May 8, 2018 — Gov. Ralph Northam has named state Sen. Monty Mason, D-Williamsburg, to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a regional body that coordinates the conservation and management of 27 species of fish.
The commission’s efforts with one species — menhaden — sparked controversy in the General Assembly this year, when Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, proposed bills to write its sharp cut in Chesapeake Bay landings of the fish into state law. Northam supported the measures, but they did not make it out of the House of Delegates.
Menhaden is the one species directly regulated by the General Assembly; other fisheries are managed by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Last year, the commission approved a 41.5 percent cut — more than 36,000 metric tons — in the 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.
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