A History of Menhaden Fishing

By Harold Anderson

The Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus– also known as alewife, bunker, pogy or fat back, and called Munnawhateaug by native Americans – is a small fish growing to little more than a foot in length and considered inedible by most people because of its strong oily flavor. It feeds on plankton, forming a vital part of the food chain as prey for larger fish. Menhaden has remained a valuable commodity in Virginia, North Carolina and the Gulf since the 1870s.

The modern menhaden industry emerged in New England early in the 19th century, after the species was recognized as a valuable alternative to whale oil, for lubricants, as fuel for lamps and in the making of soap and paint. Factories for rendering menhaden were first built on the shores of Massachusetts, Maine, New York and Connecticut. By the beginning of the 20th century menhaden served as a component of fertilizer and animal feed, and in the manufacture of paints and other substances such as fingernail polish and perfume. In more recent times, it has also been used as a cooking oil and an ingredient in processed foods such as cookies and cakes.

According to John Frye, early New Englanders caught menhaden in weirs, in haul seines worked from the shore, or in gill nets worked from canoes and small ships. The first use of the purse seine to catch menhaden in 1845, by Rhode Islanders who had invented it 20 years earlier, he says, was the single greatest advance in the industry. The purse seine was not widely used until the 1870s, however, when it led to the development of the purse boat, one of several technical improvements that made the eventual emergence of a menhaden chantey tradition possible and necessary.

Use of purse seining to harvest menhaden continues today, but since the development in the 1950s of the hydraulic power block for pulling up the net, there has been no need for either chantey singing or large crews. Other mid-century refinements included making lighter, faster and more maneuverable aluminum rather than wooden purse boats with motors instead of oars; more durable nylon seines instead of natural fiber nets; and large fish pumps, which eliminated the difficult work of transferring the catch from the net into the hold. In addition, spotter planes took over the work of sighting schools of menhaden, radioing locations to captains on board ship. With these changes, harvesting efficiency increased dramatically.

In recent years the menhaden fishery has suffered a decline, due primarily to international market conditions affecting the price of menhaden products. The number of processing plants on the Atlantic Coast has declined from eight in 1981 to only two at the close of the 20th century. Still, according to Richard C. Collins of the Institute for Environmental Negotiation at the University of Virginia, the Atlantic Coast menhaden harvest is the largest single-species fishery on the Atlantic Coast and is also the most concentrated fishery in the Chesapeake Bay. Over seventy percent of Atlantic menhaden is still processed in Reedville, and the industry remains a significant part of the region's economy.

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