Saving Seafood

MARYLAND: Maryland striped bass reproduction improves, remains below average for eighth straight year

October 20, 2026 — Striped bass reproduction in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay showed signs of improvement this year but remained below average for the eighth consecutive year, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The department’s annual juvenile striped bass survey recorded an index of 5.5, the highest since 2018. That is up from 4.0 in 2025 and 2.0 in 2024, but still well below the long-term average of 10.8.

Biologists say they collected 723 juvenile striped bass during sampling at 22 sites in the Choptank, Nanticoke, and Potomac rivers and the upper Chesapeake Bay. The upper Bay and Choptank River produced the strongest results, according to researchers.

Read the full article at WBOC

Matt Strickler’s menhaden argument leaves working Virginians out of the picture

October 19, 2026 — I am an African American union worker in Virginia’s menhaden fishery. When former Natural Resources Secretary Matt Strickler reduced this debate in the pages of this newspaper to the interests of “one foreign corporation,” he left people like me out of the picture.

The menhaden fishery is a workplace. UFCW Local 400 represents fishermen in the Reedville fleet, and the fishery supports hundreds of family-supporting union jobs in Virginia’s Northern Neck. Our union members are second-, third- and fourth-generation fishermen whose livelihoods depend on this work. My fellow workers are not an “industry,” as Strickler labels us. They are Virginians supporting families and communities.

Strickler’s column gives those workers almost no attention. Instead, he writes that the company “doesn’t give a lick about Virginia” and describes the fishery as an operation that “vacuum[s] up” the base of the bay’s food chain. That rhetoric makes it easier to overlook the people who would live with the economic consequences of additional restrictions.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference has raised that concern directly. In a letter to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, SCLC said the issue involves environmental responsibility, rural economic life, labor, wages, race and the dignity of work and warned that African American workers, union families and rural communities could be disproportionately affected. Those workers should not simply disappear from the discussion.

Maryland Survey Finds Strongest Four-Year Run of Juvenile Menhaden Abundance in Over 30 Years

October 19, 2026 — The following was released by the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition:

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) 2026 juvenile striped bass survey, which tracks the reproductive success of Maryland’s state fish in Chesapeake Bay, has documented another year of abundant juvenile Atlantic menhaden, completing the strongest four-year average of juvenile menhaden abundance since 1988–1991, according to the full survey series dating back to 1959.

In today’s announcement, Maryland DNR reported that young Atlantic menhaden were again found in abundance during its 2026 juvenile striped bass survey. There was also good news on two other important forage species. Atlantic silversides were recorded in the highest numbers in more than a decade, and the Bay anchovy has shown better than average relative abundance over the past four years.

The underlying menhaden data reveal an especially striking trend. For four consecutive years, from 2023 through 2026, the Bay-wide juvenile menhaden abundance index has exceeded every annual reading recorded during the preceding 31 years, from 1992 through 2022.

The menhaden index reached 3.78 in 2023, followed by 3.66 in 2024, 2.54 in 2025 and 2.49 in 2026. The four-year average of 3.12 is the highest for any consecutive four-year period since 1988–1991.

The results provide substantial evidence of sustained strong juvenile menhaden abundance in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay survey waters, where menhaden serve as an important food source for predatory fish and birds.

The news for striped bass itself was less encouraging. Maryland reported an eighth consecutive year of below-average striped bass spawning success. However, the 2026 young-of-year index of 5.5 was the highest since 2018, improving from 4.0 in 2025 and 2.0 in 2024. The long-term average is 10.8.

Maryland DNR identified several environmental factors that can affect striped bass spawning success, including winter temperatures, spring rainfall and river flows. The agency noted that prolonged regional drought and resulting low river flows may have contributed to unfavorable spawning conditions in 2026.

Maryland’s latest survey adds four more years of strong juvenile menhaden observations to the scientific record as fisheries managers consider the future of menhaden management in the Chesapeake Bay. While the juvenile survey does not directly measure adult menhaden biomass or availability in particular areas, its findings provide important evidence about the Bay’s forage fish population.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has also explained that ending all menhaden fishing would not, by itself, rebuild the striped bass population to its biomass target. The ASMFC manages Atlantic menhaden using ecological reference points designed to account for the forage needs of striped bass and other predators.

