Menhaden, Pogy, Mossbunker

Menhaden occur from the Gulf of Maine, and western Nova Scotia, south to Florida. They travel in large schools, feeding on plankton, especially the small planktonic plants known as diatoms.

Common names for the menhaden are numerous. Of those at the top of the page, the first two are derived from Indian words meaning fertilizer; while mossbunker, long used at New York, comes from a Dutch name for shad which the early settlers applied. Around the Potomac and Chesapeake, alewife is used; while Virginia gives us bug-head or bug fish, in allusion to the parasitic crustacean found in the mouths of southern menhaden. The menhaden has also been canned as American sardine, American club-fish, shadine and even ocean trout!