Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Archives - Page 3 of 135

VIRGINIA: Northumberland board shows support for Ocean Harvesters, Omega Protein

September 17, 2026 — In advance of potential action by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) to further reduce the Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishery Cap (bay cap), Northumberland supervisors on Thursday, September 10, unanimously adopted a resolution in support of Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein.

In person public hearings to address the Atlantic Menhaden Draft Addendum II are slated from 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, September 19, at Northumberland High School, 201 Academic Lane, Heathsville; and from 6-8 p.m. September 28, at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, 380 Fenwick Road. Building 96, Fort Monroe.

Copies of the resolution were sent to ASMFC, Virginia Marine Resources Commission, Gov. Abigail Spanberger, Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources David Bulova, Del. Hillary Pugh Kent, Sen. Richard Stuart, Rep. Rob Wittman, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner.

Read the full article at Rappahannock Record

VIRGINIA: Scientist’s Menhaden Lecture Separates What Is Known From What Remains to Be Studied

MATHEWS, Va. (Saving Seafood) — September 16, 2026 — Atlantic menhaden may be one of the most debated fish in the Chesapeake Bay, but a Virginia fisheries scientist told a Mathews County, Virginia audience last month that some of the strongest claims surrounding the species supersede what scientists can actually demonstrate.

Dr. Robert J. Latour, a professor at William & Mary’s Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, presented “Atlantic Menhaden — One Fish, Many Opinions” on August 12 at Williams Wharf Landing as part of the Mathews Land Conservancy lecture series.

Over the course of an hour, Dr. Latour walked the audience through the biology of menhaden, the history of a fishery that once stretched along much of the Atlantic Coast, modern stock assessments and the increasingly complicated effort to manage a forage fish that is both commercially valuable and an important part of the marine food web.

The picture he presented was considerably more nuanced than claims advanced by activist groups that portray the commercial fishery as removing too many menhaden from the water and as being the culprit in most if not all of the Chesapeake’s woes.

At the coastwide level, Dr. Latour said, the scientific assessment does not indicate that menhaden are being overfished. Biomass has increased over the assessment period, while recruitment — the addition of young fish to the population — continues to fluctuate from year to year but demonstrates continued reproduction and survival. This is important because menhaden have increasingly become the focus of arguments that commercial harvest is depriving striped bass, ospreys and other predators of food.

Dr. Latour explained that while Atlantic menhaden are still considered a single genetic stock from Maine to Florida, the way that stock is managed has evolved. Rather than relying solely on traditional single-species management, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission now uses ecological reference points designed to account for menhaden’s role as forage and the needs of predator species when setting harvest levels.

A much smaller fishery than it once was

Dr. Latour also put today’s commercial fishery into historical perspective.

At its height, the Atlantic menhaden reduction industry included roughly 145 vessels and about 25 factories. Today, the reduction fleet has contracted to roughly 7 to 10 vessels and a single remaining processing plant.

Dr. Latour cautioned against interpreting that contractionas evidence that fishing exhausted the resource. Economics, changing waterfront development and restrictions on where reduction fishing could occur also significantly contributed to the industry’s disappearance from much of the coast.

Likewise, the current coastwide harvest is only a fraction of its historical peak. Dr. Latour showed the audience that today’s catch is roughly 28 percent of peak historical levels, with removals declining substantially over time and more recently stabilizing under modern harvest controls.

That historical context complicates one of the images frequently used by activist groups in the menhaden debate: enormous nets and large quantities of fish being taken from the water. The biological question is not whether a catch looks large, but whether the population can sustain its level of fishing mortality.

According to the stock assessment Dr. Latour presented, coastwide fishing mortality is not currently producing overfishing.

The Chesapeake question is harder

Dr. Latour was particularly careful in distinguishing what scientists know about the Atlantic-wide population from what they are working to learn about menhaden specifically inside the Chesapeake Bay.

That difference lies at the center of today’s issue.

Critics of the reduction fishery have increasingly argued that even if the coastwide population is healthy, commercial fishing could be causing “localized depletion” inside the Bay, leaving too few fish in particular places for predators or other fishermen.

