With the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) set to decide in November on proposals to reduce the menhaden harvest in the Chesapeake Bay and potentially coastwide, New York City council member Joann Ariola has written to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to call on the federal government to establish a 12-nautical-mile buffer preventing industrial menhaden fishing along the Atlantic coast.
According to QNS media in New York, Ariola is calling on Lutnick and the federal government to introduce a 12-mile buffer to push the bunker reduction fishery fleet farther outside into federal waters. Currently, the menhaden reduction fleet is restricted to 3 miles out, but Ariola believes that increasing the buffer zone would improve feeding grounds relied upon by seabirds, marine mammals, gamefish and other coastal wildlife.
“My constituents can watch menhaden being removed from the ocean just beyond New York’s jurisdiction, but neither they nor the state can reach across that line and stop it,” Ariola said in a statement. “Only the federal government can close this dangerous loophole.”
According to the QNS article, Ariola sent the letter after receiving what she described as alarming statistics regarding nesting ospreys in Jamaica Bay. She said 25 nesting pairs were spotted across the bay this year, with only five surviving chicks.
Don Riepe, Jamaica Bay Guardian for the American Littoral Society, said osprey populations are “crashing” along the Atlantic coast. ““I have been managing and monitoring the Jamaica Bay osprey population since the first successful nest occurred in 1991,” Riepe said in a statement. He went on to say “Most wildlife managers I speak with all agree that it’s because of the overharvesting of menhaden, their main food source.”
While there was no immediate response from the Commerce Department, the next meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will be their Annual Meeting from November 9-12, 2026, at Hotel Viking, One Bellevue Avenue in Newport, RI.
