Saving Seafood

VIRGINIA: ‘Our Sundays Are Different’: Reedville Fishing Community Shares Their Passion for Family, Community, and Menhaden Fishing

October 19, 2020 — The following was released by Omega Protein:

Sundays have always been different in Reedville, Virginia, a community created and sustained by the menhaden fishery. For over 140 years, Sunday has been the day when the fleet leaves the dock for the open water, and fishermen set out to sustainably harvest menhaden and earn a living.

Yesterday, at the start of another fishing week, fishermen and their families shared their experiences in the new Omega Protein video Our Sundays Are Different.

In the video, fishermen share what Sundays mean to them. It’s a day when they must say goodbye to their families, churches, and community, but also an opportunity to work a good paying job and provide for their loved ones.

“I do it for one reason, and the same reason my father did it and my grandfather did it before me, and that’s to earn a livelihood that I can take care of my family comfortably,” says Kenny Pinkard, a fisherman with Omega Protein.

“For me to be leaving early and go fishing and not watch football, it just makes sense,” says George Ball, another Omega Protein fisherman. “I don’t get paid to watch football, and I’m the only income in my home.”

Family members also share how their Sundays have been shaped by fishing, and how the fishing season has become an important part of their daily lives.

“I would say our Sundays, at least during the fishing season, have always been a little emotional,” says Taylor Deihl, the Marketing and Social Media Coordinator for Omega Protein, whose father is the captain of a menhaden fishing vessel. “That first Sunday of every season, me and my older sister would always go out to the truck with my dad, rain or shine, to hug him bye. So I’ve grown up in this industry, throughout my life it’s been my way of life.”

Since its founding, Omega Protein has been an integral part of the Reedville community. We are proud to be a part of the region’s long fishing tradition, and will continue to ensure that, for the people of Reedville, Sundays will always be different.

View the video here

DELAWARE: DNREC adds ship to growing artificial reef

August 24, 2020 — On Aug. 13, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control sank the menhaden fishing boat Reedville at Reef Site 11. The coordinates of the sinking are N 38 40.423/ W 74 44.295. The ship sits in 87 feet of water and is 16 miles offshore from Indian River Inlet. She is 180 feet long and measures 38 feet from the keel to the top of the stack. With her cavernous hold, she is expected to be very attractive to both black sea bass and tog.

The Reedville was first commissioned as a Navy ship, then as an Army freight and supply vessel. When the ship was recommissioned as a menhaden purse seiner, she was named Reedville after the town in Virginia where the largest fish processing plant is located. The town is named after Capt. Elijah W. Reed, whose process for extracting fish oil from menhaden in the 19th century made him and the town very rich.

There are three other menhaden boats at Site 11 along with 997 New York subway cars, 86 Army tanks, eight tugboats, a fishing trawler and two barges. Last fall, a cruse ship was placed there as well.

Read the full story at the Cape Gazette

Army-Navy freighter added to artificial reef off the Delaware coast.

August 14, 2020 — DNREC continued to bolster Delaware’s artificial reef system today by sinking the Reedville, originally a coastal freighter and supply ship, at a reef site 16 miles offshore.

The Reedville was converted to a commercial fishing vessel after military decommissioning and today found another new life as fish habitat and diving attract through DNREC’s artificial reef program.

The sinking of the 180-foot long Reedville was the reef program’s first deployment of a vessel since a retired Chesapeake Bay cruise ship was sunk late last year.

It came after the nationally-publicized and viral-videoed 2018 sinking of the retired Cape May-Lewes ferry Twin Capes onto the Del-Jersey-Land Reef, second only to Reef Site No. 11 as a popular fishing destination.

Because of the ship’s profile featuring a cavernous hold, the Reedville is expected to be a boon to two fish prominent in Delaware inshore waters, black sea bass and tautog. The area where vessels have been sunk does not have suitable habitat for some species.

Read the full story at Delaware Business Now

VIRGINIA: Jobs safe for Omega Protein employees

May 20, 2020 — Omega Protein is no longer threatened with a moratorium on its menhaden fishing operations. Thursday, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission notified the U.S. Secretary of Commerce that Virginia is now in compliance with the menhaden catch limits set by the commission and exceeded by Omega last year. Thus, the Reedville operation is no longer facing a possible closure.

In 2019, Omega, faced with bad weather outside the Chesapeake Bay, took 15,000 metric tons more from the Bay than the ASMFC 51,000 metric tons limit permitted. The fish were targeted from a school that was just inside the Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Had the school been on the other side of the bridge-tunnel, there would have been no violation since that side is not in the Bay.

The ASMFC asked the Secretary to find Omega out of compliance and subject to a moratorium. The federal regulatory commission was supported by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a long-time opponent to the industrial menhaden operation and the secretary found Omega out of compliance and subject to a moratorium.

Read the full story at News on the Neck

Omega Protein completes move of headquarters to Virginia

March 2, 2020 — Omega Protein officially announced on Monday, 2 March, that it completed moving its corporate headquarters from Houston, Texas, U.S.A., to Reedville, Virginia.

The company, a division of Canadian-based Cooke Inc., has a history in the Chesapeake Bay community dating back more than 100 years. As part of the effort to move corporate operations to Reedville, Omega Protein invested USD 1.3 million (EUR 1.2 million) in restoring the 1930s-era headquarters of an old fishing company in the region.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Virginia will cut its Chesapeake menhaden catch limit under bill passed by state lawmakers

March 2, 2020 — All seven of Omega Protein’s big blue purse-seine boats will head out on the chase for menhaden as usual this spring, but legislation passed by both the House of Delegates and state Senate could mean some will be tied up in their Reedville dock in the late summer and fall.

The General Assembly agreed to give up its authority to set quotas for menhaden and turn the job over to the Virginia Marine Fisheries Commission after the federal government imposed a moratorium. The final vote came Thursday.

That freeze came after Omega exceeded the multi-state Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s cap on its Chesapeake Bay catch last year.

But federal officials postponed implementing the moratorium until June — that is, a little after the usual May start of the fishing season, when Omega’s fleet mostly operates in the ocean — in order to give the General Assembly time to overturn its quota and authorize the state commission to adopt the multi-state group’s cap.

“This year will be a trial run for us,” Omega spokesman Ben Landry said.

Read the full story at The Daily Press

Menhaden, the most political fish in the Chesapeake Bay, might not be regulated by Virginia legislature anymore

January 29, 2020 — Virginia moved to keep fishing for menhaden in Chesapeake Bay, but a legislative compromise that got its first nods this week means the big boats from Reedville won’t catch quite as much.

The reason is that the most political fish of all would no longer be regulated by the General Assembly, where state Senate and House of Delegates panels say the legislature should turn the job over to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the panel that oversees every other fish.

Virginia faced a moratorium on the Bay menhaden fishery because Reedville-based Omega Proteins exceeded a cap on the Bay catch imposed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in 2017.

That cap, of 51,000 metric tons, is 41.5% below the old limit, which is the one written into the Code of Virginia.

Read the full story at The Daily Press

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

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