The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America

by Howard Bruce Franklin

In this brilliant portrait of the oceans’ unlikely hero, H. Bruce Franklin shows how menhaden have shaped America’s national—and natural—history, and why reckless overfishing now threatens their place in both. Since Native Americans began using menhaden as fertilizer, this amazing fish has greased the wheels of U.S. agriculture and industry. By the mid-1870s, menhaden had replaced whales as a principal source of industrial lubricant, with hundreds of ships and dozens of factories along the eastern seaboard working feverishly to produce fish oil. Since the Civil War, menhaden have provided the largest catch of any American fishery. Today, one company—Omega Protein—has a monopoly on the menhaden “reduction industry.” Every year it sweeps billions of fish from the sea, grinds them up, and turns them into animal feed, fertilizer, and oil used in everything from linoleum to health-food supplements.

 

The massive harvest wouldn’t be such a problem if menhaden were only good for making lipstick and soap. But they are crucial to the diet of bigger fish and they filter the waters of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, playing an essential dual role in marine ecology perhaps unmatched anywhere on the planet. As their numbers have plummeted, fish and birds dependent on them have been decimatedand toxic algae have begun to choke our bays and seas. In Franklin’s vibrant prose, the decline of a once ubiquitous fish becomes an adventure story, an exploration of the U.S. political economy, a groundbreaking history of America’s emerging ecological consciousness, and an inspiring vision of a growing alliance between environmentalists and recreational anglers.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Animals, Environment, Science, Biology, Natural History

280 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2007

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyable and informative. The menhaden (or "bunker") plays an essential role in the ecology the Atlantic coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. It has 3 key traits: it eats massive amounts of algae and other phytoplankton; it produces a lot of offspring; and it's delicious to pretty much every living creature except man. So in nature it plays the key roles of (1) clearing water of massive amounts of dangerous algae and (2) providing the major food source for other creatures, including bluefish and striped bass (and whales and ospreys). No other animal eats as much algae as menhaden eat. And no other animal is as essential to the diet of so many predators.

There used to be a lot of menhaden. (One school spotted along the Atlantic coast in the 1800's was 40 miles long.) Now they've mostly gone away, due to pollution and overfishing. Waters have become choked with algae; predators like striped bass have become scarce and starved.

The menhaden "reduction" industry got especially deadly in the 20th century with the advent of fish-spotting planes and mechanized purse-seine nets. (It had a long history before that; menhaden oil basically replaced whale oil in the late 1800s.) The worst offender now is a company called Omega Protein. The company was owned for many years by the guy that owned the Tampa Bay Bucs. The details of its operations are horrifying...

There are also some encouraging signs of the return of striped bass in some places...

The author himself reads the audiobook. He reads in a style so informal that some might find it unprofessional; I personally find it charming. He has a Brooklyn accent and reads fast; some pronunciations are a little weird (he says "zooplankton" with three syllables, starting with "zoo," instead of four, starting with "zoe-uh"); sometimes you hear him turn a page or suppress a yawn as he reads. In spite of all that it is a very pleasurable listen - less like a professionally produced audiobook, more like a reading by your very smart uncle of the treatise he's been working on in his spare time for 20 years. The author comes across as smart, funny, and dedicated to his subject.

Some stray highlights: A description of the difference between being a grounded animal and being a swimming animal (why we are more like crabs than like fish). A description of the kind of recreational fishermen that Omega Protein describes as wealthy, out-of-touch yacht owners persecuting the menhaden reduction industry (a retired electrician, a retired post-office worker, a guy who refinishes furniture in his garage). The description of how the menhaden's anatomy suits them to their ecological role.

[Tim Gannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by H. Bruce Franklin, considered a leading cultural historian. He tells the story of a fish called menhaden, and their value to other fish and in cleaning our waters. Typical with most conservation books, the menhaden have been overfished,and our waters are suffering as a result. Tells a ton about the history of the fish, the politics, ecological organizations, different interest groups, and ecology from the 1600s to the present.

[Dan Para · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read about the devastation of the menhaden and the ironies involved when fish are harvested for chicken meal depriving large game fish of their primary food source while allowing algal blooms to flourish when phytoplankton aren’t properly harvested. A great ecological study with implications for many ecosystems in the future. Hopefully warnings will be heeded!

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a lot of good information in here but it was so overtly anti-commercial fishing that it bothered me.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great history of Atlantic Menhaden.

[Bob Beckert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was hoping for more science and less opinion.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The menhaden is the most important fish you've never heard of. Its historical abundance fed vast schools of larger fishes, while at the same time kept the waterways of the Chesapeake bay clear by feeding on algae and certain types of plankton. And, of course, its historical abundance lead to enormous overfishing, which in turn has wrecked environmental havoc up and down the eastern seaboard. Perhaps not the most well-written book ever, but one of the only books ever written about menhaden, and it does a very good job of establishing the importance of the menhaden to the ecosystem, and outlining ways in which what is now a very dire situation could successfully be reversed.

[Philip]

Yet another example of greed, politics, and lack of regulation leading to the exploitation of a seemingly, but not, insignificant fish of the sea. The Chesapeake Bay desperately needs the huge schools of menhaden to come back and clean up our water. When at their natural levels, menhaden, plant eaters, filtered the equivalent of the entire Chesapeake Bay every few days. These fish and the oysters are critical to the cleanup of the bay.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why? Why should one tiny component of Corporate America be allowed unlimited access to this fish that is so essential to the survival of the blue crab, the striped bass and the Chesapeake Bay itself? Early in 2013, the state of Virginia set some limits on the company known as Omega Protein. Of course Omega Protein plans to fight back with all it's got, but it looks like they've earned themselves a few powerful enemies, thanks to this excellent book.

[Mesut Bostancı · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great parable on how a single corporation which benefits perhaps just a few handful of people who spend their money on stupid shit like buying football teams comes to monopolize an essentially useless industry that nonetheless completely wipes out a keystone species keeping the entire Atlantic seaboard from becoming an algae choked dead zone. Industrial capitalism makes clouds of locusts blush.

[Jess Brandes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is outstanding - a must-read for anyone concerned with the ecology and health of the Atlantic or the Chesapeake Bay. Also filled with lots of history that I had never learned anything about.