Reedville, Va- Virginia Mercury – On Thursday U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross ordered Virginia’s menhaden fishery, the largest on the East Coast, shut down after Reedville-based Omega Protein exceeded a fishing cap set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
“A moratorium on fishing for Atlantic menhaden in Virginia state waters and possession of and landing of Atlantic menhaden if harvested in Virginia state waters will be imposed effective June 17, 2020,” wrote Chris Oliver, assistant administrator for fisheries for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in a letter to the ASMFC dated Dec. 17.
The move followed a request by nine Atlantic state governors, including Virginia’s own Ralph Northam, to impose a moratorium on the fishery.
Omega Protein condemned the decision, although spokesman Ben Landry said that the company wasn’t shocked by it.
“This really boils down to the ASMFC not basing decisions on the available science, doing whatever they want, and NOAA and the secretary of commerce agreeing with that,” he said.
Environmental and sportfishing groups, however, hailed the moratorium as a necessary move to protect the species.
Glenn Hughes, president of the American Sportfishing Association, called the ruling a demonstration of “clear conservation leadership.”
“This decision comes at a critical time because menhaden’s top predator, Atlantic striped bass, is currently in poor condition and the Chesapeake Bay is the primary spawning and nursery area for the species,” he said in a statement.
Omega’s fortunes seem to have shifted in recent months, however, as the company has resisted deep cuts to the fishing cap placed by the ASMFC on menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay.
Previously, the annual catch had been limited to 87,000 tons annually, but in 2017, the commission slashed that number to 51,000 tons in response to concerns that stocks were being depleted.
Environmental groups like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation argued that data showed declining populations, particularly among the young fish who spend their early years in the estuary, and that limits were necessary to ensure that stocks remained stable given the fish’s foundational place in the marine food chain.
Omega has disputed these findings, contending that there is no reliable scientific basis for restricting the fishery and that studies have shown the population is sustainable.
“The company maintains that the 41 percent decrease in the Bay cap has never been based on science, and is unnecessary for the conservation of the menhaden fishery,” a statement from Omega released after the commerce decision said. “Since it was first implemented in 2006, no evidence has been produced showing that it is necessary, or that localized depletion of menhaden has ever occurred in the Chesapeake Bay.”
In 2018, the General Assembly seemed to side with the fishing company when it refused to confirm the new ASMFC cap. Omega alluded to that decision this September when it announced it would exceed the 51,000 ton limit and instead comply with the prior 87,000 ton limit “codified in Virginia law.”
That move, however, set in motion a chain of events that culminated in Thursday’s moratorium order.
On Oct. 31, the ASMFC formally found Virginia out of compliance with the menhaden management plan, and on Nov. 15 it forwarded the issue to Ross for a decision. Ross had 30 days to respond; Thursday’s announcement came two days after that deadline. (While Oliver’s letter is dated Dec. 17, ASMFC said Wednesday that it had not yet heard from Commerce.)
Landry said Omega intended to work with the commission to bring the fishery into compliance before the moratorium went into effect, but that “it’s truly an unfortunate day when a healthy fishery is subject to a moratorium because of politics, not science.”
The menhaden season in the bay ended before Thanksgiving, so no boats will need to be withdrawn in response to the announcement.
“Obviously nobody’s going to lose their job before June, but we’re going to have to start figuring out how we adjust to these lower numbers in the bay,” Landry said.
Within the General Assembly session only weeks away, the ruling may give fuel to legislative proposals to bring the menhaden fishery under Virginia Marine Resources Commission control.
The VMRC, said Chesapeake Bay Foundation senior scientist Chris Moore, “manages every other saltwater fishery in Virginia and can quickly bring the commonwealth into compliance.”
Crabbers can’t work without bait….
I believe all the people that believe this is necessary should work on one of these boats for a month then go play on someone’s boat who is game fishing because seems to me the rich are in control
Omega Protein has indicated that it plans to comply with the reduced limit of 51,000 tons. It sounds as if we will still see menhaden boats on the bay although perhaps not as many as before. This is not the same as being “shut down” The hope is that in the upcoming session in Richmond the menhaden management will be put under VMRC rather than the VA legislature.
Freaking unbelievable putting lots of people out of a job and going to cause a lot of businesses to close. This small community needs this company to stay alive. What in the hell is wrong with these idiots
Bully politics!
This comes from people that never had to work the waters to put food on the table and struggle to get by. It’s a shame that this world has come to this and say they want to help with the poverty but they want to stop the waterma. That this is their life and all they know. .
I hope this is not forgotten when the next election election rolls around!
you cant kill and entire species , you just cant !
Actually, we can kill an entire species. Especially in a local situation. Want a perfect example here on The Shore ? Deer. Yeah there are plenty of them around now, but they had been hunted to extinction HERE prior to the 50’s. This info comes from The Accomack Historical Society. When the deer did finally begin to come back here ( “Come Here’s” deer ? ) from The Pocomoke Forest, it was a rare and welcome sight. So we do need to decide what a sustainable harvest is. It just appears to me that after all the years of knowing this needs to be done, that proper balance still appears to be in question as to how to attain it.
Ya’ know what this all sounds like to me ? It sounds like we are all stuck with a government that demands they be in control of a fishery that they don’t know enough about to actually be allowed to judge what the fishery limit should be. Which means that we are all stuck with a load of crapola.
It appears as though there is a government agency somewhere that claims they know what the proper sustainable limit should be. Which agency is that ? Are they doing a good job ? Have they been ? Can they prove to us that they have always been using the right info/statistics ? This is obviously a very critical situation on several levels. I don’t understand why no one is spouting their opinion that they should be THE group overseeing the situation and spouting stats to back their opinion. The whole thing stinks that this has been ‘under control” for how many years ? And it appears to still have questions about the way to go about making this decision on volume to harvest.