Saving Seafood

VIRGINIA: Limits to be placed on menhaden fishing in Chesapeake Bay

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.

Read the full article at WAVY

$1M to help with ‘vital’ Chesapeake Bay improvement

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.”

Read the full article at WTOP

MARYLAND: Gov. Moore requesting federal assistance in protecting the Chesapeake Bay from invasive fish species

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.

Read the full article at CBS News

VIRGINIA: Bill to require study of menhaden in Chesapeake Bay scaled back

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.

Read the full article at Virginia Mercury

House committee kills bill banning menhaden reduction fishery in Chesapeake Bay

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.

Read the full article at Virginia Mercury

The heat is on: Warming water threatens aquatic life in Chesapeake Bay region

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.

Read the full article at the Bay Journal

VIRGINIA: Menhaden harvest in the Chesapeake Bay won’t get new restrictions — for now

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.

Read the full article at WHRO

New partnership set to help restore oysters in the Chesapeake Bay

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.

Read the full article at WUSA

Menhaden Harvest Increase Approved As Anglers Petition To Close Bay Fishery

November 15, 2022 — East Coast fishery managers have approved increasing commercial harvests of Atlantic menhaden from Maine to Florida.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which regulates near-shore harvests of migratory fish, voted Wednesday to set a new ceiling on the coastwide menhaden catch of 233,550 metric tons, a 20 percent increase over the current quota.

The longstanding cap on harvest in the Chesapeake Bay remains unchanged, at 51,000 metric tons. But conservationists and sports anglers continue to worry about the impact to the Bay from large-scale fishing of menhaden near its mouth.

The commission’s action follows a recent population assessment that concluded menhaden are not being overfished and that harvests could be increased substantially without endangering the stock’s abundance.

Menhaden are a small, oily fish that are harvested chiefly for processing or “reducing” them into animal feed and human food supplements, but also for use as bait in crabbing, lobstering and catching other fish.

Read the full article at Chesapeake Bay Magazine 

Chesapeake Bay blue crab harvest hits record low

October 28, 2022 — New crab fishing restrictions have been put in place for the Chesapeake Bay in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic after surveys found that the bay’s crab population is at an historic low.

Results from a bay-wide blue crab dredge survey showed a continued downturn in juvenile crab recruitment and a record low year of total blue crab abundance. The total abundance declined from 282 million in 2021 to 227 million crabs in 2022. That’s the lowest abundance estimate in the 33-year history of the winter dredge survey. The last all-time high of 852 million crabs was reported in 1993.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource