Saving Seafood

Pic of author in front of ship fuels fish oil photo flap

March 26, 2018 — REEDVILLE, Va. — A group that works with commercial fishermen is questioning why an author posed for a picture while sitting on a jet ski near a vessel in the Chesapeake Bay, rather than ask to come on board.

Paul Greenberg has written a new book, “The Omega Principle,” about omega-3 fatty acids. He tweeted the picture Friday in front of a vessel used by Omega Protein, the Atlantic’s largest menhaden harvester. Menhaden are small fish used for omega-3 fish oil supplements.

D.C.-based group Saving Seafood works with Omega and other harvesters on government and public relations. It says there was no reason for Greenberg to “endanger himself or the crew.”

Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle

 

Menhaden: Big Questions About Little Fish

March 16, 2018 — As a spotter plane for commercial fishing operations flies over nearshore waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the pilot keeps an eye on the surface below for shifting shapes like oil slicks.

When they appear, the pilot alerts the fleet that target Atlantic menhaden, or Brevoortia tyrannus, a small, silver fish in the herring family that lives in estuaries and coastal waters from north Florida to Nova Scotia. As the waters warm during the year, the species migrates north in football field-size schools, each up to 100 feet deep and pulsing with thousands of fish.

Menhaden on the Atlantic coast, combined with its sister species in the Gulf of Mexico, are among the top catch by volume for all commercial species in the United States, second only to pollock, a fish-n-chips mainstay.

Never gone fishing for menhaden? Haven’t seen it on the menu? You’re not alone. The catch is not a coveted dinner-plate item. As seafood guru Paul Greenberg discovered, “Menhaden are extremely high in omega-3 fatty acids and as such are quick to go rancid if not properly handled.” Plus, they’re chock full of bones.

Instead, whole fish typically are processed, or reduced, into fishmeal and oil and used in a range of products, including hog, poultry and aquaculture feeds, omega-3 supplements for humans, salad dressings, and dog food. The fish also are sold as bait to crabbers and lobstermen along the East Coast.

“It’s hard to believe you can catch a million fish, but nothing you can eat,” a Virginia menhaden fisherman told me.

Read the full story at NC State

 

ASMFC Horseshoe Crab Benchmark Stock Assessment Scheduled for May 8-10, 2018, in Arlington, VA

March 8, 2018 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Stock Assessment Workshop will be conducted May 8-10, 2018, at the Commission’s office at 1050 N. Highland Street, Suite 200A-N, Arlington, VA 22201. The assessment will evaluate horseshoe crab population along the Atlantic coast and inform the management of this species.

All Commission assessment workshops are open for public attendance. Time may be allotted for public comment at the Stock Assessment Subcommittee (SAS) Chair’s discretion, but may also be limited to keep the workshop on schedule. Due to the use of confidential data in this assessment, some portions of the workshop may be “closed door,” for which only members of the SAS with clearance to view confidential data may be present. Additionally, to ensure adherence to confidentiality laws, there will be no remote public access via webinar or conference call for this meeting.

The benchmark stock assessment will be independently peer-reviewed through a Commission External Peer Review Workshop tentatively scheduled for fall 2018. Details on the dates and location of the Peer Review Workshop will be announced later this year.

For more information about the assessment or attending the Assessment Workshop, please contact Dr. Mike Schmidtke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mschmidtke@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

 

Virginia: Menhaden quota bill pulled in Va. House of Delegates

March 7, 2018 — A much-lobbied bill about an oily fish that nobody eats died in the House of Delegates — but with a promise by some proponents and stern opponents to work together to push for permission to catch more.

The bill, backed by the Northam Administration, was an effort to deal with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s sharp, 41.5 percent cut in a Chesapeake Bay quota for menhaden.

But the administration and Omega Protein, the owner of the Reedville plant that processes menhaden from the bay, agreed to stop fighting over the bill and work together to convince the Marine Fisheries Commission to increase the quota.

The regional commission last year approved a more than 36,000-metric-ton cut in bay quota for menhaden caught by drawing huge “seine” nets around schools of the fish and then hauling them up onto so-called “purse seine” fishing vessels.

Currently, the old marine fisheries commission quota of 87,216 metric tons for fish caught is written into state law.

Knight had proposed removing the reference in state law to the 87,216 tons and empowering the head of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to set a new quota after appealing, and hopefully winning, an increased quota from the regional body.

Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Matt Strickler had argued that keeping the old quota in the Code of Virginia risked sanctions that could include an outright ban on menhaden fishing in the bay.

