Summary

Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) are an important forage fish for many predators, and they also support the largest commercial fishery on the U.S. east coast.  Menhaden management now calls for ecological reference points (ERPs) that account for their role in the ecosystem.  The goal of this work was to develop menhaden ERPs using Ecopath with Ecosim.  An existing Ecopath with Ecosim model of the Northwest Atlantic Continental Shelf (NWACS) was reduced in complexity from 80 to 15 groups in order to link the dynamics of menhaden with key managed predator species and evaluate tradeoffs in harvest policies.  ERPs were based on the relationship between equilibrium biomass of striped bass and menhaden fishing mortality.  The ERPs are the menhaden F rates that maintain striped bass at their biomass target and threshold, when striped bass are fished at their target rate.  Our approach represents a first steps towards ecosystem-based fishery management in the U.S and could be applied to other forage fisheries.