Menhaden: The Biggest Little Fish You've Never Seen — Environmental Documentary | Chesapeake Bay

You've never seen them on a menu. You've probably never heard of them. But menhaden may be the most important fish in the sea. A small, oily fish — only twelve inches long — found along the Atlantic Coast, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico, menhaden are the primary food source for whales, striped bass, ospreys, eagles, and dozens of other marine species, making them a keystone species in some of America's most critical ecosystems. Cooke Seafood, a Canadian company operating under the name Omega Protein, runs an industrial-scale fishing operation that vacuums up tens of thousands of metric tons of menhaden from the Chesapeake Bay every year — nearly one billion fish — grinding them down into fertilizer and salmon feed. Local recreational and commercial fishermen, conservationists, and community advocates have organized to stop them, with the climax of their fight unfolding at a high-stakes regulatory hearing. Written and directed by William McKeever (Emperors of the Deep; Twilight of the Shark) and produced by McKeever Films and Safeguard the Seas, this is a compelling, urgent documentary about corporate overreach, ecosystem collapse, and the people determined to save a fish most Americans have never seen. Free with ads.