Environmental groups — including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, League of Conservation Voters and Nature Conservancy, as well as sports fishermen — argued that the lower quota was necessary as a precautionary measure. They fear too many young menhaden are caught in the bay, a key nursery area for the migratory fish. This could put the menhaden population at risk, as well other species, including striped bass and ospreys.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

 

Governor’s bill on menhaden catch limits advances, barely

March 1, 2018 — Atlantic menhaden aren’t giant fish — generally measuring about a foot or less — but they are big business in Virginia, so much so that they are the only species not entrusted to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission for management.

“The General Assembly has decided to retain control over setting quotas for menhaden,” said Matt Strickler, Virginia’s new secretary of natural resources.

Strickler had just emerged from a bruising hearing Wednesday before the House’s Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, which barely advanced a bill sent down by Gov. Ralph Northam to bring Virginia into compliance with a November decision by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission that cut the quota for fish netted in the Chesapeake Bay.

The bill by Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, which made it out of the committee on an 11-10 vote, was fiercely opposed by Omega Protein. The company operates the only “reduction fishery” on the Atlantic coast, a fleet of boats and plant in Reedville that turn thousands of tons of the fish into oil and meal each year for a range of products each year, from dietary supplements to pet food.

“This bill does harm industry and it does risk jobs,” Monty Deihl, Omega’s vice president of operations, told the committee, adding that no one was more attuned to menhaden numbers than the company, which was founded in Virginia in 1913. “This stock is more important to us than probably anyone else.”

Environmental groups and recreational fishermen urged the committee to send it on to the House floor.

Chris Newsome, a charter fishing captain from Gloucester, said menhaden are a “shared resource owned by all constituents of the commonwealth.”

“Decisions regarding menhaden shouldn’t be influenced solely by one stakeholder,” he said.

Read the full story at the Richmond Times-Dispatch

 

Trump’s plans to expand offshore drilling face headwind on Atlantic coast

February 22, 2018 — WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s bid to open Atlantic waters to offshore drilling has sparked bipartisan opposition in the states with the largest oil and gas reserves off their coasts, presenting unexpected obstacles to the long-held designs of the energy industry.

In recent years, political leaders in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina had supported oil and gas drilling off their coasts, envisioning high-paying jobs and increased tax revenues. But new governors in the three states – two Democrats and a Republican – have all reversed the positions of their predecessors, fearing the potential impact on beaches, fisheries and tourism industries.

“This last election we’ve seen a significant shift at the leadership level,” said David Holt, president of the Consumer Energy Alliance, a trade group representing large energy users and producers. “If you look at the last 10 years, the majority of the governors and the public had been supportive.”

For oil executives in Houston, an international center of the offshore oil and gas sector, the Atlantic coast is a new frontier that could potentially mean significant profits in the decades ahead. Most of the world’s biggest oil companies, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell, have a major presence here, employing thousands of people, as do firms specializing in offshore drilling and services, including TechnipFMC, National Oilwell Varco, McDermott International and Transocean.

But the recent shift in political and public sentiment represents a very real threat to their plans.

The oil and gas industry has sought access to U.S. Atlantic waters for years, hoping to find rich oil and gas fields similar to those off the coasts of Nigeria and Ghana. In Trump – who proclaims “energy dominance” almost as frequently as “Make America great again” – the industry believed it had found the key to achieving its goal.

Energy companies came close two years ago when former President Barack Obama considered allowing oil and gas development in Atlantic waters. They had the support of Republicans and Democrats, including Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2016, and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime friend and fund raiser for Hillary and Bill Clinton, but Obama ultimately decided against an expansion of offshore drilling.

Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle

 

Virginia: Will Lawmakers Agree to Menhaden Catch Limits?

February 21, 2018 — A battle over menhaden is underway in the Virginia General Assembly right now.

The oily, stinky fish makes up the biggest commercial fishery by volume on the Atlantic Coast, and more than 70 percent of its harvest is caught in Virginia waters. Menhaden also play a key role in the Chesapeake Bay’s food chain, as prey for sea birds, and bigger fish like rockfish.

The menhaden fishery is the only one regulated by the legislature, instead of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission or the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Thus, lawmakers must rewrite current menhaden catch limits in order to stay in compliance with the newest fishery management plan.

The plan, drawn up by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in November, increases the allowable catch for the entire menhaden fishery, but decreases Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay harvest cap to 51,000 metric tons, which is rounded up from the previous five-year average .  Read more about the new management plan here.

The bill first introduced in Virginia’s General Assembly this winter got stuck in committee, but Virginia State Delegate Barry Knight has introduced a new bill on behalf of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, to comply with the ASMFC plan.

