May 9, 2012 – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s menhaden management board met May 2 and provided guidelines to the group that will draft an amendment to the commission’s menhaden fishing regulations.
The board advised the “planning development team” to include three-, five- and 10-year options to achieve whatever fishing mortality rate the Commission settles on once the science is in.
Rob O’Reilly, Acting Chief of the Fisheries Management Branch at the Virginia Marine Fisheries Commission, said in an interview Monday that, assuming the commission determines that the menhaden catch needs to be reduced, the time frames would dictate how long the commercial fishers would have to phase in their reduced catches. In the phase-in period is shorter, it would be harder on commercial enterprises such as Omega Protein in Reedville than the longer periods would be, O’Reilly said.
Several factors make determining the state of the menhaden stock and what should be done difficult, O’Reilly said. First, there has been no stock assessment since 2008 so regulators don’t have a current fix on the state of the fish. By the time the Board meets again in August a new assessment that will cover most of 2011 will have been filed.
Read the full story at the Northumberland Echo.