Fishing continues to be great across the North Fork. Boats are sending in fantastic reports for bass, blues, fluke and porgies. And that’s great news. But there is a story from the Peconic River this week that demands all of our attention.
There was another fish kill in the river this week, the second kill this spring. Scientists blame algal blooms for the massive kills. Algae depletes the available oxygen in the water, causing the fish to die. See RiverheadLOCAL’s “Q&A: Why are the fish dying?” So, lots of dead fish, they stink for awhile, affecting a relatively small group of people. Why should I care? Why should you care?
Let’s start with the fish. The bunker, or menhaden, is a forage fish, born to be eaten. Everything eats bunker, from fluke to tuna. They are filter feeders, eating plankton and algae as they swim through the water. As such, they are the primary way in which the sun’s energy is converted into usable calories for the entire food chain. Think about it, algae in the water grow and multiply through photosynthesizing light from the sun, bunker then eat the algae converting it into fat and protein to be moved through the food chain when they, in turn, get eaten. Additionally, a massive school of of filter-feeding fish acts as an actual filter. More sunlight can now penetrate deeper in the water making for healthier eelgrass beds. Everything uses eelgrass as its nursery. Scallops, clams, crabs, and fish. The lowly bunker is a quiet workhorse, keeping bays, sounds and the ocean healthy for millennia.
Man has also had alternative uses for these fish for centuries. First as fertilizer, then as industrial lubricant, fish oil supplements and animal feed. This fishery employs purse seine nets. They locate a school with a spotter plane. The net is deployed with a skiff to surround the entire school and trap it. Then, a giant vacuum is used to suck the trapped fish into the boat’s hold. It is very efficient with minimal by-catch. These fish have been hunted this way for a long time. Problem is, the schools of fish get smaller and smaller as demand for bunker products stays the same or increases.
All the while, Long Island has been growing. Lawns are being over fertilized with chemical fertilizers. Septic systems are being installed as new houses are built. All of the excess nitrogen ends up in our bays from groundwater flow and runoff. In the mid 80s, we saw the first bay-wide algal blooms. The menhaden biomass was no longer there to help keep it in check. We watched the vaunted Peconic Bay scallop fishery collapse.
There are other very real economic impacts from this problem. Fish kills and algal blooms can affect a person’s decision to vacation on the North Fork, impacting every business from Riverhead to Orient Point. Certainly fishery collapses impact individual businesses. How many baymen do you know? That way of life is all but gone.
All of this is tied, in some way, shape or form, to the lowly bunker. It is up to the federal government to manage the bunker fishery. I hope, locally, politicians can see the problem for what it is and begin to address nitrogen overloading in the Peconic River estuary, Flanders Bay, and the rest of our bays heading eastward. Initially, Supervisor Sean Walter blamed the fish kills on bluefish. He has since acknowledged that lack of oxygen due to an algal bloom was the culprit. He has been focused on how to get rid of dead fish. I have not heard a plan from him, or any town board member, to address the cause of the problem. This will continue to be a problem, and a cost to taxpayers, if the board does not address the root problem: nitrogen overloading.
So if you feel the need to fertilize your lawn, buy a bag of compost and put that in your spreader instead of an ammonia-based fertilizer, or better yet, skip it.
The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America by H. Bruce Franklin is a fantastic book if you want to know more about this interesting fish and mankind’s relationship to it.
Oh, and hug a bunker, they need it! (If you really hug a bunker, please send me pictures at eelocalreports@gmail.com. I will see that they get posted.)
Brian Nigro is a lifelong avid fisherman and former charter boat captain. He’s fished from Alaska to Mexico and lots of places in between, but his favorite place to fish is right here on the East End.
