NORTHUMBERLAND, Va. — August 7, 2012 — Rob Wittman and 15 other congressmen may have thrown a monkey wrench into the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s movement toward new regulations that would curtail the catch of Atlantic menhaden.
On Friday they sent a letter to the commission saying that the model used to assess the condition of menhaden stocks is flawed and that the commission has refused to consider a scientifically valid aerial survey that indicates that there are at least twice as many menhaden as assessments based on models indicate.
The congressmen asked that the commission hold off on any new regulations until it has done “the necessary scientific data collection and analyses before making major new decisions to regulate the industry.”
The letter arrived as the commission’s menhaden management board was set to decide on Aug. 8 whether to send out a proposed draft amendment that would curtail commercial menhaden fishing or hold off on taking action until flaws in the models used to make assessments of the menhaden’s numbers can be fixed.
Initially, a 2012 assessment of the fish’s stock was expected to be used, but the commission’s technical committee found that it was so flawed as to be scientifically useless.
“It was based on scanty and localized information,” John Bull of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission said Monday.
But, Bull said that the menhaden board may go forward with new proposed regulations using an earlier assessment that has the same flaws but has been peer reviewed. He expects that to happen because the commission is only required to use the best science available whether it’s questionable or not.
Read the full story at the Northumberland Echo.