The menhaden reduction industry, specifically one notorious company in Virginia – Omega Protein, which accounts for over 70% of menhaden landings along the Coast – had essentially thumbed their nose at the Commission and willingly exceeded a cap on landings in the Chesapeake Bay, put in place by the Commission several years ago.
The intent of such cap, which was based on the prior 5 years’ average landings, was to avoid localized depletion and the effects large-scale harvest might have on the Bay’s ecosystem. I don’t think we need to mention it here, but menhaden is of course one of, if not THE most important forage source for striped bass, bluefish and just about every other marine predator with fins or wings. So it certainly makes sense that if you take an extraordinary amount of menhaden out of what is THE most important estuary on the East Coast, there will be negative effects.
Yet, there has been push back by Omega on the cap from the beginning, claiming that it wasn’t based on science, that it wasn’t necessary for the conservation of the species etc., all things that are intuitively incorrect. A complicating factor here is that menhaden is managed by the Virginia state legislature not Virginia’s Department of Marine Resources. As big companies often do, Omega has been able to “influence” legislators and there hasn’t been a successful vote to codify the cap. Thus, their argument was that they could exceed the cap and still be well within the law.
That’s not true though. Virginia is bound by Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act, and should such a state be found out of compliance with the fishery management plan the decision gets bumped up to the Secretary of Commerce, which, if it agrees with such a finding, could declare a moratorium on menhaden landings in the state until the state comes into compliance.
A few notes here. It’s good that the Commission had the guts to stand up to Omega. There was certainly a question as to whether or not it would. The Commission is rightly worried about whether or not the Secretary of Commerce will undermine it’s decision, given it’s acquiescence to New Jersey after a non-compliance finding back in 2017. That was the first time ever a Secretary of Commerce didn’t support a compliance finding. And it sure appeared like it was a political favor for a Governor with a good relationship to the current Administration.
What happens this go-around is anyone’s guess. But we’re hoping that this Administration will see the folly in allowing a Canadian owned company to thumb its nose at the Commission, and pretty much tell us it’s gonna do whatever it wants. It would be good if some of these recreational fishing organizations with strong lobbies on Capital Hill started pounding on some doors (i.e. ASA, CCA, TRCP etc.) but it’s anything but certain that will happen.
