December 15, 2012 — In a packed conference room in Baltimore, a multistate fisheries commission made history Friday by voting in the first coastwide catch limit for Atlantic menhaden.
After volatile debate and a flurry of failed motions, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) opted to reduce the total allowable catch of menhaden by 20 percent beginning next year — a measure that Virginia and other member states must now approve or face stiff federal consequences.
The decision was praised by conservationists as a vital first step to try rebuild the dwindling stock, but blasted as a job-killing blow to working class Virginians employed in the only menhaden reduction facility on the Atlantic.
"The 20 percent reduction is a step in the right direction, and the commission should be applauded," Chris Moore, Hampton Roads senior scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said just after the vote. "It starts to get us toward a healthy population."
But Ben Landry, spokesman for Omega Protein Inc., called the vote a "big blow for the blue-collar workers in the Northern Neck of Virginia, as well as up and down the East Coast."
Omega employs 300 workers in its reduction facility in Reedville, where menhaden are ground and boiled down into fertilizer, food for pets and livestock and dietary supplements. Thousands of other jobs depend on the industry, including fishermen in Omega's eight-vessel fleet.
"Well have to run some numbers," Landry said, "but I can assure you it's probably going to cost the fleet at least one vessel, and that results in (lost) jobs directly there."
Read the full story at the Newport News Daily Press