January 17, 2013 — Senate and House members recommended passage Thursday of companion bills that would reduce Virginia's catch of menhaden by 20 percent over the next two years while scientists assess stocks of the oily fish that is important environmentally and commercially for the Chesapeake Bay.
The action by a House subcommittee and a Senate committee comes about one month after the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission recommended the 20 percent cut. While considered rare, the federal secretary of commerce can suspend a commercial fishery if a state does not heed fishing regulators.
The compromise bill was backed by often competing interests, meaning it will likely win passage in the General Assembly.
The catch reduction will be felt the hardest in Reedville, a Chesapeake Bay fishing village that is home to Omega Protein Inc.'s menhaden fleet, which works the bay and the coast. As a result of the cut, employment will be reduced from approximately 260 workers at the peak of the May to December season to approximately 225, a spokesman said.
The menhaden catch is among the largest, by pound, of any fishery in the U.S.
Menhaden is a small, pudgy fish that has no value as a food fish but plays a big role in the bay. It's on the diet of rockfish, a prized game fish, and osprey. It also filters the bay, which is amid a multi-decade, federally led restoration after years of neglect.
Omega catches the fish with a fleet of seven trawlers, down from 10 a few years ago, and processes it for use in health supplements, animal feed and other products. The fish is also caught by watermen who use them for bait in catching other fish and crabs. They will also share a burden of the reduction.
Omega spokesman Ben Landry said the company backs the reduction but said the Jan. 1, 2015, end to the limit "sends a message" to East Coast fishing regulators who recommended the catch ceiling.
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