Answering that question requires better Chesapeake-specific information about adult menhaden abundance, where the fish are, how long they remain in the Bay and how they move between Chesapeake and coastal waters.

Now, significant resources are being committed to developing that science.

Dr. Latour described an emerging research effort supported by state and private funding. The work is intended to build the scientific foundation needed to better understand menhaden abundance, movement, predator consumption, fishing patterns and possible localized depletion in the Chesapeake Bay.

The Science Center for Marine Fisheries, part of the National Science Foundation’s Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers program, is funding a research roadmap to help scientists determine the most scientifically defensible and effective way to proceed with that work. The project brings together researchers from William & Mary’s VIMS & Batten School, including Dr. Latour, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and NOAA to evaluate potential research methods, timelines and costs.

The research design and execution is developed and directed solely by the team of scientists.

New research aims at the questions behind the menhaden issue

A major portion of the lecture focused not on what scientists already know, but on an ambitious research effort designed to fill some of the gaps that have fueled years of debate.

Researchers plan to investigate seasonal abundance of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay, movement between the Bay and coastal waters, predator consumption, commercial fishing patterns and the possibility of localized depletion. Those are essentially the questions that would have to be answered to place future Bay-specific management decisions on firmer scientific footing.

Tagging could become an important part of that work.

Scientists are examining methods for tagging menhaden and detecting those fish when they later encounter the commercial fishery. If researchers can reliably recover information from tagged fish, the resulting data could help estimate movement, exploitation and eventually abundance — measurements that cannot be obtained by looking at coastwide stock numbers.

The broader research planning effort is evaluating several possible tools for producing those Bay-specific data, with tagging among the most promising approaches. Other potential approaches being evaluated include acoustic and LiDAR surveys, environmental DNA and stable-isotope analysis.

And contrary to claims made by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation that the commercial industry has stood in the way of menhaden research, Dr. Latour described the companies involved in the fishery as participants in the work.

He said he has been communicating with Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein about ramping up the project, including the possibility of putting detection equipment aboard commercial fishing vessels and at the Reedville processing plant.

The cooperation is not incidental. Researchers themselves do not have the infrastructure to capture menhaden on anything approaching the scale of the commercial fleet, making access to commercial operations essential to an effective tagging program.

Cooperation with industry could allow scientists to test detection equipment under actual fishing conditions and ultimately determine whether information on tagged menhaden can be recovered reliably enough to answer larger population questions.

The research is particularly significant because the questions it seeks to answer are already being used in arguments for additional restrictions on the fishery.

Instead of allowing the debate to rest on competing assumptions about localized depletion, Virginia, scientists and the industry are putting resources into developing the data needed to determine whether it occurs, where it occurs and whether fishing contributes to it.

A fish with extraordinary reproductive capacity

Dr. Latour’s presentation also offered biological context that can get lost in debates centered on the sheer volume of commercial landings.

Menhaden are highly productive fish. In discussing reproduction, Dr. Latour showed that individual females can produce eggs numbering in the millions and used a roughly three-year-old fish to illustrate the species’ substantial reproductive capacity.

That does not mean harvest is irrelevant. It helps explain why fisheries scientists rely on population models, fishing mortality, biomass, recruitment and biological reference points rather than looking at the number of pounds landed in a given year.

Those assessments are intended to answer the fundamental management question: whether the fishery is removing menhaden faster than the population can sustain.

Dr. Latour’s presentation showed that the current coastwide answer is no.

Managing menhaden for predators, too

Another recurring criticism of commercial menhaden fishing is that traditional fishery management fails to account adequately for the fish’s ecological importance.

But Dr. Latour explained that Atlantic menhaden management has moved beyond a purely single-species approach.

Ecological reference points are designed to account for predator-prey relationships when managers determine acceptable levels of menhaden fishing mortality. Striped bass plays a particularly important role in that modeling.

That means the management system does not treat every menhaden left uncaught merely as unused commercial yield. A portion of the population is explicitly being considered in the context of its ecological function.

