• Menhaden are the primary food source for prized game fish like striper, mackerel, dolphin, bluefish, and are an irreplaceable bait for blue crab fishermen. Up to 80% of an adult Striper's diet is made up of menhaden.
• Menhaden were once so numerous from Maine to Florida that they were caught from shore with baskets.
• Menhaden winter and spawn in the waters off of the North Carolina coast, making their protection in this area particularly critical.

• Menhaden can filter up to 7 gallons of water through their specialized gills per minute, limiting and eliminating harmful algal blooms from estuaries.
• North Carolina currently has no economic interest in the menhaden reduction industry.

• North Carolina and Virginia continue to allow a reduction fishery for menhaden. They are the only two east coast states that still allow this type of fishery.
• Current management ignores the keystone role menhaden play as food for other fish and ocean wildlife in the coastal Atlantic.
• Fish meal and fish oil from menhaden reduction are used primarily for aquaculture and livestock feed.
• The Pamlico Sound suffers from poor water quality partially due to the decline of the menhaden population.
• There currently is no reduction fishery in NC waters, but the potential exists for such a fishery.

• Call on the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission to ban reduction fishing in North Carolina state waters to sustain healthy fishing opportunities for striped bass, etc. The bait fishery would not be affected.