Sources: Maryland DNR announcement | Maryland DNR juvenile striped bass survey | the ASMFC Atlantic Menhaden FAQs

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.

VIRGINIA: African American Union Leader Rebukes Former Virginia Cabinet Secretary Matt Strickler for Ignoring Menhaden Workers

October 19, 2026 — The following was released by the Ocean Harvesters:

Darawn Kenner, an African American union worker, chief shop steward for United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400 at Ocean Harvesters in Reedville and cook aboard the F/V Reedville, has responded in the Richmond Times-Dispatch to former Virginia Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources Matt Strickler’s call for additional restrictions on the Chesapeake Bay menhaden fishery.

In his guest column published October 17, Kenner directly challenged Strickler’s portrayal of the issue as a fight against “one foreign corporation,” saying that framing effectively erases the working Virginians whose jobs and communities are at stake.

 

Darawn Kenner, chief shop steward for UFCW Local 400 at Ocean Harvesters in Reedville

“I am an African American union worker in Virginia’s menhaden fishery. When former Natural Resources Secretary Matt Strickler reduced this debate in the pages of this newspaper to the interests of ‘one foreign corporation,’ he left people like me out of the picture.”

Kenner continued:

“The menhaden fishery is a workplace. UFCW Local 400 represents fishermen in the Reedville fleet, and the fishery supports hundreds of family-supporting union jobs in Virginia’s Northern Neck. Our union members are second-, third- and fourth-generation fishermen whose livelihoods depend on this work. My fellow workers are not an ‘industry,’ as Strickler labels us. They are Virginians supporting families and communities.”

Strickler, who served as Virginia’s Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources and Chief Resilience Officer under Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, wrote in his earlier Times-Dispatch guest column that the company “doesn’t give a lick about Virginia or the Chesapeake Bay.” He urged Gov. Abigail Spanberger to pursue the strongest management restrictions under consideration and argued that Virginia officials should represent Virginians rather than “the interests of one foreign corporation.”

Kenner said that rhetoric ignores the people who actually work in the fishery.

“Strickler’s column gives those workers almost no attention. Instead, he writes that the company ‘doesn’t give a lick about Virginia’ and describes the fishery as an operation that ‘vacuum[s] up’ the base of the bay’s food chain. That rhetoric makes it easier to overlook the people who would live with the economic consequences of additional restrictions.”

Kenner also pointed to concerns previously raised by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

“The Southern Christian Leadership Conference has raised that concern directly. In a letter to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, SCLC said the issue involves environmental responsibility, rural economic life, labor, wages, race and the dignity of work and warned that African American workers, union families and rural communities could be disproportionately affected. Those workers should not simply disappear from the discussion.”

Kenner then delivered the central rebuke of Strickler’s argument:

“It is difficult to comprehend a former senior official of a Democratic administration showing so little regard for blue-collar workers. Our workforce is comprised of predominantly minority, unionized working people whose livelihoods would be affected by the restrictions he advocates.”

On the science, Kenner wrote:

“The scientific record also contains important facts missing from Strickler’s account. The ASMFC’s 2025 assessment states that Atlantic menhaden is not overfished and that overfishing is not occurring. The ASMFC also says its coastwide model cannot determine menhaden abundance solely within Chesapeake Bay or define a ‘sufficient’ bay-specific level.”

Strickler also portrayed the company as indifferent to Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay. That characterization ignores the harvesting and processing industry’s financing of a Bay-specific research roadmap already underway through the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS). The project is being developed by scientists from UMCES’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, the Batten School & VIMS, and NOAA to identify the research needed to support a scientifically defensible and ecologically meaningful Bay harvest cap.

Kenner noted that Virginia itself has committed additional funding to address the same data gaps.

“That is why Virginia has funded more research. VIMS reports that the 2026-2028 state budget provides $2 million over two years for research needed to inform a scientifically defensible Chesapeake Bay harvest cap. VIMS also states plainly that scientists do not currently have the data necessary to determine menhaden survival or abundance in the bay.”

On striped bass, Kenner wrote:

“Strickler points to low striped bass stocks as another warning sign. The ASMFC’s own ecosystem model says that even if all menhaden fishing suddenly ended, that action alone would not rebuild striped bass to their biomass target. The commission identifies sustainable recreational and commercial striped bass fishing as the important management factor in rebuilding that stock.”

On osprey, Kenner wrote:

“The osprey research deserves the same precision. A 2026 peer-reviewed study documented serious food stress and reproductive problems in high-salinity portions of Chesapeake Bay and suggested reduced menhaden availability as a primary driver. But the study also states that the impact of commercial harvest on adult menhaden abundance in the bay remains unresolved because the abundance data needed to evaluate that relationship is lacking.”

Kenner also pointed to the documented economic stakes:

“The economic stakes are documented too. The ASMFC’s Committee on Economics and Social Sciences reviewed historical modeling that estimated about 519 reduction-sector jobs in Maryland and Virginia, including 347 in Northumberland County. It warned that high fixed costs can make employment losses nonlinear if harvest falls below an economically viable threshold.”

Kenner concluded by returning to the workers Strickler largely left out of his argument:

“Workers deserve to be visible in this debate. Behind his bloodless word ‘industry’ are fishermen, plant workers, mechanics, families and communities. They are directly affected stakeholders whose jobs and communities are part of the economic record regulators themselves have examined. Any account of Chesapeake Bay menhaden policy that omits them omits a material part of the story.”

Read Darawn Kenner’s full guest column:

“Matt Strickler’s menhaden argument leaves working Virginians out of the picture”

Read Matt Strickler’s column:

“Virginia must lead again on menhaden conservation”

About Ocean Harvesters

Ocean Harvesters owns and operates a fleet of more than 30 fishing vessels in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of America. The company’s purse-seine fishing operation is exclusively engaged in the harvest of menhaden, a small, nutrient-dense fish used to produce fish meal, fish oil, and fish solubles. Both its Atlantic and Gulf Menhaden fisheries are certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Committed to responsible fishing operations, Ocean Harvesters is proud to be heir to a fishing legacy that extends nearly 150 years.

MARYLAND: Maryland Striped Bass Reproduction Index Higher for 2026 But Below Average For Eighth Straight Year

October 19, 2026 — The following was released by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources:

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) 2026 juvenile striped bass survey recorded a young-of-year index of 5.5. Although it marks the eighth consecutive year of low spawning success for striped bass, this is the highest index recorded since 2018. The survey tracks the reproductive success of Maryland’s state fish in Chesapeake Bay.

During this annual survey, fisheries biologists sample 22 sites located in four major striped bass spawning areas: the Choptank, Nanticoke, and Potomac rivers, and the upper Chesapeake Bay. Biologists visit each site three times per summer, collecting fish with two sweeps of a 100-foot beach seine net. The index represents the average number of 3-inch or smaller juvenile striped bass caught in 132 sweeps of the net. The survey, one of the longest-running continuous fish surveys in the United States, has been conducted in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay since 1954.

This year’s survey captured 723 juvenile striped bass. The highest performing areas were the upper Bay and Choptank River. Although striped bass catches were below average, the fish were more widely distributed than in recent years, indicating suitable habitat throughout the nursery areas. The long-term average index for the survey is currently 10.8, while the index was 4.0 in 2025 and 2.0 in 2024. 

“We are encouraged to see some improvements to the numbers of juvenile striped bass this year, while it wasn’t as robust as we would like,” said Maryland DNR Fishing and Boating Services Director Michael Luisi. “Ongoing low recruitment is anticipated to impact rebuilding of the coastwide striped bass population. Results from coastwide juvenile indices will be incorporated into the ongoing work to produce the benchmark stock assessment expected to be completed in 2027.”

Biologists captured nearly 72,000 fish of 61 different species while conducting this year’s survey. Fishing license, tackle, boat, and marine fuel purchases fund DNR’s fish conservation work. Positive findings from the survey include two important forage species that were documented in abundance during the survey. Young Atlantic menhaden were found in abundance, while Atlantic silversides were found in the highest numbers in over a decade. These species are vital to the ecology of the Bay as a food source for many other species of fish and wildlife. Another encouraging finding was above-average reproduction of American shad in the Potomac River and upper Chesapeake Bay; however, the survey does not evaluate the larger, adult populations of these species.

Efforts to rebuild the Atlantic Coast population of striped bass to previous high levels have been underway for several years and are ongoing. Through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, Maryland and other states that border the Atlantic Ocean have implemented management measures, including reductions to catch limits, tighter slot limits, and season closures. Continued low levels of reproduction will influence future conservation measures under consideration by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Recent population estimates indicate healthy adult populations of striped bass, despite the downturn in juvenile spawning success. A rebuilt adult population should reproduce successfully when conditions like river flow, temperature and food availability are favorable for striped bass eggs and larvae.

Multiple factors affect striped bass spawning success in the Chesapeake Bay. Cold winters and wet springs tend to be beneficial for spawning, and while Maryland experienced a cold winter, the prolonged regional drought and resulting low river flows may have led to unfavorable conditions for striped bass eggs and larvae. High river flows increase spawning habitat,  allow eggs to remain suspended in the water column, and bring larvae closer to food sources. Other variables, including a shortened spawning period, could also influence spawning success.

These consecutive below-average year classes will likely become more apparent among the adult population of striped bass in the coming years, as the juveniles reach maturity. A benchmark stock assessment for the coastwide population of Atlantic striped bass is underway and expected to complete peer review in spring 2027. The stock assessment will evaluate the condition of striped bass from Maine to North Carolina and inform future management actions.

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science conducts a similar survey in the southern portion of Chesapeake Bay.

Menhaden coalition warns Bay cuts could threaten fishing jobs

October 16, 2026 — The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition (MFC) is pushing back against a congressional effort to further restrict Atlantic menhaden harvest in the Chesapeake Bay, arguing that lawmakers should not make additional cuts before ongoing Bay-specific research is complete.

In an Oct. 15 statement, the coalition challenged an Oct. 9 letter led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Rep. Sarah Elfreth, D-Md., urging the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to take additional action to protect menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay.

The coalition said further restrictions could significantly affect fishermen, processing workers, and communities tied to the Reedville, Va., reduction fishery. Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein‘s Reedville operations provide approximately 250 to 300 jobs with benefits, according to the MFC.

The coalition also cited a review by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Committee on Economics and Social Sciences that estimated more than 500 full- and part-time reduction fishery jobs in Maryland and Virginia, including hundreds in Northumberland County. The MFC said the Reedville workforce is predominantly minority and unionized, with many families having longstanding ties to the fishery.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Lawmakers Demand Menhaden Cuts Before Chesapeake Bay Science Is Complete, Ignoring Already Struggling Workers

October 16, 2026 – The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition is challenging an October 9 congressional letter, led by Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Representative Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.), urging the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) to impose additional restrictions on Atlantic menhaden fishing before critical Chesapeake Bay research has been completed.

The proposed restrictions threaten a predominantly minority, unionized workforce whose families have depended on the Reedville, Virginia fishery for generations. For more than a century, the industry has helped sustain Virginia’s Northern Neck communities, providing jobs that support families and send children to school and college. United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 has documented the importance of these jobs, including in a video featuring the fishermen themselves.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) has raised concernsabout the disproportionate consequences of further restrictions for African American workers, union families and rural communities, calling for environmental stewardship and sound science alongside economic justice.

Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein’s Reedville operations provide approximately 250 to 300 well-paying jobs with benefits. A review by the ASMFC’s own Committee on Economics and Social Sciences cites estimates of more than 500 full- and part-time reduction fishery jobs in Maryland and Virginia, including hundreds in Northumberland County. It also warns that further restrictions could threaten the viability of the entire Reedville operation.

The future of the menhaden fishery, and the families who depend on it, requires a healthy Chesapeake Bay. Nobody has a greater stake in protecting the Bay than the fishermen and processing workers whose livelihoods depend on it. The fishery has worked with regulators and scientists, adjusted its fishing practices, complied with regulatory harvest limits and supported new research to improve management.