The difference is important because arguments over menhaden are sometimes framed as a choice between commercial harvest and ecosystem needs, even as the commercial fishery harvests a low percentage of the overall menhaden biomass. The scientific management framework Dr. Latour described attempts to account for both.

The larger message of Dr. Latour’s presentation was that uncertainty should not be confused with evidence for one side or the other.

ASMFC public hearings on menhaden

September 14, 2026 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), coastal states of Maine through Virginia, have scheduled hearings to gather public input on Draft Addendum II to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden.

The Draft Addendum considers options to reduce the Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishery Cap (Bay Cap) by up to 50 percent and distribute the cap more evenly throughout the fishing season. The current harvest cap for industrial fishing inside the bay is 51,000 metric tons annually.

ASMFC officials said that the options aim to alleviate a concentration of effort that may be affecting other fisheries within the Bay and other potential ecological impacts. The options are aimed at Omega Protein and Ocean Harvesters of Reedville, Va., the only menhaden reduction fishery firms on the East Coast.

ASMFC initiated the Draft Addendum in response to concerns regarding declining pound net harvest and catch per unit effort in the Bay in recent years, coinciding with an increase in the concentration of reduction harvest in the summer months, and the possible downstream effects on menhaden predators, it was stated in a ASMFC news release.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NORTH CAROLINA: Continued blue crab declines, mixed signals for other N.C. fisheries in 2025

September 11, 2026 — Fisheries regulators say commercial blue crab landings in North Carolina declined again in 2025 and surveys continued to find low juvenile abundance, while the latest monitoring produced less definitive signals for southern flounder, speckled trout and striped mullet.

The findings are contained in the 677-page North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries 2025 Fishery Management Plan Review that was released Friday.

The annual report covers 12 species or groups managed under state plans, 21 managed by federal councils or the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and two managed through state Marine Fisheries Commission rules.

The document is not a single new stock assessment.

Rather, it compiles commercial and recreational fishing information, standardized field surveys, biological samples and previously completed stock assessments.

Most of the monitoring data were collected during 2025, but some of the stock-status determinations are based on assessments with data ending several years earlier.

Read the full article at Island Free Press

ASMFC 84th Annual Meeting Details, Preliminary Agenda, and Public Comment Guidelines

September 11, 2026 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Please find here and below the meeting details, preliminary agenda, and public comment guidelines for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 84th Annual Meeting, which will be held November 9-12, 2026 at Hotel Viking, 1 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island. This will be a hybrid meeting to allow for remote participation by Commissioners and interested stakeholders in all meetings. The Law Enforcement Committee, Habitat Committee, and Atlantic Coast Fish Habitat Partnership Steering Committee will have unique webinar links that will be available as part of the individual committee materials. The Annual Meeting page also includes the other important background information such as the travel authorization and reimbursement guidelines; simply open the accordion at Background Materials to access those documents. Materials will be available October 28th on the Commission website at https://asmfc.org/events/2026-annual-meeting/.

The agenda is subject to change. The agenda reflects the current estimate of time required for scheduled Board meetings. The Commission may adjust this agenda in accordance with the actual duration of Board meetings. Interested parties should anticipate Boards starting earlier or later than indicated herein. At these meetings, action may be taken on any agenda item, including, but not limited to, reports from staff, technical committees, stock assessment committees, peer reviews, Law Enforcement Committee, advisory panels, plan review teams, and plan development teams.

Our Rhode Island Commissioners have been working closely with us on the meeting details and are looking forward to welcoming you all to Newport. A seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, Newport is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately 33 miles southeast of Providence, 20 miles south of Fall River, Massachusetts, 74 miles south of Boston, and 180 miles northeast of New York City. It is known as a New England summer resort and is famous for its historic mansions and its rich sailing history. Newport hosted the first US Open tournaments in both tennis and golf, as well as every challenge for the America’s Cup between 1930 and 1983. It is also the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport, which houses the US Naval War College, and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. It was a major 18th-century port city and has many buildings from the colonial era.

All of the business meetings scheduled during this week (with the exception of scheduled closed sessions) are open to the public, free of charge. However, if you plan on attending any of the Annual Meeting events, please help us prepare for these events by registering early (see below for more details).

