Saving Seafood

Dams give way to better habitat in Chesapeake Bay region

September 1, 2026 — A few years ago, biologist Brian Watson was looking for endangered mussels in Virginia’s Rock Island Creek when his assistant went around a bend and made a startling discovery. It wasn’t a rare mussel.

“There’s, like … a stone wall,” she shouted back to Watson. Then added, “That’s a dam.”

Standing 6 feet tall and stretching 55 feet across the creek, the dam was entirely unknown to them — appearing nowhere on maps or dam inventories.

But the dam wasn’t irrelevant to their project: It was taking a toll on mussels, as so many dams do. The biologists found shells of dead James River spinymussels, an endangered species, behind the structure.

“We assumed the mussels probably got washed down to the dam and then died as they got trapped,” said Watson, a mussel specialist for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, noting that the sandy substrate and water depth behind the structure was unsuitable habitat.

It was one of more than 6,500 dams that dot more than 200,000 miles of waterways draining the Chesapeake Bay watershed. That’s an undercount. Many of them don’t appear on dam inventories. Research was required to learn that the one on Rock Island Creek was called the Baber’s Mill Dam, built in the early 1800s.

Large or small, dams create a host of problems. They alter habitat, block fish movement, change water temperatures, promote algal blooms and contribute to the decline of native species. Some are safety threats to people.

But the Baber’s Mill Dam no longer causes such problems.

By chance, an aquatic ecologist from the timber company Weyerhaeuser, which owned the property, contacted Watson about the dam a few months later. The state and company teamed up to remove the structure in April 2024.

Read the full article at Bay Journal 

VIRGINIA: Protesters harass menhaden fishermen

September 1, 2026 — Chesapeake Bay menhaden fishing protesters in small craft continue to harass Ocean Harvesters’ boats and fishermen by circling in front of the firms’ steamers attempting to keep boats from making sets.

Ocean Harvesters of Reedville, Va., harvests menhaden and sells it to Omega Protein, also located in Reedville. Omega Protein buys the fish from Ocean Harvesters and processes them into fish meal, fish oil, and other products.

Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein are part of the only large menhaden reduction fishery in operation on the East Coast of the United States and have drawn protests from environmental groups throughout the mid-Atlantic who want to prevent menhaden reduction fishing on Chesapeake Bay.

“Over the past three years we have seen a few dozen of these recreational fishing boats racing to get in front of us and just circling so we either can’t get to where we want to go, or to try and block us from setting out nets,” says Monty Deihl chief executive officer of Ocean Harvesters. “These go hand-in-hand with the threats we get on social media and the coordinated effort to disrupt our operations.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Record Cobia Tournament Shows a Chesapeake Predator Thriving Alongside Menhaden

August 31, 2026 — Congratulations are in order for the winners and participants in the 2026 Big Man’s Cobia Bonanza.

The ninth annual tournament was held August 14–15 in the Chesapeake Bay, with events based in Norfolk and weigh-ins at Little Creek. By the organizers’ account, it was a record year, with more than 100 boats participating and a top prize of over $38,000, and two runner-up $12,000 prizes. The organizers summed up the weekend with the declaration: “We put Virginia Cobia fishing in the Chesapeake Bay back on top!”

That is worth celebrating. It is also worth considering in the continuing debate over whether the Chesapeake Bay has enough menhaden to support its predators.

Cobia are large predators that spend the summer feeding in Chesapeake waters. Menhaden are part of their prey base and an important forage fish in the same waters where cobia thrive. Scientists and Bay fishing organizations alike have identified menhaden as an important prey species for cobia, and menhaden have traditionally been a preferred cobia bait.

That makes this year’s tournament particularly interesting; the success of a major Chesapeake predator that consumes menhaden is difficult to reconcile with sweeping claims that the Bay lacks sufficient forage for its predators.

The contrast with striped bass is instructive.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission currently classifies Atlantic cobia as not overfished, with overfishing not occurring. Striped bass are also important predators of menhaden, but their stock has followed a different path. In 2024, the peer-reviewed striped bass stock assessment found the stock was overfished. The stock is currently managed with restrictions designed to reduce fishing mortality and rebuild the population.

That history does not mean forage is irrelevant to striped bass, but it does mean discussions about their condition should acknowledge a well-established factor: fishing mortality on striped bass themselves was too high for years.

Menhaden, meanwhile, are already managed with their ecological role in mind. The ASMFC uses ecological reference points specifically designed to account for menhaden as forage and the needs of predators. The Atlantic menhaden stock itself is classified as not overfished, with overfishing not occurring.

Taken together, these facts suggest Chesapeake predator dynamics are more complicated than simply claiming there are not enough menhaden. Cobia and striped bass share the same broader ecosystem and both consume menhaden, yet their stock conditions are very different.

That comparison does not mean menhaden are evenly distributed throughout the Chesapeake Bay or that every predator has equal access to forage at all times. Menhaden are highly migratory schooling fish whose presence in any particular place changes with season, movement and environmental conditions.

Questions about local menhaden movement, seasonal abundance and predator access deserve continued study. And that work is happening.

The federal government, Virginia, and the menhaden industry are all supporting research to better understand menhaden movement, seasonal abundance, predator consumption and fishery interactions in the Chesapeake Bay. Congress has funded Bay-specific research, Virginia has committed funding for work led by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), and the industry is supporting collaborative research involving VIMS, the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and NOAA.

That is how unresolved questions should be addressed: through cooperative science, not through simple assumptions.

In the meantime, what happened at this year’s Cobia Bonanza deserves attention.

Congratulations to the winners. Their success is a reminder that the Chesapeake Bay forage story may be considerably healthier than some of the rhetoric surrounding menhaden would have us believe.

Retiring of Calcasieu Pass brings opportunity for a menhaden bait fisherman

August 31, 2026 — The recent sinking of the Calcasieu Pass in Delaware waters in the Atlantic Ocean to make a reef perhaps speaks more to the changing times of Virginia’s menhaden fishery than to an end of life grave for an old fishing vessel.

The former 180’ menhaden carry-away boat Calcasieu Pass was donated by Ocean Harvesters of Reedville, Va., to Coleen Marine for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC).

The boat was sunk in August on Delaware’s Del-Jersey-Land reef about 26 miles off Indian River Inlet in the ocean. The vessel will provide new habitat for reef-associated fish and marine life while creating opportunities for anglers and divers.

Ocean Harvesters’ fleet is composed of six large menhaden steamers and four carry-away boats. A carry-away boat is a dedicated transport vessel used to carry menhaden back to the processing plant, allowing fishing vessels to continue to fish longer in active fishing zones.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

VIRGINIA: Comment period closes on proposed Virginia offshore mineral lease

August 26, 2026 — The public comment period has closed on a proposal that could lead to commercial mineral leasing in federal waters off Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management accepted comments through Aug. 22 on a request for information and interest covering about 1.77 million acres, or 2,764 square miles, of the Outer Continental Shelf. The area lies three to 63.5 miles off the Delmarva Peninsula, seaward of Accomack and Northampton counties, in water depths ranging from approximately 30′ to 410′.

The proceeding is an early planning step and does not authorize exploration, dredging or mineral production. BOEM will use the submissions to determine whether to identify areas for possible leasing and begin an environmental review. Any lease would be awarded through a competitive process rather than directly to the company that initiated the request.

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Tampa, Fla., submitted the unsolicited lease-sale request in November 2025. The company is interested in exploring for heavy mineral sands containing titanium-bearing minerals, zirconium-bearing minerals and rare earth element-bearing minerals, including monazite. Odyssey has a collaboration agreement with Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp., Houston, which would serve as the dredging contractor if the project advances.

Unlike proposed mining projects targeting polymetallic nodules in deep ocean basins, the Virginia proposal involves comparatively shallow continental shelf deposits that Odyssey says could be recovered using conventional dredging and mineral-processing equipment.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Opinion: Seabed mining would strip mine fishermens’ future

August 24, 2026 — As a family of lifelong commercial fishers, we’ve always done our best to take care of the ocean off Virginia’s coast. But right now, an out-of-state company wants to dig out the foundation of our fishing grounds.

The federal government is considering a recent proposal by a Florida-based mining company to dredge Virginia’s seabed. If granted, our entire Eastern shore – 2,500 square miles – could be opened up to mining that would tear up the ocean bottom and crush the marine life that depends on it.

The two of us have saltwater running through our veins.

As for me – Jim – I fell in the water when I was two and have been driving a skiff since I was eight. My great uncle was a crabber, and my great aunt was picking crabs. I always knew I wanted to be a commercial fisherman here – just fell in love with fishing.

