THE FORAGE FISH FARCE by Dick Grachek

January 7, 2013   National, New England

December 14, 2012 — The Providence Journal’s “PolitiFact” unit investigated claims made by Pew Environment Group in advertisements they ran in several newspapers asking east coast governors to support their demand for a 50% cut in the menhaden harvest. Pew justified this demand saying “… in recent years, menhaden numbers along our coast have plummeted by 90 percent.”  The newspaper found the claim to be “Mostly False”. The Providence Journal
Lenfest is a Marketing/PR/Lobbying arm of Pew Charitable Trusts, Pew Environmental Group.  Pew Trust is oil money, ($5.5 billion that they’ll admit to).  It’s run by the grandchildren of Joseph N. Pew founder of Sun Oil or SUNOCO. Pew, EDF, CLF, are 501 C (3)’s that essentially shelter oil money which funds all the faux Environmental NGOs that then do the oil/gas…..Read More

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  • Joel Hovanesian

    Quick run and tell Henny Penny, the sky is falling the sky is falling

  • Swampdog

    To think todays top fishing vessels with their state of the art electronics and best captains available teaming up with spotter planes with no consequence for catching the wrong size menhaden or “bycatch” without a reported quota could not hurt the population of an easily spotted surface feeder like the menhaden in their primary breeding grounds is ignorant and irresponsible. There is money on both sides of this equation, with one side far more short sighted than the other. What is worth more, an outdated company trying to promote products in an outdated way using slash and burn methods or the trickle down effect into the multitude of fisheries that would benefit from a more robust harvest given an improved forage base?

    • borehead – Moderator

      I agree ,Swampdog! The ENGO’s are far more shortsighted and narrow minded!
      But that’s why they get paid the Big Oil Buck’s and recieve that Foundation funding.

      • swampdog

        so the answer then is to continue to harvest an environmentally or otherwise depleted species without any regulation? come on now, lets stick to the topic and stop getting caught up in the politics of it all.

        • borehead – Moderator

          The topic of the article is Pew.
          It’s so much bigger that the menhaden issue.

      • swampdog

        ENGO’s and NGO’s get paid to advance their agenda so of course can be shortsighted. i am a fisherman and have fished aboard gillnetters and draggers from Virginia Beach up to Maine. it’s not about who is more shortsighted here it’s about the health of the fishery and putting a cap on what is pulled out so that future generations of watermen can provide for their families. only people making good money off menhaden now are higher ups at Omega Protein.

  • Then how do you explain the fact that the scientists at the ASMFC have concluded that environmental factors are responsible for the poor recruitment the species has had over the past couple of years?