ACCOMMODATIONS
A block of rooms is being held at Hotel Viking. The Commission will make hotel reservations for Commissioners and Proxies. For all other attendees, please make your reservations online through this link to get our negotiated rate of $150 plus taxes per night, and an urban destination fee and tax of $25 per night. Hotel reservations must be made by October 12, 2026. Room availability will not be guaranteed beyond this date. Reservations made through travel websites do not apply towards the Commission’s minimum number of required reservations with the hotel. If you have any problems regarding accommodations, please contact Lisa Carty at 703.842.0713 or lcarty@asmfc.org.

Please click here to complete the Registration, Attendance, and Accommodations Form. This form ensures we have accurate information on meeting attendance and event participation. Please notify Lisa Carty of any changes to your travel plans that will impact your hotel reservations, otherwise you will incur no-show penalties. Individual reservations canceled within 3 days without a documented reason will be charged a cancellation fee equal to the guest room rate for the entire length of the reservation. We greatly appreciate your cooperation.

REGISTRATION
Completion of the Registration, Attendance, and Accommodations Form is required for all participants, whether or not you will be reimbursed for travel by the Commission. However, only those who will not be reimbursed for travel by the Commission (see travel authorization form) will need to pay the registration fee (e.g., guests and federal participants). The meeting registration fee is $200 for participants and $150 for spouses or guestsif you register by October 30, 2026. After October 30 and in Newport, Rhode Island, the fees will be $225 and $175, respectively. The registration fee covers the Monday night welcome reception, the Tuesday night dinner, Captain David H. Hart Award lunch on Wednesday, and event materials.

GETTING TO NEWPORT
The Hotel Viking is accessible by automobile or airplane. T.F. Green International Airport in Providence and Boston Logan International Airport are the closest major airports. The closest Amtrak Station is located in Kingston, roughly 30-40 minutes from Hotel Viking located at 1 Railroad Avenue in West Kingston.

FISHING TOURNAMENT
Plans are well underway for the 33rd Annual Laura Leach Fishing Tournament. Everyone is invited and encouraged to participate. You will receive a T-shirt with your $20 entry fee; and 100% of the tournament proceeds will be donated to a local charity to be determined by the host state. The tournament runs from Sunday (11/8) through noon on Wednesday (11/11); the raffle drawing and tournament prizes will be awarded Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning.

Public Comment Guidelines

To provide a fair opportunity for public input, the ISFMP Policy Board has approved the following guidelines for use at management board meetings:

For issues that are not on the agenda, management boards will continue to provide opportunities to the public to bring matters of concern to the board’s attention at the start of each board meeting. Board chairs will ask members of the public to raise their hands to let the chair know they would like to speak. Depending upon the number of commenters, the board chair will decide how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak.

For topics that are on the agenda that have not gone out for public comment, board chairs will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. Chairs will have flexibility in deciding how to allocate comment opportunities; this could include hearing one comment in favor and one in opposition until the chair is satisfied further comments will not provide additional insight to the board.

For agenda action items that have already gone out for public comment, it is the Policy Board’s intent to end the occasional practice of allowing extensive and lengthy public comments. Currently, board chairs have the discretion to decide what public comment, if any, to allow in these circumstances.

In addition, the following timeline has been established for the submission of written comments for issues for which the Commission has NOT established a specific public comment period (i.e., in response to proposed management action).

1. Comments received three weeks prior to the start of a meeting week (October 19) will be included in the briefing materials.
2. Comments received by 5 PM on Tuesday, November 3 will be included in supplemental materials.
3. Comments received by 10 AM on Friday, November 6 will be distributed electronically to Commissioners/Board members prior to the meeting.

The submitted comments must clearly indicate the commenter’s expectation from the ASMFC staff regarding distribution. As with other public comment, it will be accepted via mail and email.

