Saving Seafood

Menhaden Industry Fires Back at Conservation Group Over ‘Double Standard’ Criticism

The menhaden fishing industry is pushing back against the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s criticism of recent fisheries management decisions, accusing the conservation group of applying inconsistent standards to protect recreational anglers while targeting commercial fishermen.

The Menhaden Fishermen’s Coalition responded Monday to TRCP’s May 6 blog post that criticized the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s decision to form a work group on Chesapeake Bay menhaden management rather than immediately advancing harvest cuts.

TRCP had called the ASMFC decision “another delay for Chesapeake Bay menhaden conservation” and argued that reducing menhaden harvest could improve outcomes for predators like striped bass.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab numbers rebound overall, but female population continues decline

May 26, 2026 — The latest Chesapeake Bay blue crab survey is offering a mix of encouraging signs and ongoing concerns for watermen and seafood industries on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, where the blue crab remains one of the region’s most economically and culturally important fisheries.

According to results released from the annual Chesapeake Bay Winter Dredge Survey, conducted jointly by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Bay’s total blue crab population is estimated at 349 million crabs in 2026. That marks a 46 percent increase from last year’s estimate of 238 million crabs, which had been the second-lowest total recorded since the survey began in 1990.

The survey found strong gains among juvenile crabs and adult male crabs, raising hopes for a more productive crabbing season this summer for many Virginia watermen, including those working along the Eastern Shore.

However, scientists and fisheries managers continue to express concern about the Bay’s spawning-age female crabs, whose numbers declined again this year and remain well below long-term averages.

Read the full article at Shore Daily News

Menhaden Fishermen Are TRCP’s Favorite Villains, But the Facts Don’t Fit

May 26, 2026 – The following was released by the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition:

In a May 6 post by Jaclyn Lunaas, (“Fisheries Board Defers Advancing Plan to Address Chesapeake Bay Menhaden Management”), the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) calls the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Menhaden Board’s decision to form a work group on Draft Addendum II  “another delay for Chesapeake Bay menhaden conservation,” then argues that cutting Chesapeake Bay menhaden harvest (and spreading it across the season) is needed to improve outcomes for predators like striped bass.  

That framing misses the most important fact: striped bass are overfished because striped bass have been overfished for years, not because managers failed to squeeze menhaden hard enough. But when the ASMFC is asked to make unpopular decisions that directly affect striped bass anglers, TRCP’s rhetoric is very different.

1) ASMFC explicitly chose status quo for striped bass in 2026 because of socio-economic consequences

The ASMFC’s striped bass management history is clear: striped bass were declared overfished in 2019 and are under a rebuilding plan that requires rebuilding to the spawning stock biomass target by 2029. The ASMFC also notes that while the stock is no longer experiencing overfishing, it remains overfished.

At an October 2025 meeting, the ASMFC’s Striped Bass Management Board considered—and ultimately rejected—moving forward with a proposed 12% reduction in fishery removals for 2026. The ASMFC’s own summary explicitly cited “severe economic consequences” as a key reason the Board maintained current measures and quotas.

TRCP’s response to this decision? Deafening silence. Other than its repeated attacks on the menhaden fishery, Ms. Lunaas and TRCP have not published a comment directly addressing striped bass management since November 2023.

Sticking with the status quo for striped bass will make rebuilding harder and decreases the likelihood that the 2029 rebuilding target will be met, but the ASMFC weighed that against socio-economic harm to the recreational and commercial striped bass fisheries and the communities and businesses they support. That’s a legitimate policy tradeoff. But it’s exactly the tradeoff TRCP refuses to acknowledge when it comes to menhaden.

2) Silence on protecting striped bass access, no mercy for menhaden workers

TRCP’s post pushes menhaden cuts as if predator recovery depends on it, while staying quiet on the striped bass decision that delays rebuilding trajectories and was justified, in part, by economic impacts.  

When the affected stakeholders are recreational striped bass anglers (and the coastal economies tied to that fishery), TRCP is aligned with a process that treats economic consequences as central. When the affected stakeholders are the menhaden fishery’s working families—a union workforce in a rural community, and one of the largest minority workforces in its area—TRCP’s tone shifts to “just do it,” even when many of their claims about menhaden fishing remain unproven.  

3) TRCP overstates the evidence on seasonal quota periods and Maryland pound nets

TRCP implies that re-timing the Virginia reduction harvest via seasonal quota periods will improve availability for predators and other fisheries, including Maryland’s pound-net bait fishery.  

