Menhaden more critical than people think

Bob Sampson in the Norwich Bulletin writes about the growing imbalance between predator & prey in our coastal ecosystems.

Because menhaden were not there in sufficient numbers to support the huge population of striped bass that was created back in the 1980s, every other possible source of prey has been devoured by this aggressive, omnivorous predator. The result is an imbalance balance between predator and prey in our coastal ecosystems.... While menhaden were functionally missing from the food chain, striped bass (along with bluefish and other predatory species) may have literally eaten once-large populations of river herring, American shad and contributed to the demise of winter flounder, fluke and other species through predation around the edges.