre-season prep and regulation changes to lessons learned in the woods and around deer camp, Deer Season – Hunting and CWD will show how everyday hunters are part of the solution. Along the way, you’ll find tips, resources, and reflections that tie together our love of the hunt with our shared responsibility to keep deer herds healthy for future generations.
Introducing TRCP’s New Series: Deer Season – Hunting and CWD
This new TRCP series shares the personal deer hunting stories of three staff members while exploring the practices aimed at addressing the spread of chronic wasting disease.
This year marks my 24th year as a deer hunter, and almost all that hunting has taken place within 20 miles of where I’m sitting right now. I suppose I could call it 25 years, but I wasn’t old enough to carry a rifle the first time I got to go along. Back then we had a real deer camp. Dave and Arlene, my great uncle and aunt, had a piece of property a little ways east of here, in the part of western Minnesota that starts to look like the swamps and woods further east.
There were probably 6-10 hunters on any given day. We’d head for our stands before first light and sit until Uncle Dave got restless, which usually didn’t take more than a few hours, and then we’d get together and plan the midday deer drive. Generally, those who still had tags to fill would sit on stumps, buckets, or box stands on likely escape routes. Everybody else, including the “husky” 11-year-old I was at the time, formed a line and drove the tamarack and cattail swamps toward the posted hunters.
I still have a clear memory of that first drive. Watching my Dad duct tape the tops of his rubber boots to his jeans, I wondered if I might be in over my head. Turns out I just about was. It was mid-November in Minnesota, and the swamps were frozen, but the ice was only about a half inch thick. Most steps I’d break through, but I was determined to keep up my place on the line. Eventually I figured out I could hop from root to root on the tamaracks and make pretty good progress.
My strategy fell apart when the forested swamp faded into an open cattail slough. The cattails were taller than I was, so I couldn’t see the rest of the drivers, but I could hear the steady whoops and whistles we used to keep track of each other. About the time I thought I couldn’t break cattails for another step, I stumbled into a beaver run going exactly the direction I was heading. I was soaked to the knee already, so walking in the water was no problem, and I silently praised my genius as a navigator.
That is, until about 50 yards later when the foot deep beaver trail dropped off to four feet and left me standing neck deep in icy water. I’ll never forget the laughter and pride in Uncle Dave’s eyes when he saw me pop out of the swamp at the end of that drive, exhausted, soaked, grinning, and a newly minted lifelong deer hunter.
I’d bet that every deer hunter reading this has a similar story, and probably several. Deer hunting creates community, it teaches life lessons, it fosters a connection to nature, and it feeds families.
That’s why this fall, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is launching a new blog series, Deer Season: Hunting and CWD. Through the eyes of three TRCP staff members: Ryan Chapin in Montana, Aaron Field in Minnesota, and Jim Kauffman in Pennsylvania, we’ll share personal stories from the field and explore what hunters can do to help slow the spread of CWD.
Deer Season – Hunting and CWD
As deer seasons open across the country, hunters are packing gear, checking maps, and preparing for the moments that define another fall outdoors. But today’s deer hunters face new challenges – chief among them, the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a 100-percent fatal neurodegenerative wildlife disease that affects members of the deer family. While more and more hunters are finding CWD in their backyards, it remains a source of confusion for many.
From pre-season prep and regulation changes to lessons learned in the woods and around deer camp, these stories will show how everyday hunters are part of the solution. Along the way, you’ll find tips, resources, and reflections that tie together our love of the hunt with our shared responsibility to keep deer herds healthy for future generations.
As Theodore Roosevelt once said, “In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.” This season, we invite you to follow along and take part in preserving what we love most about deer hunting.
Hunting and Fishing with a Search and Rescue Perspective
Tips from TRCP’s resident SAR member on how to be found
For many hunters and anglers, our love of the outdoors is often because of, rather than despite, the unpredictability that comes with wild places. Otherwise, we’d sit on the couch all day and watch TV. The rugged beauty of the outdoors is enticing, and a big bull or hidden lake can lure the most sensible folks to the next ridge or drainage.
