{"id":699,"date":"2008-09-29T15:02:50","date_gmt":"2008-09-29T19:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=699"},"modified":"2008-10-31T18:07:40","modified_gmt":"2008-10-31T22:07:40","slug":"menhaden-seek-safe-harbor-in-wellfleet-still-absent-in-sippican-harbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=699","title":{"rendered":"Menhaden Seek Safe Harbor in Wellfleet; Still Absent in Sippican Harbor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlantic menhaden, known locally as pogies, alwifes, and bunker, often school in estuaries during September and October, swimming in very large balls as herd protection from ferocious bluefish attacks.\u00c2\u00a0 As Hurricane Kyle blew by Cape Cod on Sunday, topping off a long three day weekend of pouring rain, a menhaden school flooded into the inner harbor of Wellfleet at high tide, followed by blues that were followed by local fishermen.\u00c2\u00a0 The word must have spread by ethernet (among bluefish and humans)\u00c2\u00a0because soon fishing poles outnumbered pogies.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Menhaden Flood into Wellfleet Inner Harbor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the last few years, locals have perceived a significant decline in menhaden.\u00c2\u00a0 They have petitioned state and federal legislators for action to\u00c2\u00a0control the reduction fishery\u00c2\u00a0in which menhaden are harvested for the extraction of omega-3 oils for human consumption with the remainder used for aquaculture and livestock feed.\u00c2\u00a0 Menhaden are also\u00c2\u00a0harvested\u00c2\u00a0as bait for both commercial and recreational fisheries.\u00c2\u00a0 Whatever the cause of perceived overfishing, menhaden form a critical link in the coastal ecosystem and their absence would have a significant effect\u00c2\u00a0in degrading the coastal enviroment.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Large\u00c2\u00a0Concentration of Menhaden in Sippican Harbor (2006)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In Sippican Harbor off Buzzards Bay, we have been awaiting the arrival of pogies this year.\u00c2\u00a0 We found no significant concentration of menhaden in the fall of 2007.\u00c2\u00a0 The last time we documented a major massing of menhaden schools in Marion’s Sippican Harbor was September and October 2006.\u00c2\u00a0 We are waiting to see if they return in any substantial numbers in 2008.<\/p>\n

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Sippican Menhaden Beset with Parasitic Copepods<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As you can detect in the close-up shots from the video clip,\u00c2\u00a0a large percentage of 2006 menhaden\u00c2\u00a0were adorned with parasitic copepods.<\/p>\n

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Don Lewis Holds Menhaden Netted in Chipman’s Cove<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

During early October 2005 we documented many large schools of menhaden in Wellfleet’s Chipman’s Cove, south of the harbor pier.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Menhaden Massing in Chipman’s Cove (2005)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlantic menhaden, known locally as pogies, alwifes, and bunker, often school in estuaries during September and October, swimming in very large balls as herd protection from ferocious bluefish attacks.\u00c2\u00a0 As Hurricane Kyle blew by Cape Cod on Sunday, topping off a long three day weekend of pouring rain, a menhaden school flooded into the inner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[824],"tags":[469,472,484,470,476,473,96,95,492,443,486,481,474,479,488,463,494,478,483,477,485,489,453,475,493,482,487,491,471,468,289,490,480,44],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":722,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}