Preliminary Agenda

Monday, November 9
9:30 – 10:15 a.m. Atlantic Herring Management Board
Set Specifications for the 2027-2029 Fishing Years
Set Quota Period for the 2027 Area 1A Fishery
Consider Fishery Management Plan Review and State Compliance for the 2025 Fishing Year
Update from New England Fishery Management Council

9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership (ACFHP) Steering Committee
Restoration Project Updates
FY26 Projects – Active
FY27 Project List – Recommended for Funding
Finalize 2027-2031 Conservation Strategic Plan
Draft 2027-2028 Action Plan
ACFHP Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Workshop Updates
Discuss Multi-State Funding Opportunities

10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. American Lobster Management Board
Report from Management Objectives Process Steering Committee
Technical Committee Reports
Jonah Crab Data Update
American Lobster Data Update
Progress on Board Tasks
Reports from Gulf of Maine States on Industry Surveys and Meetings
Consider Fishery Management Plan Review and State Compliance for the 2025 Fishing Year
Summary of Comments on NOAA’s Request for Information for Alternative Gear Marking Framework

12:30 – 1:45 p.m. Lunch Break

1 – 5 p.m. Law Enforcement Committee
1:45 – 3 p.m. Coastal Sharks Management Board
Updates from NOAA Fisheries on Ongoing Management Actions
Presentation on Shore-based Fishing in North Carolina
Discussion on Use of Drones in Shark Fishing
Consider Fishery Management Plan Review and State Compliance for the 2025 Fishing Year

3:15 – 5:15 p.m. Sciaenids Management Board
Consider 2026 Atlantic Croaker Benchmark Assessment and Peer Review Report
Consider Black Drum Indicators Update
Provide Guidance on Timing of Red Drum Traffic Light Analysis Updates
Progress Update on the 2028 Spot Benchmark Stock Assessment
Elect Vice-Chair

6 – 7:30 p.m. Welcome Reception

Tuesday, November 10
8:30 – 10:30 a.m. Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program Coordinating Council
Consider 2027 Proposals for Funding
Consider Changes to 2027 Access Point Angler Intercept Survey Sampling
Program and Committee Updates
Elect Chair & Vice-Chair

9 a.m. – Noon ACFHP Steering Committee (continued)

9 a.m. – Noon Law Enforcement Committee (continued)

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Horseshoe Crab Management Board
Consider Updates to Adaptive Resource Management Framework (ARM) Model Reward, Utility, and Harvest Policy Functions
Advisory Panel Report
Delaware Bay Ecosystem Technical Committee Report
Consider Initiating an Addendum to Implement Changes to the ARM Framework
Review Delaware Bay Region Bait Harvest Specifications for the 2027 Fishing Year
Review Horseshoe Crab and Red Knot Survey Data
Consider Fishery Management Plan Review and State Compliance for the 2025 Fishing Year

12:15 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch Break

1:30 – 2:30 p.m. Shad and River Herring Management Board
Consider Shad and River Herring Sustainable Fishery Management Plans, Alternate Management Plans, and Habitat Plan Updates
Provide Guidance to Technical Committee on Timing of Next Shad and River Herring Stock Assessments

2:45 – 5 p.m. Atlantic Menhaden Management Board
Set Specifications for 2027-2029 Fishing Years
Consider Addendum II for Final Approval
Consider Commercial Quota Reallocation
Consider Fishery Management Plan Review and State Compliance for the 2025 Fishing Year
Adjourn/Reconvene on November 11

6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Annual Dinner

Wednesday, November 11
8 – 9:30 a.m. Executive Committee
Presentation of FY26 Audit
Discuss Process for Reviewing Species Declared Interests
Legislative Update
Future Annual Meetings Update

9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Habitat Committee
Review Results of ASMFC Commissioner Survey on Habitat Information Needs
Mapping Project Updates
Finalize Habitat Hotline Atlantic 2026 Issue
Committee Species Assignments
Discuss ASMFC Habitat Priorities
Roundtable Habitat Updates

9:45 – 10:45 a.m. Commission Business Session
Consider Approval of 2027 Action Plan
Elect Commission Chair and Vice-Chair

10:45 – 11:15 a.m. Commissioner Photo Shoot

11:15 a.m. – Noon Spiny Dogfish Management Board
Review Accountability Measures Proposed Rule

