Menhaden

Menhaden, also known as mossbunker and bunker and "the most important fish in the sea", are forage fish of the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium, two genera of marine fish in the order Clupeiformes. Menhaden is a blend of poghaden (pogy for short) and an Algonquian word akin to Narragansett munnawhatteaûg, derived from munnohquohteau ("he fertilizes"), referring to their use of the fish as fertilizer. It is generally thought that Pilgrims were advised by Tisquantum (also known as Squanto) to plant menhaden with their crops. Menhaden are flat and have soft flesh and a deeply forked tail. They rarely exceed in length, and have a varied weight range. Gulf menhaden and Atlantic menhaden are small oily-fleshed fish, bright silver, and characterized by a series of smaller spots behind the main humeral spot. They tend to have larger scales than yellowfin menhaden and finescale menhaden. In addition, yellowfin menhaden tail rays are a bright yellow in contrast to those of the Atlantic menhaden. Recent taxonomic work using DNA comparisons have organized the North American menhadens into large-scaled (Gulf and Atlantic menhaden) and small-scaled (Finescale and Yellowfin menhaden) designations. The menhaden consist of two genera and seven species: Genus Brevoortia T. N. Gill, 1861 Brevoortia aurea (Spix & Agassiz, 1829) (Brazilian menhaden) Brevoortia gunteri Hildebrand, 1948 (Finescale menhaden) Brevoortia patronus Goode, 1878 (Gulf menhaden) Brevoortia pectinata (Jenyns, 1842) (Argentine menhaden) Brevoortia smithi Hildebrand, 1941 (Yellowfin menhaden) Brevoortia tyrannus (Latrobe, 1802) (Atlantic menhaden) Genus Ethmidium W. F.