Saving Seafood

Relief is coming for Virginia fisheries, although payments likely won’t be large

October 2, 2020 — Fisheries managers are close to being able to roll out relief for Virginia’s hard-hit fishing industries, although a small federal allocation to the commonwealth means payments aren’t likely to be large, Virginia Marine Resources Commission officials said Tuesday morning.

“Because there were so little funding and such great economic damage, the idea of the sort of trying to make sure you make up the loss for people was not an option on the table,” VMRC Deputy Commissioner Ellen Bolen said during a presentation to the commission. “We just did not have enough money.”

Virginia’s fisheries have been pummeled by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly as restaurants, one of their primary customers, have shuttered or severely curtailed their business. Officials have estimated direct losses to the industry of at least $100 to $120 million, not accounting for trickle-down effects to associated business like boat-building.

Read the full story at NBC 12

VIRGINIA: Northam administration says federal fisheries relief ‘falls woefully short’

May 12, 2020 — Virginia’s waters are unusually still this spring.

Ordinarily, May 1 is the start of the charter boat season, a day that sees convoys of boats head out from the ports of coastal Virginia for deeper waters where fish are sought by daytrippers. By then, crabbing and oystering, which usually begin in March, are in full swing. So are the commercial fisheries, many of which operate year-round.

Not so this year. Like so many other industries, fisheries, whether commercial or recreational, have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. And while U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Thursday announced $300 million in relief funding for fisheries around the nation, Virginia’s top natural resources official says the state’s $4.5 million allocation is nowhere near enough to stem the tide of losses.

“This funding falls woefully short of even beginning to address the devastating impacts fisheries and aquaculture businesses have suffered due to COVID-19,” said Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Matt Strickler in a statement. “The fishing industry in Virginia supports thousands of jobs and generates millions in revenue. The administration must release more funding to help our coastal communities and businesses.”

Read the full story at The Virginia Mercury

Virginia: Menhaden quota bill pulled in Va. House of Delegates

March 7, 2018 — A much-lobbied bill about an oily fish that nobody eats died in the House of Delegates — but with a promise by some proponents and stern opponents to work together to push for permission to catch more.

The bill, backed by the Northam Administration, was an effort to deal with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s sharp, 41.5 percent cut in a Chesapeake Bay quota for menhaden.

But the administration and Omega Protein, the owner of the Reedville plant that processes menhaden from the bay, agreed to stop fighting over the bill and work together to convince the Marine Fisheries Commission to increase the quota.

The regional commission last year approved a more than 36,000-metric-ton cut in bay quota for menhaden caught by drawing huge “seine” nets around schools of the fish and then hauling them up onto so-called “purse seine” fishing vessels.

Currently, the old marine fisheries commission quota of 87,216 metric tons for fish caught is written into state law.

Knight had proposed removing the reference in state law to the 87,216 tons and empowering the head of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to set a new quota after appealing, and hopefully winning, an increased quota from the regional body.

Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Matt Strickler had argued that keeping the old quota in the Code of Virginia risked sanctions that could include an outright ban on menhaden fishing in the bay.

Environmental groups — including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, League of Conservation Voters and Nature Conservancy, as well as sports fishermen — argued that the lower quota was necessary as a precautionary measure. They fear too many young menhaden are caught in the bay, a key nursery area for the migratory fish. This could put the menhaden population at risk, as well other species, including striped bass and ospreys.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

 

Governor’s bill on menhaden catch limits advances, barely

March 1, 2018 — Atlantic menhaden aren’t giant fish — generally measuring about a foot or less — but they are big business in Virginia, so much so that they are the only species not entrusted to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission for management.

“The General Assembly has decided to retain control over setting quotas for menhaden,” said Matt Strickler, Virginia’s new secretary of natural resources.

Strickler had just emerged from a bruising hearing Wednesday before the House’s Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, which barely advanced a bill sent down by Gov. Ralph Northam to bring Virginia into compliance with a November decision by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission that cut the quota for fish netted in the Chesapeake Bay.

The bill by Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, which made it out of the committee on an 11-10 vote, was fiercely opposed by Omega Protein. The company operates the only “reduction fishery” on the Atlantic coast, a fleet of boats and plant in Reedville that turn thousands of tons of the fish into oil and meal each year for a range of products each year, from dietary supplements to pet food.

“This bill does harm industry and it does risk jobs,” Monty Deihl, Omega’s vice president of operations, told the committee, adding that no one was more attuned to menhaden numbers than the company, which was founded in Virginia in 1913. “This stock is more important to us than probably anyone else.”

Environmental groups and recreational fishermen urged the committee to send it on to the House floor.

Chris Newsome, a charter fishing captain from Gloucester, said menhaden are a “shared resource owned by all constituents of the commonwealth.”

“Decisions regarding menhaden shouldn’t be influenced solely by one stakeholder,” he said.

Read the full story at the Richmond Times-Dispatch