Noon – 1:30 p.m. Captain David H. Hart Award Luncheon

1:30 – 2:30 p.m. Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board
Update and Proposed Next Steps from the Steering Committee for the Work Group on Future Striped Bass Management
Update on Revised Marine Recreational Information Program Fishing Effort Survey Estimates
Progress Update on the 2027 Benchmark Stock Assessment

2:45 – 5:30 p.m. Atlantic Menhaden Management Board (continued)

Thursday, November 12
8:30 – 11 a.m. Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board (Part of this meeting will be with the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council)
Sector Separation Amendment Stakeholder Workshop Results (Joint Discussion with the Council)
Committee Reports
Update on the Marine Recreational Information Program Fishing Effort Survey Estimates
Update on Recreational Angler Partnership Improvement Directive (RAPID)
Update on Stock Assessments
Review Noncompliance Findings, if necessary

11 – 11:15 a.m. Commission Business Session
Consider Noncompliance Recommendations, if necessary

11:30 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board
Approve Scup Winter I Addendum XXXVI for Public Comment
Review Black Sea Bass State-by-State Commercial Quota Allocation Performance

If there are any questions concerning the Commission’s 84th Annual Meeting, please contact us at 703.842.0740. We look forward to seeing you all in Newport in November!

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Days Out Meeting Scheduled for September 21, 2026

September 2, 2026 — Atlantic Herring Management Board members from the states of Maine, New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will meet via webinar on September 21, 2026 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., to discuss Season 2 (October 1 – December 31) days out measures for the 2026 Area 1A fishery (inshore Gulf of Maine). Days out measures include consecutive landings days for Season 2. The webinar and call information is included below:

Atlantic Herring Days Out Meeting

Monday, September 21, 2026

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

This webinar will use the RingCentral meeting platform. You can join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone at the following link: https://v.ringcentral.com/join/475517003. If you are new to RingCentral, you can download the app ahead of time (click here) or you can join from a web browser. For audio, the meeting will be using the computer voice over internet (VoIP), but if you are joining the webinar from your phone only, you can dial in at650.419.1505 and enter access code 475-517-003 when prompted. The webinar will start at 10:45 a.m., 15 minutes early, to troubleshoot audio as necessary.

The 2026 Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) is 2,401 metric tons (mt) after adjusting for the 30 mt fixed gear set-aside and the fact that Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL. This does not take into account the possible reallocation of 1,000 mt to the Area 1A sub-ACL based on catch information from the Canadian New Brunswick weir fishery.

As of this week, Area 1A landings are estimated to be 203 mt. Days out measures for Season 1 (through September 30) are currently in place as specified in the April 2026 press release. Season 1 landings will be closely monitored and the fishery will be adjusted to zero landing days if the Season 1 quota of 1,748 mt is projected to be reached by September 30. Days out measures for October 1 through December 31 will be posted via press release following the webinar on September 21.

For more information, please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 orefranke@asmfc.org.

The meeting announcement can also be found at https://asmfc.org/events/atlantic-herring-area-1a-days-out-meeting-9-21-26/

States Schedule Public Hearings on Atlantic Menhaden Draft Addendum II

September 2, 2026 — The following was released by Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic coastal states of Maine through Virginia have scheduled hearings to gather public input on Draft Addendum II to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. The Draft Addendum considers options to reduce the Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishery Cap (Bay Cap) by up to 50% and distribute the cap more evenly throughout the fishing season. The options aim to alleviate a concentration of effort that may be affecting other fisheries within the Bay and other potential ecological impacts.

The Board initiated the Draft Addendum in response to concerns regarding declining pound net harvest and catch per unit effort in the Bay in recent years, coinciding with an increase in the concentration of reduction harvest in the summer months, and the possible downstream effects on menhaden predators.

The Draft Addendum also includes options that link the Bay Cap to the coastwide total allowable catch to maintain a more fixed proportion between the two, as well as options to distribute the Bay Cap into three quota periods to prevent a concentration of reduction harvest in the spring and summer of the fishing season.

