Virginia Mercury News – The Chesapeake Legal Alliance filed the lawsuit in May on behalf of the Southern Maryland Recreational Fishing Organization, noting that the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, which has overseen the Virginia menhaden fishery since 2020, increased the allowable catch limit outside the Oct. 1–Dec. 31 period when state law allows changes to fishery regulations. The Virginia Office of the Attorney General is asking a Richmond judge to throw out a lawsuit.
The Office of the Attorney General, which is representing the VMRC, said Virginia had to increase the catch limit to comply with new limits set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which oversees fisheries on the East Coast. The ASMFC sets a coastwide catch limit for menhaden and then allocates a portion of it to each state. In Virginia, that quota is overseen by the VMRC.
In 2022, the ASMFC awarded Virginia 78%, or about 334 million pounds, of the coastwide catch of menhaden. In 2023, the commission increased the coastwide catch while reducing Virginia’s allocation to 75%. The end result gave Virginia the ability to catch up to about 383 million pounds of menhaden.
The Office of the Attorney General writes that had Virginia not changed its catch limit to match the 75% allocated to Virginia, the state would have been out of compliance with the ASMFC limits. An exception in Virginia law allows the VMRC to change its regulations outside that window in order to maintain compliance with the ASMFC, the attorney general’s office argues.
“In short, reverting the regulation to the previous version would permit Virginians to exceed the ASMFC’s allocation and prevent VMRC from meeting its obligation to implement and enforce the ASMFC’s allocations,” the attorney general’s office wrote.
But the recreational fishers said states can be in compliance with ASMFC limits by setting their own catch limit at or below the allowable amount. Virginia regulators’ 2022 limits were already below those set by the ASMFC for the 2023 season, regardless of the 78% figure written into it, said Chesapeake Legal Alliance Executive Director David Reed Monday.
“They have decided to play a semantics game,” said Reed. “It’s a straightforward issue. It’s just dizzying rhetoric.”
The recreational fishers are arguing the menhaden catch increase is harming the Chesapeake’s striped bass and osprey populations, which both consume menhaden as a major part of their diet.
AG Miyares is getting some bad or misleading advice in order to create a false narrative!
It appears from the reporting VMRC is contributing to the false narrative through its Commissioner. The issue is NOT about total tonnage! The issue is the about WHERE the amount of whatever tonnage is allowed, IT IS BEING NETTED.
ASMFC studies indicate there is plenty of menhaden in the Atlantic. There is no reason for VMRC authority or justification to allow any catch within the Chesapeake Bay when it has been documented available outside the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia waters where the menhaden collection boats and their airplane spotters can be seen netting it every year. Schools that survive the Atlantic netting should be allowed to survive in the Bay as Maryland law requires.