How pogey boats KILL more than just redfish: oysters, crabs, shrimp, trout and more GONE

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]Here you go. There's more dead bull reds.

[00:00:03]>> If you watched my last video, then you know that thousands of bull red fish have been slaughtered by Louisiana's pogy boats. You know that these bull red fish are the big breeders necessary to keep our red fish population healthy.

[00:00:15]Last but not least, you remember that the deaths of these bull reds are not the worst thing to happen at a pogy boat. The worst thing to happen there are the deaths of pogies. That's because pogies, also known as menhaden or bunker, are a vital link in the food chain. If that link is broken, then everything else dies. Louisiana's entire fishery collapses, devastating both recreational and commercial fishing. On the recreational side, popular inshore species such as speckled trout red fish will be starved to death. On the commercial side, oysters, shrimp, and crab will die off due to algae blooms, hypoxia, and increased turbidity. The reasons why have everything to do with men hating being either present or absent. This is because these small fish serve two important roles on Louisiana's coast. Food and filtering. And it's here in this video that I'll explain to you these crucial roles that menhaden play.

[00:01:11]We'll get started with food. 99.99% of life on Earth ultimately gets its energy from the sun. Plants store the sun's energy using photosynthesis which is in turn eaten and stored by herbivores which are in turn eaten by carnivores. And here's a simplified example. We humans eat cows to get the energy that they derived from grass which was derived from the sun. If cows disappeared then we would starve as we cannot sustain ourselves by eating grass. We need the cows to pass that energy along to us. Well, it's the same way on Louisiana's coast. Instead of us, it's speckled red fish. And instead of cows, it's menhaden or pogies. Finally, instead of grass, it's phytolanton and algae. Speckled red fish cannot eat algae, but menhaden can. If the menhaden are taken away, then those sport fish will starve and our recreational fishery will be gone. And yeah, I understand that there's like shrimp and croker and stuff, but the remaining fours such as those shrimp, croker, bay, anchovies, pot belly minnows, and more do not have the equivalent biomass to replace menhaden when they are diminished or depleted. These forage alone will get demolished with increased feeding pressure. So tell me, how does three speckled trout a day sound? Because that's where we're headed if the pogies are gone. Comment what you think below in the comment section. But menhaden are more than just food for fish in Louisiana's waters. They also do a lot of filtering, a lot of cleaning of the water. You see, menhaden are filter feeders, meaning that they feed by swimming through the water with an open mouth, filtering it for phytolankton to include algae. This is how they eat.

[00:02:53]Now, a pogy by itself doesn't filter much water, but a school numbering in the millions can filter a lot more. So, how much water can pogies filter? Well, scientists estimate that an adult manhaden can filter as much as 240 to 360 gall an hour. For comparison, an adult oyster can filter something like one gallon an hour. Yeah, it's not even close. Oysters are good filterers, but they cannot do what men Hayden do. To further put the superpower into perspective, if you filled the super dome with water, it would take last year's catch of menhaden no more than 14 seconds to filter it. probably probably closer to something like 4 seconds. But how does Louisiana's coast benefit from the filtering action? Well, it's good to clear the water of algae and organic detritus. This prevents algae blooms and allows sunlight to penetrate the water, enabling submerged aquatic grasses to grow. These are the same grasses that further filter the water, provide habitat for shrimp, crabs, and more to grow in. If sunlight can shine through the water, then that means oysters can grow there. And that's because oysters are also filter feeders. They eat algae, too. But algae can only grow at the depth oysters reside if there's enough sunlight in the first place. This is why we tend to see oysters in 1 to 10 ft of water rather than 50 to 100 ft. So, if mend aren't there to clean the water, then there's no way submerged grass and oysters can grow. And if there's no submerged grass or oysters, then there's nothing for a shrimp and crab to live and grow in. But there is an other effect that will seal the deal for these inshore species and that's algae blooms.

[00:04:31]If algae gets out of control because there's no menhaden to eat it, then it can cause the water to become oxygen depleted and leave a blanket of dead algae on the bottom, ensuring that no oyster or grass can grow. Everything that's left will be smothered and suffocated to death. And that is when commercial fishing will be impacted.

[00:04:51]Shrimp, crabs, and oysters will be devastated. It won't matter how many traps you put out, how long you drag, or how much cult you dump in the water.

[00:04:59]Nothing will grow in a giant dead zone.

[00:05:02]It's a cascade effect that will destroy what we have here in Louisiana, our nation's last great inshore fishery. And this is why the whole red fish thing is missing the point. There's no argument that the wasteful slaughter of thousands of bullheads is a gross spectacle, but fact of the matter is that it is not the worst thing the men hate in reduction industry does. I hope that you now understand that. But maybe you're thinking that I'm full of it. Maybe you're thinking that I'm exaggerating.

[00:05:30]Maybe you're thinking that this is something that can't happen here, but I'm telling you that it can. That is very real. And that if you're not worried that you should be. That's because I have proof that a catastrophe at this level can happen. It's more likely to happen than not. And that's because very sadly it has already happened. The menhaden reduction industry has already destroyed entire fisheries over the last 150 years.

[00:05:58]>> An empty hole is depressing to a fisherman. Just to catch something to sweeten a hole with a smell of fish. A sweet smell to fishermen because it smells like money. Menhaden boats will hunt for fish wherever they can be found. Be it offshore in the ocean or in bays or rivers.