ATLANTIC MENHADEN

      Atlantic menhaden, a pelagic, schooling kind of fish related to sardines, anchovies and herring, are reported to be "the most important fish in the sea".  Adult menhaden are streamlined, silvery, and can be up to fifteen inches long.  And they live abundantly along the Atlantic Coast, including in estuaries, harbors and the mouths of rivers from Nova Scotia to Florida.

     Menhaden are omnivorous filter feeders.  Tightly-packed masses of them cruise slowly through salt and brackish water, each fish with its mouth open to strain plankton and algae that is free in the water.  Special adaptations on the gills of these fish filter out those edibles, and oxygen, from the water as they pass through it.  And menhaden filter the water as they feed, helping keep it clean and healthy.       

     Menhaden are an important link between tiny bits of plankton and upper-level predators in several food chains.  Various kinds of gulls and terns catch and eat younger, smaller menhaden, the terns by diving from the air and grabbing them with their bills.  Herons wade shallows to snare younger menhaden.  Ospreys, brown pelicans and northern gannets dive from the air to catch adults, the ospreys with their talons and the pelicans and gannets with their beaks.  Chesapeake Bay has the highest concentration of breeding ospreys in the world.  And they eat menhaden mostly.

     Menhaden are also consumed by a variety of larger fish, including striped bass, flounders, bluefish, bluefin tuna and other species.  Those species are favorites of many fishermen.  

     And a variety of whales, dolphins and seals also ingest menhaden.  The whales catch that prey more in the open ocean, while the seals do so close to shore and in harbors and estuaries.  

     Menhaden live offshore in the ocean during winter, and that's where and when they spawn.  Young menhaden move to the coast and up harbors and estuaries to feed and grow.  Menhaden, therefore, are in those inshore habitats during summer.  Some individuals of this species can live up to ten to twelve years.  But few reach that old age.  

     Menhaden are caught by commercial fishing.  Those oily-fleshed fish are sold as fertilizer, fish oil and other products, but not as human food.  Those masses of fish also support the pleasures of bird watching and whale watching.    

     Great schools of Atlantic menhaden clean the water these fish live in, and are a link between bits of organic material and ocean-feeding birds and mammals.  They are an interesting species of pelagic fish in their own ways.

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