By Zamone Perez
Virginia News Connection
Legislation in the Virginia General Assembly aims to study Atlantic menhaden populations in the Chesapeake Bay in response to concerns by local fishermen and environmental advocates.
Conservationists suggested reduction fishing could be the culprit, when large quantities of menhaden are caught and processed for fishmeal and fish oil used in large-scale aquaculture.
House Bill 1048 would stop reduction fishing until scientific studies prove the practice does not negatively affect other fisheries or menhaden-dependent species. Another piece of legislation would spread quota periods throughout the year to give menhaden the chance to move through the Bay.
Will Poston, forage campaign manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the fish are vital to the Bay ecosystem.
“Everything out in the Chesapeake Bay and marine ecosystems eat menhaden,” Poston pointed out. “Our striped bass, our redfish, bluefish, osprey, humpback whales, dolphins, sharks; all rely on menhaden for good reason, too, because they are so packed with key nutrients.”
Virginia is home to the only reduction fishery left on the Chesapeake Bay, while other Bay states have banned such industrial-scale fishing. Ocean Harvesters, which owns and operates menhaden fishing fleets in the Atlantic, stated the proposed restrictions could mean hundreds of lost jobs among a largely minority, unionized workforce in a rural area with few other comparable jobs.
There is little consistent data on menhaden populations in the Chesapeake Bay. A piece of legislation to conduct menhaden population studies, Senate Bill 474, has been tabled until the 2027 legislative session. Poston said the Bay ecosystem faces a number of challenges, from climate change to development.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have the ability to control all those factors,” Poston acknowledged. “All we can do as resource managers is ensure more menhaden are potentially available to this Chesapeake Bay ecosystem to relieve stress and mitigate these warning signs that are very real and that we’re seeing on the ground.”
A study by the Center for Conservation Biology has sounded the alarm over starving osprey populations. The predatory bird is commonly used as a way to gauge current menhaden populations because menhaden play a significant role in its diet.