May 15, 2026 — A recent announcement that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Menhaden Management Board has postponed a decision to place further restrictions on Virginia’s menhaden reduction fishery inside Chesapeake Bay means Ocean Harvesters of Reedville, Virginia, will begin fishing full throttle in June.
This will be the first season Omega Protein, the last large reduction fishery left on the United States East Coast, will have to abide by the 2026 ASMFC 20 percent coast-wide menhaden quota reduction approved by the commission in October 2025.
The reduction will not, however, impact Omega’s 51,000 metric ton quota that is the current allowable harvest quota from Chesapeake Bay waters. The ASMFC menhaden management board was considering time and area closers of Virginia’s menhaden reduction fishery in Chesapeake Bay “to be protective of piscivorous birds and fish during critical points of their life cycles.”
There was also concern that the reduction fishery was capturing forage fish before they moved through the bay up into Maryland waters. “The menhaden management board is going to conduct more studies on this,” says Ben Landry, Omega Proteins’ director of public affairs. “It is pretty clear to us though that we are not catching all the fish before they get to Maryland. When we are catching menhaden at the same time Maryland pound netters are catching plenty of fish, it is a good indication that we are not catching all the fish before they get to Maryland waters,” says Landry.