The largest harvester of menhaden in U.S. waters, Canadian-owned Omega Protein, acknowledged that it has exceeded the cap in total harvest for Chesapeake Bay menhaden, yet it is continuing to haul in pogies. The company has said it will instead comply with a considerably higher catch limit set by the state of Virginia.
The ASMFC recommended a 51,000-metric-ton cap on menhaden harvest in the Chesapeake Bay, while Virginia has set that cap at 87,216 metric tons.
The lower limit was “arbitrarily low and unscientific” according to an Omega statement. It further cited safety of its fishermen, claiming that rough weather outside the bay that forced its industrial seiners to work inside the bay.
The ASFMC has denied that there is anything “arbitrary” about the 51,000-ton limit, a spokesman telling Undercurrent that the agency has used the same approach to set limits for many species in many fisheries. The ASFMC is scheduled to further consider menhaden on Oct. 28.
In a statement issued Sept. 13, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation observed that the ASMC cap was overwhelmingly adopted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) as a precautionary measure to ensure that the menhaden population left in the Bay can support species that prey on it, such as striped bass and bluefish, as well as marine mammals and birds.
Omega Protein, a Canadian owned fishery is actually based out of Houston Texas. The family that owns Omega Protein is located in Canada. However, the burden of their harvest directly affects those that live on the Chesapeake Bay. And finally, their oversight on how much may be harvested or the penalties incurred from over harvesting is conducted by none other than our General Assembly in Richmond. My thought is this: with such a spread of capital, industry and oversight, communication must be very, very difficult. Because every time I turn around, the fishery out of Reedville is either illegally gathering too many menhaden, or fishing at the wrong place at the wrong time or just as random, an entire haul of dead bunker (menhaden for you landlubbers) will have washed up on some unsuspecting beach. Between the cleaning out of the bay and the poisoning of your soils, the Eastern Shore seems to be taking her lumps lately. From what I can see from the responses to many of these articles, however, very few people seem to care. And that is just sad.