Save the Bunker, Stop the Slaughter

As we all know, “Bunker”, “Menhaden” “Pogies” or whatever you like to call them is the most important species to us. The disappearance of them would be devastating to not only us as fisherman, but the game fish that forage on them whether they be striped bass, tuna, bluefish, weakfish or cod.

Every year millions of pounds of menhaden are removed from our waters by Omega Protein which is a company that grinds up the menhaden to sell as fish meal and pet food. I think we can all agree that we have seen a significant depletion in the bunker population over the past years. I myself can remember having one of the smallest peanut bunker runs this fall in the western sound that I have seen in quite some time.

Keeping our Bunker populations in check is not only to benefit our sport, but to make sure that we are protecting every species that depends on bunker to survive. This over fishing will continue to happen unless something is done about it. Petitions have been started to stop this over fishing and put a cap on how much can be harvested each year.

Visit The Public Trust Project and make your vote count.