May 7, 2026 — Critics of commercial menhaden fishing in the Chesapeake Bay have called for Bay-specific science. The Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) announced a pilot is advancing that may be able to provide it.
SCEMFIS announced that a research team is preparing to test whether a method called Passive Integrated Transponder, or PIT tagging, can help fill key data gaps.
PIT tags are tiny devices inserted into fish, and when those fish later pass a detection point, the tag can be read—allowing scientists to track data such as movement, survival, and other patterns.