But the ASMFC’s Plan Development Team (PDT) memo does not support the re-timing story as settled:

  • The PDT calls its work a preliminary analysis and recommends the Technical Committee as the proper avenue for a detailed test of the hypothesis.  
  • Maryland pound-net landings fell sharply in 2023–2024, but the PDT found the data suggest the decline was “primarily driven by reduced effort” because catch per unit effort (CPUE) fell less dramatically than effort and catch.  
  • For early-season weeks (13–26), the PDT says it is unlikely low pound-net CPUE in 2023–2024 was due to the reduction fishery because reduction harvest usually begins later—and in those years was delayed even further.  
  • For 2024, the PDT says an effect is possible, but the data were inconclusive at the resolution evaluated, and a meaningful conclusion would require finer-scale analysis of movement and fishery dynamics.  

So when TRCP pushes seasonal menhaden quota periods as a practical fix to protect other fisheries, it’s taking a hypothesis and selling it as if it were established.

Bottom line

Striped bass recovery won’t be achieved by blaming menhaden whenever recommended striped bass management proposals become unpopular. The ASMFC’s Striped Bass Board chose status quo for 2026, citing economic consequence, while striped bass remain overfished and the 2029 rebuilding requirement still exists but seems unlikely.  

If TRCP wants any credibility, it should stop implying that menhaden cuts are a substitute for confronting the real driver of striped bass decline—a long period of excessive striped bass fishing mortality—and face up to the hard tradeoffs between rebuilding timelines and economic realities the ASMFC has repeatedly had to make to protect both the striped bass population and the striped bass fishery itself.

About the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition

The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition (MFC) is a collective of menhaden fishermen, related businesses, and supporting industries. Comprised of businesses along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition conducts media and public outreach on behalf of the menhaden industry to ensure that members of the public, media, and government are informed of important issues, events, and facts about the fishery.

MARYLAND: Ancient horseshoe crab migration returns to Maryland shores

May 22, 2026 — Thousands of horseshoe crabs have begun arriving along Maryland’s beaches as part of the oldest wildlife migrations on Earth, a phenomenon scientists say dates back roughly 350 million years.

According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the annual spawning season for the species stretches from May through July and peaks during high tides surrounding the full and new moons in June.

In 2026, the best viewing opportunities are expected around June 15 and June 29. Popular viewing locations include Sunset Park near the Ocean City Inlet and several Chesapeake Bay spawning beaches identified on the department’s Horseshoe Crab Volunteer Angler Survey.

Read the full article at Fox Baltimore

As oceans warm, NOAA scientists in the Chesapeake Bay are tracking how some fish are reacting

May 19, 2026 — This winter, a sudden cold snap led to fish kills around the Chesapeake Bay. Washed up on shores were Atlantic menhaden, and speckled trout. In 2025, a freeze killed young red drum.

Scientists have been studying movements of fish for decades. One team from the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science is in the middle of a three-year study of two of the Chesapeake Bay’s iconic trophy fish– red drum and striped bass.

They’re looking at how warming waters, extreme weather and other factors affect the fishes’ movements in and out of the bay.

Brianna Cahill is a marine ecologist working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She’s monitoring a transponding hydrophone, which is an underwater microphone.

“Okay, talking to it. The status it says armed, so that means that it’s still locked,” Cahill says from the deck of a small boat near the mouth of the bay. “We can go through and activate it.”

The hydrophone is talking to an acoustic receiver anchored to the bottom of the bay some 30 feet below that logs data from tagged fish. She’s telling it to come to the surface for retrieval.

Read the full article at WMRA

The enduring pull of the wooden deadrise boat

May 19, 2026 — Although many Chesapeake Bay crab pot fishermen have switched from large wooden boats to small outboard fiberglass boats, there is still demand for deadrise boats 40 feet and over.

Wayne Hudgins, owner of Hudgins Horn Harbor Marina in Port Haywood, Va., is a commercial crabber and works the crab boat the Miss Violet II.

Hudgins has recently fiberglassed the 39′ x 11.5′ x 3.5′ wooden hull of the Miss Violet II and plans to install a new Cummins QSC 8.3-liter, 600-horsepower, 6-cylinder diesel engine. The boat was built by Jerry Pruitt of Tangier Island, Va., in 1986.

When finished, the hull will be coated with five coats of the West Epoxy System using 1708 biaxial fiberglass cloth with 3/4-ounce mat backing and 545 Awlgrip Epoxy primer. An Awlcraft 2000 acrylic urethane topcoat finish will be applied.

The boat also received four new salt-treated wood bulkheads, new spruce pine washboards and decking, and mahogany guardrails with a new brass rub rail.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Pilot Study Announced as Possible StepToward Bay-Specific Menhaden Data

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.