Webinar Instructions

For all virtual and hybrid hearings, please click HERE and select the hearing(s) you plan to attend from the dropdown menu to register for a public hearing webinar. Hearings will be held via GoToWebinar, and you can join the webinar from your computer, tablet or smartphone. Please note that in order to comment during virtual webinar hearings you will need to use your computer or download the GoToWebinar app for your phone. If you are new to GoToWebinar, you can download the software by (clicking here) or via the App store under GoToWebinar. We recommend you register for the hearing well in advance of the hearing since GoToWebinar will provide you with a link to test your device’s compatibility with the webinar. If you find your device is not compatible, please contact the Commission at info@asmfc.org (subject line: GoToWebinar help) and we will try to get you connected. We also strongly encourage participants to use the computer voice over internet protocol (VoIP) so you can ask questions and provide input at the hearing. If you are unable to participate in your state’s scheduled hearing, you are welcome to participate in any of the virtual or hybrid hearings.

Hearing Presentation Recording

For those who cannot attend any in-person or virtual hearings, the Commission will also post a recording of the hearing presentation on the Commission’s YouTube page so that stakeholders may watch the presentation and submit comment at any time during the comment process. This recording will be available in early September.

Submitting Comments

The public is encouraged to submit comments at any time during the public comment period but no later than 11:59 PM (EST) on October 9, 2026. You can access the Draft Addendum, public hearing schedule, and ways to comment on theAtlantic Menhaden Draft Addendum II Action Tracker webpage.

We accept public comment in several forms (at public hearings, an online public comment form, an online public comment survey, and via mail or email) and all forms are equally valued. However, we strongly encourage the use of the public comment survey as it allows users to select specific preferred options in the Draft Addendum and provides space for open-ended comments at the end. Options for submitting comments follow:

Online via the public comment survey
Online via comment box
Email: comments@asmfc.org (subject line: Atlantic Menhaden Draft Addendum II)
Mail: James Boyle, ASMFC, 1050 N. Highland Street, Suite 200-N, Arlington, VA 22201
Verbal comments provided at any of the scheduled public hearings

If your organization is planning to release an action alert in response to the Draft Addendum, please contact James Boyle at jboyle@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740, so he can work with you to develop a unique subject line to enable us to better organize and summarize incoming comments for Board review. For more information, please contact James Boyle, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at jboyle@asmfc.org.

The revised press release can be found at https://asmfc.org/news/press-releases/states-schedule-public-hearings-on-atlantic-menhaden-draft-addendum-ii/

Record Cobia Tournament Shows a Chesapeake Predator Thriving Alongside Menhaden

August 31, 2026 — Congratulations are in order for the winners and participants in the 2026 Big Man’s Cobia Bonanza.

The ninth annual tournament was held August 14–15 in the Chesapeake Bay, with events based in Norfolk and weigh-ins at Little Creek. By the organizers’ account, it was a record year, with more than 100 boats participating and a top prize of over $38,000, and two runner-up $12,000 prizes. The organizers summed up the weekend with the declaration: “We put Virginia Cobia fishing in the Chesapeake Bay back on top!”

That is worth celebrating. It is also worth considering in the continuing debate over whether the Chesapeake Bay has enough menhaden to support its predators.

Cobia are large predators that spend the summer feeding in Chesapeake waters. Menhaden are part of their prey base and an important forage fish in the same waters where cobia thrive. Scientists and Bay fishing organizations alike have identified menhaden as an important prey species for cobia, and menhaden have traditionally been a preferred cobia bait.

That makes this year’s tournament particularly interesting; the success of a major Chesapeake predator that consumes menhaden is difficult to reconcile with sweeping claims that the Bay lacks sufficient forage for its predators.

The contrast with striped bass is instructive.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission currently classifies Atlantic cobia as not overfished, with overfishing not occurring. Striped bass are also important predators of menhaden, but their stock has followed a different path. In 2024, the peer-reviewed striped bass stock assessment found the stock was overfished. The stock is currently managed with restrictions designed to reduce fishing mortality and rebuild the population.

