CAMBRIDGE, MD — April 11, 2013 — New limits on menhaden established by the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission have some watermen wondering how they'll be able to make a living. "This is a disgrace," Larry "Boo" Powley, who said he's been a watermen all his life, said. "I caught more menhaden last year than I've ever caught in my entire life, and this year you're putting me out of business." The regulations came after ASMFC changed its stock assessment formula and, using data from 2009 to 2011, determined that menhaden have been over-fished
Chesapeake Bay watermen are no strangers to regulations.
Now, new limits on menhaden established by the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission have some watermen wondering how they'll be able to make a living.
"This is a disgrace," Larry "Boo" Powley, who said he's been a watermen all his life, said. "I caught more menhaden last year than I've ever caught in my entire life, and this year you're putting me out of business."
The regulations came after ASMFC changed its stock assessment formula and, using data from 2009 to 2011, determined that menhaden have been over-fished.
In December 2012, the commission then decided to reduce the coastwide harvest of menhaden by 20 percent. That figure was taken from the average harvest of menhaden between 2009 and 2011, or about 471 million pounds, Lynn Fegley, deputy director of fishery services for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said.
Fegley said a 20 percent reduction would result in an annual harvest of about 377 million pounds.
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