Read the full article at News On The Neck

SCEMFIS-Supported Menhaden Research Advances Work Toward a Scientifically Based Chesapeake Bay Harvest Cap

May 4, 2026 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:

Last October, the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) funded a team of leading Atlantic menhaden researchers to develop a roadmap identifying the research needed to develop a scientifically defensible and ecologically meaningful Chesapeake Bay harvest cap.

The project brings together experts from the Batten School of Coastal and Marine Sciences & VIMS at William & Mary, the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL) at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), and NOAA, combining decades of experience in peer-reviewed menhaden research, stock assessments, ecological modeling, and survey design.

SCEMFIS, a member of the National Science Foundation’s Industry-University Cooperative Research Program, brings scientists and industry together to fund and conduct applied marine fisheries research. Since the project began, the research team has worked collaboratively online and met in person in February in Solomons Island, Maryland, to review progress and plan next steps.

The roadmap project will produce final recommendations by the end of the year. Those recommendations are expected to include proposed methodologies, timelines, and costs for additional research needed to support development of a scientifically based Chesapeake Bay harvest cap.

At the SCEMFIS spring 2026 meeting in Nashville, Dr. Robert J. Latour, Professor at the Batten School of Coastal and Marine Sciences & VIMS, outlined the work completed so far and described how the team is evaluating potential methods to generate the Bay-specific data needed to support future management decisions for Atlantic menhaden.

Dr. Latour explained that Atlantic menhaden have been the focus of significant scientific and management attention because of their dual role as an important forage species and the basis for a long-standing commercial fishery. In the Chesapeake Bay, managers have sought to balance fishery removals with menhaden’s ecological role, including through the existing Bay landings cap. However, Dr. Latour noted that the current cap is not a scientifically derived biological reference point, but rather a precautionary limit based on average historical catch.

The research team’s work is intended to help identify what information would be needed to move from a precautionary cap toward a biologically-based management framework. That includes determining how to estimate local menhaden abundance, fishing mortality, movement between the Bay and coastal waters, and menhaden availability to predators.

As part of that effort, the team will begin a pilot study to test whether Passive Integrated Transponder, or PIT, tagging can be used to generate information that existing historical datasets cannot provide. PIT tags are small tags that are injected into fish and can be detected later if the fish pass through a receiver system.

“Tagging is one potentially promising option available to us to establish a Bay cap that is grounded in the best available science,” said Dr. Genny Nesslage, Associate Research Professor at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and leader of the menhaden roadmap project. “We are ultimately looking for research recommendations that prioritize accuracy, timeliness, and efficiency.”

The team is building on historic menhaden tagging work, including large-scale tagging efforts from the 1960s, while adapting modern technology to address current management questions. This type of tagging data can potentially help estimate exploitation and total abundance, two of the central questions surrounding Chesapeake Bay menhaden management.

The proposed tagging pilot project will include two major components.

First, researchers will conduct controlled holding studies at VIMS to evaluate whether the tagging process affects menhaden survival. Fish will be collected from the field, acclimated to captivity, and placed into trials in which all fish are handled the same way, except that some receive PIT tags and others do not. These trials will help determine whether the act of tagging itself affects survival and whether the method can produce reliable data.

Second, on May 12, the research team will visit Ocean Harvesters to begin planning field trials designed to determine whether tagged menhaden can be reliably detected during commercial fishing operations. Ocean Harvesters, which supplies menhaden to Omega Protein, has agreed to open its doors to the research team and work with them to determine how PIT tags could be retrieved on an ongoing basis while the fishery is underway. Researchers will evaluate whether receivers can be placed in the pump hose, on the chute where fish enter the vessel holds, or at Omega Protein’s processing facility as menhaden are processed. The field trials will involve placing known numbers of tagged fish into catches and measuring whether detection systems can reliably identify them under real-world harvesting and processing conditions.

The tagging concept is one piece of the broader SCEMFIS-supported roadmap project. The team is also considering other potential methods for generating Bay-specific data, including acoustic and LiDAR surveys, environmental DNA, stable isotope analysis, and other approaches that could help measure local abundance, movement, and predator consumption.

The tagging feasibility study, if successful, would provide an important early test of whether modern tagging technology can help answer some of the most challenging questions facing Atlantic menhaden management in the Chesapeake Bay.

Project Team

Selected qualifications in Atlantic menhaden and Chesapeake Bay

Robert J. Latour, Ph.D., Professor, Batten School of Coastal and Marine Sciences & VIMS, William & Mary

Quantitative fisheries ecologist focusing on predator-prey interactions, population dynamics, and habitat modeling. Lead/co-author of the 2023 study on female Atlantic menhaden reproductive biology and fecundity and co-author, with Gartland, of Virginia’s 2023 Atlantic Menhaden Research Planning report to the General Assembly and Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources.