And as for me – Katie – my neighbor in Freeport, Long Island, threw me in the water and told me to swim when I was three. At about nine, I’d take the neighbors’ dog out on a paddle boat at six am to grab mussels off the pylons and stay out until dark. Neighbors would tell my parents they’d seen me.

Today, we are Virginia’s largest harvesters of black sea bass and flounder, fishing over 100 trips per season. Jim, the tech whiz with a chemistry degree, recently designed and built our own boat and fishes all day with our 24-year-old son, Matt. Katie takes care of lobsters in the tank and delivers our product every Saturday to people’s houses. Around Chincoteague, some people know us better as “Jimmy Neutron” and “The Lobsta Lady.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

DELAWARE: Retired fishing vessel sunk as artificial reef off Delaware

August 24, 2026 — Delaware has sunk a retired 180-foot menhaden vessel on its flagship offshore artificial reef, the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control announced Aug. 18.

The Calcasieu Pass, a former offshore oilfield supply boat that went on to spend more than 30 years in the Atlantic menhaden reduction fleet out of Reedville, Va., was placed on Reef Site 13, better known as the Del-Jersey-Land Reef. DNREC said the vessel went down after environmental remediation and approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Coast Guard for environmental cleanliness and safety.

Ocean Harvesters, which operated the vessel, said in a separate announcement that the sinking took place Wednesday, Aug. 12, at a site roughly 26 miles off Indian River Inlet.

The boat measures 180 feet with a 40-foot beam. Built in 1982, it supported offshore oilfield work until 1989, when it was converted to an Atlantic menhaden fishing and processing vessel. Its name comes from Calcasieu Pass, a bend in the Calcasieu Ship Channel near Lake Charles, La., an area DNREC noted for liquefied natural gas production.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Commission could revisit how menhaden quota is divided among states

August 17, 2026 — Atlantic menhaden management could face another major discussion this fall, this time over how the coastwide catch is divided among East Coast states.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is expected to consider in November whether to begin a process to reallocate state menhaden quotas, according to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), which is pushing for changes to a system based largely on historical landings.

TRCP argues the current allocations no longer reflect where menhaden are being found or how fishermen use the resource today.

Virginia receives more than 75 percent of the state allocation, supporting the East Coast’s only remaining large-scale menhaden reduction fishery, operated by Omega Protein and supplied by Ocean Harvesters. Farther north, menhaden are an important bait source for lobster, crab and other commercial fisheries, with states relying in part on set-asides and quota transfers to meet demand.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ASMFC petitioned to consider menhaden reallocation, will make decision on fishery cap in Chesapeake

August 13, 2026 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is being petitioned to initiate a reallocation process for the menhaden fishery as it also considers its options to reduce the Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishery Cap by up to 50 percent.

The menhaden fishery is spread across the U.S. east coast, and allocated across several U.S. states, with each state getting a different share of the fishery. Historically the U.S. state of Virginia has received the largest portion of the quota, and has also been the largest fisher of the species, with companies like Omega Protein and Ocean Harvesters processing and harvesting most of the catch, respectively.

Now, conservation groups are petitioning the ASMFC to reallocate the quota of the fishery, claiming the shifting patterns of the species mean the quotas should shift too.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

VIRGINIA: Coastal Virginia communities push back against proposed offshore seabed mining

August 12, 2026 — Chincoteague resident Jim Dawson has been fishing the waters off the Eastern Shore for more than four decades, catching species including black sea bass and Atlantic lobster.

During his many hours out at sea, Dawson said he’s come to appreciate the tiniest creatures that dwell on and around the seafloor.

“The microscopic world is just phenomenal, that you would never know is there,” he said. “What lives in that water, we don’t know anything about. And everything is vital.”

Dawson worries a new federal proposal to dig up huge portions of the seabed could threaten the ecosystem that supports his livelihood.

“Once you knock one thing off balance, it really impacts all of it,” he said.

The Trump administration announced in June that it is considering issuing an ocean lease to allow mineral mining within a 2,700-square-mile area flanking the Eastern Shore, stretching from 3 to 63 miles off the coast.

The move was prompted by an unsolicited request from a Florida company late last year.

Administration officials say the industry, which mines the seabed to extract valuable minerals, could reduce U.S. reliance on foreign suppliers.

But many community leaders and residents along the Virginia coast are strongly opposing the proposal, particularly on the Shore.

The counties of Accomack and Northampton sent the government formal notices against it.

Read the full article at WHRO