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science confirms that scientists lack sufficient data to determine adult menhaden abundance or survival in the Chesapeake Bay. And there is no scientifically established Bay-specific harvest threshold or validated adult abundance index demonstrating that commercial fishing has depleted menhaden to an unsustainable level. Virginia has committed $2 million over two years to new Chesapeake Bay menhaden research. Senator Van Hollen helped secure another $2.5 million in federal funding for a Bay-specific menhaden survey. Yet he is now leading an effort to impose additional restrictions before the research he helped fund produces results.

Participants in the fishery are members of the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS), a member of the National Science Foundation’s Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers program, and contributed financially to its Chesapeake Bay menhaden research roadmap. The roadmap identifies research needed to establish a scientifically defensible Bay harvest cap. The fishery is actively cooperating with researchers from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as they develop that roadmap.

The congressional letter points to osprey breeding problems and declining Maryland bait landings as evidence of menhaden scarcity. Researchers have documented serious osprey reproductive problems, but have not established that commercial menhaden harvest caused them or that restricting the fishery would improve reproduction. Declining bait landings likewise do not establish declining Bay-wide abundance. Maryland fisheries scientists reported that explaining a recent decline in a local menhaden index through increased harvest would require an implausibly large increase in landings, suggesting other explanations, including migration, should be considered.

Maryland’s own Department of Natural Resources reported in October 2025 that juvenile Atlantic menhaden and bay anchovies were widespread in the Chesapeake Bay for the third consecutive year. The agency’s annual juvenile fish survey documented more than 36,000 fish representing 55 species. The survey does not measure adult abundance, but its findings challenge sweeping claims of Bay-wide scarcity.

The lawmakers call for ecosystem-based management, but the ASMFC already adopted ecological reference points (ERPs) in 2020, following years of work among the commercial fishery, recreational fishing interests, conservation organizations and scientists. Since 2021, those reference points have guided catch limits by accounting for the menhaden needed as prey. Striped bass was selected as the focal predator because the model found it most sensitive to menhaden harvest. The ASMFC’s 2025 ecosystem review also included osprey in the supporting full ecosystem model. The lawmakers have not explained why further restrictions would achieve benefits beyond this existing ecosystem-based system, or why it is inadequate.

Major recreational and conservation organizations helped advocate for the adoption of this system and publicly praised it when the ASMFC approved it. In an August 5, 2020 announcement, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership President Whit Fosburgh called it a “landmark decision” and “a new era in fisheries management.” The American Sportfishing Association welcomed predator-sensitive quotas as “the science-based management we look for.” Coastal Conservation Association Maryland applauded “a more holistic approach,” and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation called the decision a “significant step” in science-based fisheries management. The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas also endorsed the new approach.  Their support explicitly extended to birds: a July 2020 coalition letter urging the ASMFC to adopt the reference points identified ospreys, bald eagles, common loons and brown pelicans among the species the new approach was intended to protect.

The ASMFC’s own ecological reference point analysis found that even ending all menhaden fishing would not, by itself, rebuild striped bass to its biomass target; sustainable recreational and commercial striped-bass fishing remains essential. And the ASMFC’s April 2025 Chesapeake Bay review analyzed eight datasets covering 298,232 striped bass and found, using Fulton’s Condition Factor, that the sampled fish “are not starving and would be considered healthy.” Their body condition does not directly measure menhaden abundance, but it provides strong evidence against widespread striped-bass starvation.

The signers of the congressional letter were misled into believing that Atlantic menhaden are overfished. The facts are clear: according to the ASMFC’s latest assessment, Atlantic menhaden are not overfished, and overfishing is not occurring. The Commission already reduced the coastwide catch limit by 20% for 2026. The Atlantic menhaden purse seine fishery is certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Whole Foods Market, an MSC partner since 1999, describes it as the world’s leading certification program for sustainable wild-caught seafood, involving independent review of fish populations, ecosystem impacts and responsible fishery management.

