Menhaden Archives - Saving Seafood

Omega Protein says it will cooperate on Chesapeake menhaden cap

December 20, 2019 — Omega Protein said it will cooperate with interstate menhaden managers, after the Department of Commerce set a June 17, 2020 deadline for Virginia to come into compliance with the Chesapeake Bay cap on its reduction fishery or face a moratorium.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross formally concurred with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission finding of non-compliance, after the commission in October voted to insist the Reedville, Va.-based Omega Protein must adhere to the commission’s 51,000 metric tons bay cap.

Chris Oliver, the NOAA assistant administrator for fisheries, notified the commission Thursday of Ross’ decision.

“NOAA Fisheries also finds that this management measure is necessary for the conservation of the menhaden resource,” Oliver wrote in a letter to the commission. “The best available information shows that menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay are an important component of the overall health of the stock, and further that their role as forage for predator species in the Chesapeake Bay is critical to the marine environment.”

Omega officials, who faced off with critics for months before the commission vote, pledged Thursday to work toward solutions.

“Omega Protein will work with both the ASMFC and the Commonwealth of Virginia to lift the moratorium and bring the fishery back into compliance,” the company said in a prepared statement. “The company looks forward to working with the commission in the coming months as we move toward ecosystem-based measures, and will continue to support science-based fishery management and a healthy menhaden fishery.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Omega Protein says it will cooperate on Chesapeake menhaden cap

Chris Oliver, the NOAA assistant administrator for fisheries, notified the commission Thursday of Ross’ decision.

Omega officials, who faced off with critics for months before the commission vote, pledged Thursday to work toward solutions.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

US commerce secretary Ross hands Virginia menhaden fishery its first moratorium

December 19, 2019 — Wilbur Ross, secretary of the US Department of Commerce, has agreed with Virginia governor Ralph Northam and placed the first-ever moratorium on the commonwealth’s menhaden fishery in the Chesapeake Bay — one of the two largest in the US — delivering a potentially nasty blow to Omega Protein.

But the moratorium doesn’t go into effect until June 17, 2020, giving the Houston, Texas-based division of Cooke Inc. plenty of time to work with the state to get into compliance.

The ruling follows Omega Protein’s admission in September of violating a federal cap set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in the area. The ASFMC cut the bay cap by 41% in 2017, in what it described as a precautionary measure, but without a finding of overfishing.

In October, during its week-long meeting in New Castle, New Hampshire, the ASMFC voted unanimously (15-0) to advance its finding of noncompliance against the state of Virginia to Ross.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Read Omega Protein’s Statement Here

Read the letter from NOAA here

Secretary of Commerce Finds Commonwealth of Virginia Out of Compliance with Atlantic Menhaden Amendment 3

December 19, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission received notification today that the Secretary of Commerce concurs with the Commission’s finding that the Commonwealth of Virginia is out of compliance with Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. Specifically, the Commonwealth has failed to implement the 51,000 mt Chesapeake Bay reduction fishery cap (cap). In accordance with this finding, the Secretary has declared a moratorium on the Atlantic menhaden fisheries in Virginia waters, effective June 17, 2020. In order to avert the moratorium, the Commonwealth must effectively implement and enforce the cap prior to June 17^th. This action was taken pursuant to the provisions of the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act (Atlantic Coastal Act) of 1993.

“I am grateful for the Secretary’s support of the Commission’s fisheries management process and, in particular, our efforts to manage Atlantic menhaden, an important forage species, in a precautionary manner,” stated ASMFC Chair Patrick C. Keliher of Maine. “The Secretarial backstop is a key provision of the Atlantic Coastal Act.”

In today’s letter from NOAA Fisheries transmitting its determination of noncompliance, it stated, “NOAA Fisheries also finds that this management measure is necessary for the conservation of the menhaden resource. The best available information shows that menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay are an important component of the overall health of the stock, and further that their role as forage for predator species in the Chesapeake Bay is critical to the marine environment.” The letter explains that the June closure was selected “to give Virginia the time necessary for its legislature to bring these regulations back into compliance.”

MASSACHUSETTES: Cape fishermen celebrate new trawling restrictions

November 26, 2019 — In 2002, when Peter Baker first voiced his opposition to the large herring trawlers towing even larger nets off the beaches of Cape Cod, he didn’t think it would take 17 years to get a ban on what he and others saw as a return to the industrialized fishing that had wiped out New England herring, mackerel and menhaden in the 1970s before the U.S. pushed the foreign fleet 200 miles offshore in 1976.

Last week, the efforts of local fishermen, boards of selectmen, voters, environmental groups and state legislators who spoke out against the midwater trawl herring fishery finally paid off with a federal restriction on large herring vessels fishing within 12 miles of the coast from the Canadian border to Connecticut, and within 20 miles of shore along the Outer Cape coastline south to the waters off Martha’s Vineyard.

“This is the culmination of a decade and a half of hard work,” said Baker, who is the director of marine conservation work in New England and Atlantic Canada for the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

VIRGINIA: Gov. Ralph Northam calls for freeze on menhaden fishing after company broke Bay catch limit

November 21, 2019 — With a tough letter accusing a Canadian-owned firm of stealing Virginia fish, Gov. Ralph Northam asked for a federal freeze on catching menhaden.

