Filter feeders typically take into their open mouths "materials in the same proportions as they occur in ambient waters".

Along with oysters, which filter water on the seabed, menhaden play a key role in the food chain in estuaries and bays.

Because of their filter feeding abilities, "menhaden consume and redistribute a significant amount of energy within and between Chesapeake Bay and other estuaries, and the coastal ocean.

"[7] Because they play this role, and their abundance, menhaden are an invaluable prey species for many predatory fish, such as striped bass, bluefish, mackerel, flounder, tuna, drums, and sharks.

They are also a very important food source for many birds, including egrets, ospreys, seagulls, northern gannets, pelicans, and herons.

The decision was driven by issues with water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and failing efforts to re-introduce predator species, due to lack of menhaden on which they could feed.

These algal blooms, which are often detrimental to a number of fish, bird, and marine mammal species, create hypoxic conditions.

Menhaden are a pelagic schooling fish that migrate inshore during the summer and off-shore in the winter months.

The juvenile and larval menhaden migrate to shore and inland waterways through currents during summer months to grow while feeding on the phytoplankton and eventually zooplankton once they have matured.

[8] Menhaden reproduce in open oceans externally, however, the female does not carry eggs with them during the process as they are released into the water column at the planktonic level as gametes and sperm.

[9] These fish breed during the winter months through December to March and the eggs and juveniles navigate towards estuaries and inland waterways through tides and currents.

Omega Protein – a reduction fishery company with operations in the northwest Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico – takes 90% of the total menhaden harvest in the United States.

This molecule helps with lowering blood pressure, fixing abnormal heartbeats, reducing the chance of a heart attack or stroke, and other health benefits.

[23] This allows managers to account for a species role in the food chain when setting catch limits.

[24] It is the hope that this cut will allow menhaden to fulfill their role in the ecosystem while keeping the commercial fishery alive.

By the late 1950s, hydraulic winches replaced the large crews of manual haulers, and the menhaden chanty tradition declined.