During the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) meeting in early August, the ASMFC’s Atlantic Menhaden Management Board voted to establish a workgroup to consider and evaluate options “for further precautionary management,” including limiting large-scale menhaden fishing to certain areas or during certain times.
According to WHRO-TV out of Virginia, the board’s vote opens the door to more restrictions on the Chesapeake Bay’s bunker fishery, which in turn could be good news for striped bass.
“While we don’t lay all this at the feet of the large purse seine fisheries, we believe it is common sense to alleviate stress where we can control it,” said Lynn Fegley, a board member from Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources who spearheaded the motion that passed.
Virginia is the only East Coast state that still allows menhaden reduction fishing in state waters, with Omega Protein the last of the local menhaden reduction industry in Virginia. According to the WHRO-TV report, Omega Protein – which is now owned by Cooke Inc., a Canadian corporation that is the parent of Cooke Aquaculture – harvests hundreds of millions of menhaden each year, about a third of that coming from inside Chesapeake Bay.
Environmentalists and members of the recreational fishing community have long argued that bunker are disappearing from the Chesapeake Bay due to overfishing, which adversely affects the rest of the food chain.
Capt. Chris Dollar, a recreational fishing captain, chairman of the Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association’s fishery conservation committee, and former editor at The Fisherman Magazine, called the ASMFC Board vote a positive step forward.
“But it also underscores how important it is to have more science in the Chesapeake about menhaden abundance,” Capt. Dollar told WHRO-TV. Advocates had pushed for a bill at Virginia’s General Assembly that would have funded an in-depth study of the issue, but lawmakers delayed it for at least a year. “We need that study,” Dollar added.
A coalition of recreational anglers and environmental groups filed a petition earlier this year to Virginia’s own regulatory body to impose tighter rules on the industry, but that too was rejected.
ASMFC board member Dennis Abbott from New Hampshire said this action was overdue. “The people in Virginia and Maryland have been crying to us for years for us to do something for the menhaden in the bay,” Abbott said, adding “I think in whole, we’ve sat back and done very little. I think that the time has come to do something.”
Mike Waine, Atlantic Fisheries Policy Director at the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) also praised the board’s decision on behalf of the recreational fishing community. “This decision reflects growing concerns by ASA and other stakeholders over the impact of commercial menhaden fishing on the Bay’s ecosystem, an important producer area for striped bass and several other popular sportfish,” Waine said, noting that the workgroup will present initial results of their discussions at ASMFC’s October 2024 meeting.