James Gartland, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Batten School of Coastal and Marine Sciences & VIMS, William & Mary

Quantitative fisheries scientist with extensive experience in the development of fisheries monitoring surveys, prey consumption models, and ecological indicators, including in Chesapeake Bay. Co-author of the 2023 menhaden fecundity study with Latour and Schueller and co-author of Virginia’s 2023 Atlantic Menhaden Research Planning report guiding Bay-specific research priorities.

Genevieve M. Nesslage, Ph.D., Associate Research Professor, CBL, UMCES

Quantitative fisheries scientist with research focusing on Atlantic menhaden spawning locations and larval dispersal, fishery sampling, survey design, overwintering habitat use, and predator-prey modeling. Former Senior Stock Assessment Scientist at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Michael J. Wilberg, Ph.D., Professor of Fisheries Science, CBL, UMCES

Fisheries stock assessment and management strategy evaluation specialist with research focused on Atlantic menhaden movement, mortality, growth, and predator-prey modeling. Lead author of the 2020 survey design for Atlantic menhaden in Chesapeake Bay.

Amy M. Schueller, Ph.D., Research Fish Biologist, NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center

Lead assessment analyst for Atlantic and Gulf menhaden and key contributor to the working group on ecological reference points, or ERPs, that underpin Atlantic menhaden management.

About SCEMFIS

The Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) brings together academic and industry expertise to address urgent scientific challenges facing sustainable fisheries. Through advanced methods, analytical tools, and collaborative research, SCEMFIS works to reduce uncertainty in stock assessments and improve the long-term sustainability of key marine resources.

SCEMFIS is an Industry-University Cooperative Research Center supported by the National Science Foundation. Industry organizations join SCEMFIS through an Industry Membership Agreement with one of the center’s site universities and contribute both financial support and valuable expertise to help shape research priorities.

Its university partners include the University of Southern Mississippi (lead institution) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary. The center also collaborates with scientists from a broad network of institutions, including Old Dominion University, Rutgers University, the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, the University of Maryland, and the University of Rhode Island. These researchers bring deep expertise in finfish, shellfish, and marine mammal science.

Demand for SCEMFIS’s services continues to grow, driven by the fishing industry’s need for responsive, science-based support. The center provides timely access to expert input on stock assessment issues, participates in working groups, and conducts targeted studies that lead to better data collection, improved survey design, and more accurate modeling-all in service of sustainable, science-driven fishery management.

MARYLAND: Can Maryland remain the “crab capital” if consumers can’t buy crabmeat?

May 4, 2026 — Maryland diners love to eat blue crabs, crustaceans native to the Chesapeake Bay that have been a culinary favorite in the region for centuries. But a federal effort to restrict imported crabmeat has sparked a legal fight that could disrupt supply, drive up prices and reshape the seafood industry.

The fight has also exposed a little-known fact to anyone outside of the seafood industry: Almost all “pasteurized” crabmeat purchased in grocery stores and consumed in restaurants in Maryland and beyond is imported from Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and other countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Pasteurized crabmeat refers to crab that has been cooked to a specific temperature to extend its shelf life, allowing it to be shipped long distances and stored for longer periods. It’s typically sold in cans and used in products like crab cakes.

“There’s certainly nowhere near enough domestic Maryland blue crab,” to meet the large and growing demand, said Brice Phillips, an executive at Phillips Seafood, one of Maryland’s best-known seafood businesses and the company that helped popularize Maryland-style crab cakes. The company, founded in 1914, is now in its fourth generation of family ownership.

MARYLAND: Maryland Shifts Striped Bass Season with April Open and August Closed

April 2, 2026 — New Maryland regulations for 2026 recreational striped bass fishing take effect April 1, returning catch-and-release fishing in April for the first time since 2019 while closing the entire month of August to protect the species during hot weather.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced the seasonal shift to simplify rules and support long-term conservation of striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay. The changes align with the Interstate Fishery Management Plan and were developed after extensive stakeholder engagement and review of thousands of public comments.

The 2026 recreational striped bass season in the Chesapeake Bay and tidal tributaries is as follows: January 1 through April 30, catch-and-release fishing only; May 1 through July 31, harvest season; August 1 through 31, closed to all targeting; September 1 through December 5, harvest season; December 6 through 31, catch-and-release fishing only.

Spawning rivers remain closed to targeting from March 1 to May 31 to protect spawning striped bass. Closed areas include the Choptank, Chester, Manokin, Nanticoke, Patuxent, Transquaking and Wicomico rivers as well as the Upper Bay spawning area, including the Susquehanna Flats. Anglers can refer to the DNR website for maps and additional information regarding these closures. Striped bass fishing on the main stem of the Potomac River is managed separately by the Potomac River Fisheries Commission.

Read the full article at the Southern Maryland Chronicle