June 1, 2023 — A Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program draft assessment downgrades the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) caught in the Chesapeake Bay “avoid,” drawing criticism from scientists, officials, conservationists, and fishers.
The draft report rated wild-caught oysters in the U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia harvested both with hand implements and towed dredges as seafood to avoid, citing a “high concern” for the status of the stock and of the management of the fishery.
April 25, 2023 — Omega Shipyard in Moss Point, Miss., recently delivered the $8 million 180’x40’ F/V Reedville to Ocean Harvesters, suppliers to Omega Protein in Reedville, Va.
A traditional maritime christening ceremony of the F/V Reedville and F/V Little River was held on Saturday, April 22, to kick off the 2023 menhaden fishing season starting May 8.
With the new season, there’s hope that an agreement between menhaden fishermen, Virginia state officials, and other Chesapeake Bay user groups will reduce longstanding conflicts.
The christening was held on the docks at the Reedville plant, where the company’s fleet of nine fish steamers are moored. The 180’x40’x7’ Little River was not christened at the time of delivery in 2020 because of the covid-19 pandemic.
The Reedville, Little River, and the F/V Carters Creek, delivered in 2017, are all converted hulls from offshore supply vessels (OSVs) formerly employed in the offshore oil and gas industry. The three finished boats are almost identical.
The ceremony started with the singing of the National Anthem by Charlotte Blackwell, 10, daughter of Capt. William Blackwell, who is the master of the F/V Reedville.
Hannah Long, environmental manager of Omega Protein, was the master of ceremonies for the event, and she told the history behind the ancient ceremony of christening a boat for “good luck.”
April 25, 2023 — The menhaden fishery that supplies Omega Proteins’ plant in Reedville said it would limit the areas where it fishes, largely avoiding more populated coastal areas of the lower Eastern Shore of Virginia and Hampton Roads, including Virginia Beach.
Ocean Harvesters, which has an exclusive, long-term supply agreement with Omega Protein of Reedville, has continuously operated in the area since 1878 and announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the state of Virginia Wednesday. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted in December in favor of it.
The agreement, Ocean Harvesters said, is expected to limit potential sources of conflict between the fishery and other users in the Chesapeake Bay, “and is part of the fishery’s efforts to be responsible stewards of our shared marine resources.”
Omega uses the small, oily-fleshed silver fish and turns it into fish oil and fish meal
The fishery will not be able to operate in waters within one mile of the Hampton Roads/Virginia Beach area, and the lower Eastern Shore, and it will put new limits on when and where the menhaden fishery can operate.
March 27, 2023 — The Chesapeake Bay Trust nonprofit based in Annapolis, Maryland, will receive over $1 million in funding from the federal government to strengthen tidal wetland restoration, public education and bolster green infrastructure projects.
In a news release Friday, U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin and Congressman John Sarbanes announced that $1,129,063 in federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will go toward local projects to restore, preserve and protect the Chesapeake Bay.
“The health of the Chesapeake Bay is vital to the health of our communities and our regional economy,” said Van Hollen.
“We fought to pass the infrastructure modernization law — and within it to boost resources for our efforts to protect the Bay — in order to invest in projects like this that will help restore our wetlands and habitats that serve as essential filters to prevent pollutants from poisoning the Bay.”
March 19, 2023 — Governor Wes Moore is federal assistance for the Chesapeake Bay, amid concerns of an increase in invasive fish species, the Governor’s office said Thursday.
According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the population and value of Maryland’s most important commercial fish has decreased since 2012, which hurts the state economy.
Although a direct connection to invasive species is not confirmed, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is concerned about the high density of invasive fish like blue catfish, which may negatively affect native species by competing for space and food.
“You’ll never eradicate them, but you gotta get them down under control. They’re here to stay,” Maryland Watermen’s Association President Robert T. Brown said. “Mother Nature is always going to give you some type of balance. We do not like the balance we’re getting. It’s going the wrong way.”
In the past decade, harvest and value of native species in the Chesapeake Bay all declined. During the same time, numbers of invasive blue catfish and snakehead soared.
February 14, 2023 — A proposal to study the menhaden population in the Chesapeake Bay was scaled back in the House Monday.
An earlier version of the bill from Sen. Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomack, asked the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to study the ecology, fishery impacts and economic importance of menhaden within the Chesapeake Bay over a two-year period.
But on Monday a House Rules subcommittee voted to amend the bill to only require VIMS to provide details of a potential study’s scope, including methodology, possible stakeholders, costs and timeline.
“I think your issue is totally legitimate, but we need to look at the health of the Bay in toto,” said Del. Bobby Orrock, R-Spotsylvania, noting studies can take five to 10 years to complete.
January 19, 2023 — Legislative attempts to put a two-year moratorium on the menhaden reduction fishery in the Chesapeake Bay and expand the time period during which state officials can change the fishery regulations died Wednesday in committee.
The House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee unanimously voted to kill a bill from Del. Tim Anderson, R-Virginia Beach, that would have shut down the menhaden reduction fishery in the Chesapeake Bay for two years while the Virginia Marine Resources Commission conducted a study on its impacts.
Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, was absent from the meeting.
January 19, 2023 — Warming water is threatening to undo decades of efforts aimed at improving aquatic habitat in the Chesapeake region, from headwater streams to the open water of the Bay itself.
The increasing water temperatures, which threaten species like brook trout and striped bass, are already offsetting some of the habitat benefits of the multibillion-dollar Bay restoration effort, a new report warns. Worse, some actions taken to reduce pollution are actually contributing to warmer, more stressful, stream conditions for fish.
“We’re behind the eight ball right now in considering this in our major policies,” said Rich Batiuk, a former senior science official with the state-federal Bay Program partnership, who helped organize a 2022 workshop focused on the region’s rising water temperatures.
December 7, 2022 — The Virginia Marine Resources Commission on Tuesday chose not to place new limits on the menhaden harvest. The decision came after an hours-long hearing that included roughly three dozen impassioned public commenters.
In fact, board members didn’t vote on the regulations at all. Instead, they approved a non-binding motion to try and reach an agreement with the menhaden industry.
The decision is the latest in a decades-long, politically fraught fight over the fishery that’s unique to the commonwealth.
Virginia is the only place on the East Coast that still allows harvesting menhaden within state waters. Omega Protein catches the fish and processes them into oil or fishmeal at a facility in Reedville.
Sportfishers and environmental groups have been pushing for a total ban on the menhaden harvest in the Chesapeake Bay, citing impacts to the food chain.
A petition supporting such a ban, circulated by the Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association this year, garnered 9,200 signatures.
The proposed regulations this week would not have gone nearly as far.
VMRC staff recommended prohibiting menhaden fishing within one nautical mile of shorelines in state and Virginia Beach waters, and for a half-mile on each side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
November 15, 2022 — A new partnership between the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) was just announced to restore oysters in the bay.
The occasion was marked by adding 200,000 oysters to a reef off the dock at the SERC.
“Bringing world-class restoration and world-class science together is just a match made in heaven,” explains Hilary Falk, President and CEO of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.