That history does not mean forage is irrelevant to striped bass, but it does mean discussions about their condition should acknowledge a well-established factor: fishing mortality on striped bass themselves was too high for years.

Menhaden, meanwhile, are already managed with their ecological role in mind. The ASMFC uses ecological reference points specifically designed to account for menhaden as forage and the needs of predators. The Atlantic menhaden stock itself is classified as not overfished, with overfishing not occurring.

Taken together, these facts suggest Chesapeake predator dynamics are more complicated than simply claiming there are not enough menhaden. Cobia and striped bass share the same broader ecosystem and both consume menhaden, yet their stock conditions are very different.

That comparison does not mean menhaden are evenly distributed throughout the Chesapeake Bay or that every predator has equal access to forage at all times. Menhaden are highly migratory schooling fish whose presence in any particular place changes with season, movement and environmental conditions.

Questions about local menhaden movement, seasonal abundance and predator access deserve continued study. And that work is happening.

The federal government, Virginia, and the menhaden industry are all supporting research to better understand menhaden movement, seasonal abundance, predator consumption and fishery interactions in the Chesapeake Bay. Congress has funded Bay-specific research, Virginia has committed funding for work led by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), and the industry is supporting collaborative research involving VIMS, the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and NOAA.

That is how unresolved questions should be addressed: through cooperative science, not through simple assumptions.

In the meantime, what happened at this year’s Cobia Bonanza deserves attention.

Congratulations to the winners. Their success is a reminder that the Chesapeake Bay forage story may be considerably healthier than some of the rhetoric surrounding menhaden would have us believe.

MAINE: Maine’s Department of Marine Resources reopens menhaden harvest on August 31

August 28, 2026 — Maine’s Department of Marine Resources announced that commercial menhaden (pogy) harvesting will reopen at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, August 31, using quota transfers from other Atlantic states.

On August 20, the DMR had announced that it was discontinuing commercial pogy harvesting under the Episodic Event Set Aside effective at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, August 21.

Working through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission with other Atlantic states, the DMR is arranging quota transfers, which will allow the fishery to reopen on August 31.

Read the full article at The Weekly Packet

States Schedule Public Hearings on Atlantic Menhaden Draft Addendum II

August 27, 2026 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Some hearings will be conducted in-person, some will be hybrid, and others will be conducted via webinar. If you are unable to participate in your state’s scheduled hearing, you are welcome to participate in any of the virtual or hybrid hearings. The public hearing details follow. Please note that the hearing location for the MD/PRFC hearing has not been set. The Commission will issue another press release once the hearing details have been confirmed.

Webinar Instructions

For all virtual and hybrid hearings, please click HERE and select the hearing(s) you plan to attend from the dropdown menu to register for a public hearing webinar. Hearings will be held via GoToWebinar, and you can join the webinar from your computer, tablet or smartphone. Please note that in order to comment during virtual webinar hearings you will need to use your computer or download the GoToWebinar app for your phone. If you are new to GoToWebinar, you can download the software by (clicking here) or via the App store under GoToWebinar. We recommend you register for the hearing well in advance of the hearing since GoToWebinar will provide you with a link to test your device’s compatibility with the webinar. If you find your device is not compatible, please contact the Commission at info@asmfc.org (subject line: GoToWebinar help) and we will try to get you connected. We also strongly encourage participants to use the computer voice over internet protocol (VoIP) so you can ask questions and provide input at the hearing. If you are unable to participate in your state’s scheduled hearing, you are welcome to participate in any of the virtual or hybrid hearings.

Hearing Presentation Recording

Submitting Comments

The public is encouraged to submit comments at any time during the public comment period but no later than 11:59 PM (EST) on October 9, 2026. You can access the Draft Addendum, public hearing schedule, and ways to comment on the Atlantic Menhaden Draft Addendum II Action Tracker .

The public comment survey, which was developed to facilitate the gathering of input on the Draft Addendum’s specific options
Written comments via Atlantic Menhaden Action Tracker or comments@asmfc.org
Written comments submitted via snail mail to James Boyle, FMP Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201
Verbal comments provided at any of the scheduled public hearings