October 5, 2026 — Carolmane Diggs was seasick the first week he was on an Ocean Harvester vessel in 2011. It was his first time on a boat, ever. But his dad, with decades of experience fishing for menhaden, was there to help him. Diggs had explored college and the military but ultimately decided to be a fisherman “to make my dad proud.”
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) will vote in November on whether to cut the company’s allowable menhaden catch in the Chesapeake Bay. Bait watermen believe the cut will mean more menhaden in their pound nets, while Diggs and other employees of Ocean Harvesters and its partner, Omega Protein, worry they’ll lose pay or even their jobs. Public comment on the cut is open until Oct. 9.
The ASMFC has deemed the menhaden population to be not overfished along the East Coast. The population’s biomass, or weight, has increased and remained stable since the 1990s. But the commission cut the company’s coast-wide harvest by 20% last October after concluding it had previously overestimated the species’ abundance.
The ASMFC will hold a vote at its meeting on Nov. 10-11 on whether to cut the company’s harvest up to 50% in the Bay and add quota periods that would evenly distribute the catch over time.
Commercial fishermen say that harassment from some Bay harvest opponents has become expected but rare. Mostly, other boats break up schools of menhaden before the industrial vessel can catch them. The fishermen say, though, the incidents have become more personal in recent years.
David Haynie, bosun with Ocean Harvesters, was aboard a harvesting boat when a jet skier yelled obscenities and drove over a net in 2023.
“The harassment is nerve wracking because you don’t know when a certain individual could just be on his worst day and get mad at us and do something very irrational and harm us,” Haynie said.
According to a report by the ASMFC’s Committee on Economics and Social Sciences, there will be a “break-even threshold” where, if the harvest limit is pushed too low for the company, it will have to shut down instead of instituting layoffs. It’s unclear where that point lies.
It’s also unclear if any layoffs would take place following the proposed cut. If the company catches less fish, employees would be paid less. Ocean Harvester fishermen are paid based on the number of fish caught. Diggs expects to lose $10,000 over the season due to the most recent cut.
The fishery employs about 510 people directly and indirectly. Because menhaden fishing is seasonal, many employees have side jobs, from cutting trees to catering to oystering. If layoffs were to happen, many said they would retire early or need to commute two hours away to find something with the same pay and benefits.