As hunting seasons ramp up around the country and winter fishing approaches, now is the time to recognize the risks that come with hunting and fishing in our wild places. What can you do to keep yourself and your loved ones from becoming lost while hunting or fishing, and if it happens, how should you act?
This blog shares the basics of Search and Rescue just in time for the seasons we wait all year to enjoy.
Lost vs. Missing
First, there is a difference between someone who is “lost” and someone who is “missing.” For example, if an angler broke her ankle while crossing a stream and could not walk back to her vehicle, she would be missing, and a SAR team would be deployed to help her get home. If a hunter took a wrong turn and couldn’t find the main trail again, she would be considered lost, and the rest of her hunting party would have to call in a SAR team to help find her.
Both lost and missing people can require a SAR team. This distinction matters because someone who is lost behaves differently than someone who is missing and understanding that distinction can help narrow down the search area. Someone who is truly lost is confused with their current location in respect to finding other locations and is unable to reorient themselves. It is assumed that a missing person knows where they are but is incapable of returning.
In a SAR mission, the lost person is referred to as the “subject” of the search. Whoever reports the subject as missing is interviewed by a searcher and the local sheriff to gain some insight into how they became lost. Based on the answers to these questions, searchers will perform a statistical analysis to determine the probability of detection within a defined search area. The statistical framework used to analyze this data is often based on what the person was doing when they became lost. Hunters and anglers offer different statistics.
Some Numbers on Hunters and Anglers
Hunters are the second most common subject of SAR missions, with hikers being the most common. Despite being common subjects, many hunters refrain from using the term “lost,” and about 33% of lost hunters manage to rescue themselves without the help of rescue teams. Some even avoid searchers out of embarrassment or fear of having to pay a fee for deploying the rescue teams (though most SAR teams do not charge for their services). About 20% of these “lost” hunters are merely overdue and return to their loved ones later than expected.
Several factors influence the reasons hunters become lost and their survivability. Most hunters lose their way in the pursuit of game. Chasing game can lead to deadfall areas and dense underbrush that may become difficult to navigate in the dark. Hunters are more likely to travel at night than most lost persons and can be more active during inclement weather since many hunters believe animals move prior to approaching storm fronts. All of these are factors that rescuers consider when searching for a lost hunter.
Anglers, while making up a smaller percentage of SAR missions, have a higher percentage of mortalities. This is largely due to their proximity to water. While most anglers can reorient themselves based on their waterway, mistakes can occur while enroute to or from waterways or when the waterway becomes confusing, such as forks in the stream or networks of lakes. Whether fishing from the shore or a boat, wet anglers can rapidly become hypothermic as the sun sets or the weather changes, and this will impact their ability to make decisions. While 44% of lost anglers are truly lost, approximately 30% are merely overdue, 23% become stranded, and a significant number drown.
Be Prepared
Understanding the way people become lost can prevent others from succumbing to the logical fallacies that factor into the decision-making processes of a lost person. It may seem logical to follow a stream downhill, but in some regions, that can lead you to a swamp or a dry washout with no road or civilization in sight. Familiarize yourself with the region prior to going out alone. If you are lost, stay put! Find or build a shelter and stay there until you are found. It’s more difficult for SAR teams to find a moving target.
If you do find yourself turned around, a few key items in your pack can make the difference between returning to your vehicle alive and becoming an unfortunate statistic. A compass, space blanket, and a fire starter are the three basic things that can get you through a tough situation if you know how to use them. There are a variety of technologies out there for GPS devices, emergency beacons, and mapping apps that can also help SAR teams locate you in an emergency.
Support SAR Teams
Search and rescue units are usually volunteer organizations made up of people in the community. Often, these people are also hunters and anglers who love using their outdoor skills to help people in need. SAR teams are dispatched through the local sheriff’s department and are funded through grants and donations. So, the next time you buy a hunting or fishing license, consider opting for the extra donation to SAR in your state. You never know when you might need them!
The TRCP is your resource for all things conservation. In our weekly Roosevelt Report, you’ll receive the latest news on emerging habitat threats, legislation and proposals on the move, public land access solutions we’re spearheading, and opportunities for hunters and anglers to take action. Sign up now.
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