February 13, 2018 — A multi-state body says Virginians must catch fewer menhaden from the bay, but Virginia’s General Assembly didn’t listen — or, to be exact, didn’t really get a chance to hear.
A bill to bring Virginia’s quota in line with a steep cut demanded by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has languished for more than a month in the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee.
The committee won’t meet again before Tuesday’s midnight deadline for the House of Delegates to act on bills sponsored by House members. Without a committee’s vote to recommend a bill, it couldn’t make it to the floor for all the delegates to consider.
And that means that the higher quota applies for the only fishery — Virginia’s biggest — that the General Assembly regulates.
Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, wanted the General Assembly to agree to the cut in Virginia landings of menhaden from 87,216 metric tons to 51,000 tons that was approved in November by the regional fisheries commission.
That 41.5 percent cut came as the commission approved an 8 percent increase in the coastwide quota set by the commission.
The proposed quota cut is meant to protect a major nursery for menhaden and the striped bass that feed on them, said Chris Moore, senior regional ecosystem scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
While menhaden aren’t sold for human food, they are processed for fish oil, in food supplements, and for fishmeal, an important ingredient in livestock feed, as well as in pet food and to nourish farm-grown fish and seafood.
The striped bass that eat menhaden, on the other hand, have become an important food fish, as well as popular catch for recreational fishermen. Menhaden are also a vital food for marine mammals and osprey.
Moore said not enacting the regional commission quota puts Virginia, and the fishing crews and processing plant workers who depend on menhaden, at risk of sanctions.
That’s a big business. Omega Protein, the Texas-based fish oil and fishmeal producer whose Reedville operation, supplied by seven ships, is the fifth-largest U.S. port for fish landings, with 321 million pounds, worth $31 million, in 2016.