The existing Chesapeake Bay harvest cap was never based on a scientifically quantified biological threshold. During a May 2008 congressional hearing, then-ASMFC Executive Director Captain John “Vince” O’Shea reportedly described the cap as established “in response to a political problem” and said “there was not a science basis for the Cap,” as documented in published accounts of his testimony. His written testimony describes the cap as a precautionary response to public concern. In 2018, then-ASMFC Chairman James “Jim” Gilmore Jr., responding to Virginia’s appeal of the reduction to 51,000 metric tons, stated that “Leadership agrees the Amendment does not provide sufficient evidence to support such claims” — referring specifically to the argument that lowering the cap was necessary to protect the Bay as a nursery area. His statement is also reflected in the ASMFC’s published proceedings.

The lawmakers have not established that further restricting this fishery would produce those environmental benefits. The ASMFC should reject further Chesapeake Bay cap cuts and mandatory seasonal allocations until the research can establish their necessity and likely benefits. Hundreds of working families should not pay the price for restrictions unsupported by completed Bay-specific science.

Congressional signatories: The published letter bears the signatures of Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), and Representatives Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.-3), Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.-6), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C., at-large delegate) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.-3). The accompanying press release also identifies Representative April McClain Delaney (D-Md.-6), although her signature is absent from the published letter.

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: Talbot County environmental consulting firm plans to recruit watermen to help clean up ‘ghost pots’

October 13, 2026 — An Easton-based environmental consulting firm has won federal money to pull abandoned crab pots, known as “ghost pots,” out of the Chesapeake Bay, and local watermen will be paid to do the retrieval.

According to the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, Rauch Inc. received $126,000 to recruit commercial watermen to recover derelict crab traps in Talbot County waters, including around Tilghman Island. The money comes through a NOAA subaward through the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Those areas were chosen based on a 2016 assessment by NOAA’s Marine Debris Program and the institute.The assessment predicts high levels of derelict pots off of Tilghman Island.

Read the full article at WBOC

MARYLAND: US Wind pulls out of wind turbine manufacturing at Sparrows Point

October 8, 2026 — US Wind, the company behind a proposed offshore wind development off the coast of Ocean City, no longer plans to develop components for wind turbines at Baltimore County’s Sparrows Point — at least not for now.

The Baltimore-based company turned over its lease at the Tradepoint Atlantic site in Sparrows Point to Anduril Industries, the shipbuilding company whose arrival was heralded on Tuesday by a visit from President Donald Trump (R).

It comes as US Wind’s only offshore wind project, planned for Ocean City’s coastline, continues to face legal headwinds and roadblocks from the Trump administration.

At the tail end of President Joe Biden’s (D) administration, the US Wind project received its last federal permit, but the town of Ocean City challenged it shortly thereafter. And after Trump’s inauguration, the federal government that once defended the permit permit for the project signaled its intent to revoke it, spurring a new round of legal wrangling.

In a statement issued Tuesday, US Wind CEO Jeff Grybowski said his company “jumped at the opportunity” to bring “near-term” jobs to the Sparrows Point site as US Wind faces delays. The site will be taken over by Anduril, which plans to invest $3.7 billion at the former home of Bethlehem Steel to construct a new shipbuilding facility, Arsenal-2, that is expected to bring an estimated 3,100 permanent new jobs to Maryland.

Read the full article at Maryland Matters

Menhaden debate puts fishermen under pressure

October 6, 2026 — As the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) prepares for a November vote on possible new Chesapeake Bay menhaden restrictions, fishermen and workers on both sides of the debate say the outcome could hit their livelihoods.

The Bay Journal reported Oct. 2 that bait fishermen in Maryland and Virginia are facing declining menhaden catches and rising costs, while employees of Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein worry additional restrictions on the reduction fishery could mean smaller paychecks or eventually fewer jobs.

ASMFC is considering changes under Draft Addendum II that could cut the Chesapeake Bay menhaden harvest cap by as much as 50 percent and establish quota periods intended to spread harvest throughout the season. The commission is scheduled to vote at the Nov. 10-11 meeting, with public comment open through Oct. 9.

The debate comes as fishermen on both sides describe growing economic pressure.

According to the Bay Journal, Maryland bait fishermen harvested about 1 million pounds of menhaden in 2024, compared with as much as 10 million pounds in previous years. Robbie Wilson, a fourth-generation pound0net fisherman on Tilghman Island, Maryland, said rising diesel costs and weaker seafood demand could make this his last year targeting menhaden.

Read the full article at National Fisherman