Coalition Pushes for Pausing Industrial Menhaden Extraction in the Chesapeake Bay While Scientific Study is Completed
As lawmakers prepare to vote in the coming days on breakthrough legislation to address concerns around Virginia’s menhaden extraction industry in the Chesapeake Bay, groups are calling for a pause on the fishery while research occurs.
Menhaden are small, nutrient-rich forage fish that anchor the Chesapeake Bay food web, feeding iconic species like striped bass and osprey. They are targeted by an extraction fishery that grinds up more than 100 million pounds of Chesapeake menhaden every year for industrial uses.
“It’s time to prioritize the Bay’s long-term health over the short-term profits of a single corporation,” said Chesapeake Bay Foundation Forage Campaign Manager Will Poston. “The Bay is showing signs of unprecedented strain, and we can’t afford to continue to stick our heads in the sand. We must ensure sufficient menhaden are available to sustain the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem while scientists begin to address longstanding concerns about threats from concentrated industrial extraction.”
Proposed state legislation would better protect a fish at the heart of the Chesapeake Bay and finally begin to improve Bay-specific menhaden science. This comes after years of failed attempts in the General Assembly to fund research to inform harvest levels needed to protect the Bay. This legislative session the pieces of the puzzle could finally be lining up.
Those include HB1048, patroned by Del. Betsy Carr, which would pause the industrial menhaden fishery inside the Chesapeake Bay until research shows no harm to other fisheries or species. Recent bipartisan polling shows that 79 percent of Virgina voters support that approach. This bill would not reduce how much menhaden the industry can harvest. Workers would still be able to fish in the ocean, as they already do regularly, but Bay waters would be protected.
A separate bill from Del. Carr aims to reduce potential harm from the industrial menhaden fishery by setting different harvest limits at different points in the year, as well as require fisheries observers on industrial menhaden fishing trips (HB1049).
Adding urgency, a bill that aimed to establish a menhaden science fund failed to clear the Senate Finance Committee earlier this week (SB474, patroned by Senator David Marsden). However, hope remains on the House side as a separate budget amendment by Del. Carr still under consideration would invest in menhaden research.
Recognizing the level of concern for the menhaden population, Congress passed a funding bill last month that included $2.5 million for NOAA to support menhaden research in the Bay.
These commonsense conservation measures would provide long-overdue accountability by protecting menhaden, and the jobs, communities, and ecosystems that depend on them. Carr’s legislation is expected to be considered Monday in the House Agriculture Chesapeake and Natural Resources – Chesapeake Subcommittee.
Warning signs point to a Chesapeake Bay under increasing stress. Osprey chicks are starving at unprecedented levels in parts of the Bay where they depend on menhaden for food. Small-scale watermen who catch menhaden for bait report catches down over 80% in recent years in Virginia, threatening livelihoods passed down through generations.
A new scientific assessment estimates far fewer menhaden up and down the Atlantic Coast than previously thought, but science specific to the Bay remains woefully inadequate.
Omega Protein and its associates have worked to delay meaningful action, blocking science and conservation efforts, violating harvest limits, and polluting the Bay.
“Virginia has an obligation to let data guide the management of Chesapeake Bay’s largest fishery. The science used to manage the Atlantic menhaden fishery is on a coastwide scale, even though nearly a quarter of total harvest occurs in Chesapeake Bay,” said Jaclyn Lunaas, forage fish program manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “HB1048 provides a commonsense mechanism for the Commonwealth to pause reduction fishing in the Bay until science demonstrates that this industrial harvest is not harming the ecosystem, a step that complements rather than rejects coastwide management by addressing its current limitations.”
Pollution and climate change are among the stressors on the menhaden population. Factory fishing by Omega Protein and its exclusive harvester partner Ocean Harvesters intensifies concerns about a population in decline being subject to high-volume extraction from Bay waters.
“Menhaden are integral to productive and thriving recreational fishing economies, as many of the most iconic Atlantic coast sportfish rely on this nutrient-packed forage fish,” said Mike Waine, Atlantic fisheries policy director with the American Sportfishing Association. “As warning signs mount for menhaden and the ecosystem, Virginia has the opportunity to respond with conservation-minded measures. Better protecting menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay protects a thriving recreational fishing economy here in the nation’s largest estuary and throughout the coast.”
The osprey crisis is ringing alarm bells in Virginia and beyond.
“Osprey chicks are starving to death,” said Alan Wingfield, president of the Richmond Audubon Society. “Osprey can’t speak, but they are telling us that there is something seriously wrong in the Bay and the need for action is urgent.”
The American Bird Conservancy is also calling for action.
“Policy change is needed in the Chesapeake Bay to conserve menhaden and birds, and the Virginia legislature has the opportunity to do that right now,” said Brian Brooks, vice president for advocacy & threats programs at American Bird Conservancy. “Osprey nests are failing in the Bay and limited food availability is one of the reasons for this decline. These legislative proposals would advance needed research, science, and harvest limits on menhaden that would aid their conservation, benefiting the wider ecosystem, including osprey, which depend on this food source.”
This week CBF launched Save Menhaden, a new campaign raising awareness and mobilizing action to protect one of Virginia’s most critical natural resources.
“Protecting menhaden is essential for a healthy Bay and all the livelihoods that depend on thriving waterways,” said Poston. “That includes the community of Reedville, which has the most to lose if the fishery collapses due to short-sighted corporate interests. Let’s act now before it’s too late.”
Virginians must speak up and ensure legislators pass legislation that pauses industrial menhaden fishing in Virginia and supports research on menhaden in the Bay. Learn how to save the bay and our fish at savemenhaden.org.