Northam said the freeze was needed because Reedville-based Omega Protein had exceeded a cap set on the menhaden catch in Chesapeake Bay earlier this year. Omega is owned by Cook Aquaculture Inc., of New Brunswick.

The governor’s request to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross came in the wake of a finding by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission that Virginia had violated the cap because of Omega’s operation.

The commission cut the Bay cap by 41% in 2017, in what it described as a precautionary measure, but without a finding of overfishing.

“Despite direct appeals by Virginia’s Marine Resources Commissioner and myself that Omega abide by the 51,000 metric ton limit, the company has continued over-harvesting menhaden from the Chesapeake Bay even after exceeding the cap,” Northam wrote in his request to Ross.

Read the full story at The Daily Press

Regional panel advances menhaden finding against Virginia, Omega Protein

October 31, 2019 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission ruled Thursday to advance to Wilbur Ross, the US secretary of Commerce, its finding of noncompliance against the state of Virginia in relation to it allowing the harvest of more Atlantic menhaden inside the Chesapeake Bay than the 51,000 metric tons ASMFC guidelines allow, Undercurrent News has learned.

The commission voted unanimously (15-0) at its week-long meeting in New Castle, New Hampshire, with abstentions by representatives for both the National Marine Fisheries Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, mirroring earlier votes on Monday by the ASMFC’s menhaden management board and Thursday morning by the commission’s policy panel.

The ruling, which was expected as all three ASMFC panels share many of the same members, is bad news for Omega Protein. The Houston, Texas-based division of Canadian seafood giant Cooke catches nearly all of the menhaden in the Chesapeake, a large body of water shared by the states of Maryland and Virginia, and it has freely acknowledged recently surpassing the ASMFC limit by about 14,000t.

Omega previously suggested it made the decision to keep fishing in the Chesapeake beyond the ASMFC guidelines out of concern for the safety of its harvesters and was bound only by Virginia’s stated limit of 87,216t.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ASMFC Finds the Commonwealth of Virginia Out of Compliance with Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden

October 31, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has found the Commonwealth of Virginia out of compliance with a mandatory management measure contained in Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. The Commission will notify the Secretary of Commerce of its finding. This action was taken pursuant to the provisions of the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act of 1993.

Specifically, the Commonwealth of Virginia has failed to effectively implement and enforce Section 4.3.7 Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishery Cap of Amendment 3. In order to come back into compliance, the Commonwealth must implement an annual total allowable harvest from the Chesapeake Bay by the reduction fishery of no more than 51,000 mt. The implementation of this measure is necessary to achieve the goals and objectives of Amendment 3 and maintain the Chesapeake Bay marine environment to assure the availability of the ecosystem’s resources on a long-term basis.

Upon notification by the Commission, the Secretary of Commerce has 30 days to review the recommendation and determine appropriate action, which may include a federal moratorium on fishing for or possessing Atlantic menhaden in the Commonwealth’s state waters.

For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, Director, Interstate Fisheries Management Program, at tkerns@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

VIRGINIA: The Battle Over Menhaden Harvesting in the Bay

October 30, 2019 — Set along the northern-most section of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay is a town called Reedville, a fishing community established in the 1870’s. Though quaint and scenic, the heart pumping life into Reedville is a fish processing plant owned by Omega Protein.

Omega Protein harvests and processes a small, oily fish called menhaden for various commercial uses that include fish oil and fish meal, which is used as food ingredients and animal feed. It’s a good business for Reedville’s economy, but there are others who say this business is bad for the bay.

One of those people is Allen Girard of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a watchdog group that fights for the health and restoration of the bay.

“Menhaden are an incredible species,” says Girard. “A link in the food chain to the whole food web to the Chesapeake Bay.”

A close eye is kept on that link by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries.

“The menhaden issue is a very complex issue the commission is currently facing,” says Toni Kerns, ASMFC’s director of Interstate Fisheries Management Program and Policy Development.

The ASMFC is a group that, under federal law, manages and oversees coastal fisheries including the menhaden species. Essentially, the ASMFC has regulatory authority.

Read the full story at WBOC

Virginia Out of Compliance with Menhaden Cap

October 29, 2019 — The menhaden harvest limit decision-makers have found Virginia to be out of compliance with the Chesapeake Bay harvest cap.

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Menhaden Management Board voted overwhelmingly to take action against Virginia after Omega Protein, the Reedville-based producer of fish meal and fish oil, exceeded ASMFC’s harvest cap back in September.

Menhaden, an oily little fish, makes for big business, but it’s also a key piece of the Chesapeake Bay food chain, providing food for predators like striped bass.

The ASMFC set the Bay’s menhaden harvest cap at 51,000 metric tons back in 2017, but Virginia’s General Assembly, who control state menhaden management, refused to enact the new cap. So the state limit remains at 87,216 metric tons.

The ASMFC considered a non-compliance motion last year, for Virginia’s failure to adopt the cap, but postponed it because Omega Protein hadn’t actually exceeded 51,000 metric tons in recent years.

Read the full story at the Chesapeake Bay Magazine