In a letter to Delegate Danny Marshall (R-Danville), the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources, Governor Northam writes, “Increases in stock abundance and relinquishment of quota from other states to Virginia have resulted in an increase of more than 4 million pounds of menhaden for the Commonwealth. Delegate Knight’s new bill reflects that, and does no harm to the menhaden industry.”

If the plan isn’t implemented, Virginia could fall out of compliance with the Interstate Fishery Management Plan, and the state could face a moratorium on all menhaden fishing.

Read the full story at Chesapeake Bay Magazine 

 

Virginia: Time for bill runs out, higher menhaden quota remains

February 13, 2018 — A multi-state body says Virginians must catch fewer menhaden from the bay, but Virginia’s General Assembly didn’t listen — or, to be exact, didn’t really get a chance to hear.

A bill to bring Virginia’s quota in line with a steep cut demanded by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has languished for more than a month in the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee.

The committee won’t meet again before Tuesday’s midnight deadline for the House of Delegates to act on bills sponsored by House members. Without a committee’s vote to recommend a bill, it couldn’t make it to the floor for all the delegates to consider.

And that means that the higher quota applies for the only fishery — Virginia’s biggest — that the General Assembly regulates.

Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, wanted the General Assembly to agree to the cut in Virginia landings of menhaden from 87,216 metric tons to 51,000 tons that was approved in November by the regional fisheries commission.

That 41.5 percent cut came as the commission approved an 8 percent increase in the coastwide quota set by the commission.

The proposed quota cut is meant to protect a major nursery for menhaden and the striped bass that feed on them, said Chris Moore, senior regional ecosystem scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

While menhaden aren’t sold for human food, they are processed for fish oil, in food supplements, and for fishmeal, an important ingredient in livestock feed, as well as in pet food and to nourish farm-grown fish and seafood.

The striped bass that eat menhaden, on the other hand, have become an important food fish, as well as popular catch for recreational fishermen. Menhaden are also a vital food for marine mammals and osprey.

Moore said not enacting the regional commission quota puts Virginia, and the fishing crews and processing plant workers who depend on menhaden, at risk of sanctions.

That’s a big business. Omega Protein, the Texas-based fish oil and fishmeal producer whose Reedville operation, supplied by seven ships, is the fifth-largest U.S. port for fish landings, with 321 million pounds, worth $31 million, in 2016.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

Virginia Beach wants the same protection from offshore drilling Florida was promised

February 8, 2018 — Leaders want the local coastline taken off a newly expanded list of places open for offshore drilling.

City Council members approved a resolution Tuesday reiterating the city’s opposition to offshore drilling. It also asks for congressional representatives to help secure the same promise from the federal government as Florida, which was assured that it would be “off the table” for drilling.

The White House proposed a five-year offshore leasing program last month that would open most of the East Coast to drilling. The plan isn’t final, and a public hearing will be held in Richmond Feb. 21.

Read the full story at the Virginian-Pilot

 

VIRGINIA: Labor Joins Business Groups In Opposition to ASMFC Menhaden Allocation

AFL-CIO, United Food & Commercial Workers, Chamber of Commerce, Manufacturers Association, Seafood Council, and Watermen Urge Virginia to Reject Commission Decision

February 7, 2018 (Saving Seafood) – WASHINGTON – Virginia business and labor groups have united in calling on Virginia’s General Assembly to reject a reduction in the state’s menhaden quota. In a letter to the Chairmen of Virginia’s Senate and House committees on Agriculture and Natural Resources, the groups argued that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) decision to redistribute a share of Virginia’s menhaden allocation to other states is unfair and damaging to Virginia businesses and workers.

The letter, sent yesterday to Chairman Richard Stuart of the Virginia Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee and Chairman Danny Marshall of theVirginia House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee was signed by the Virginia AFL-CIO, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the Virginia Manufacturers Association, the Virginia Seafood Council, the Virginia Waterman’s Association, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400.

In November, the ASMFC voted to raise the coastwide allocation of Atlantic menhaden by 8 percent but redistributed it in such a way that the two largest menhaden producing states – Virginia and New Jersey – saw their percentage of the coastwide catch reduced. Under Virginia law, the state legislature must pass legislation accepting the decision of the ASMFC before any such determination becomes effective in the Commonwealth.

“The ASMFC re-allocated the number of menhaden each state could land, giving increased shares to states with little to no menhaden fishing activity,” the groups wrote. “This plan unfairly takes from Virginia while increasing the total allowable catch on the Atlantic Coast by 16,000 metric tons.”

In their letter, the groups argued that the ASMFC could have avoided this problem by increasing the quota further; they pointed out that scientists on the Commission’s Menhaden Technical Committee previously concluded that the coastwide quota could be increased by over 40 percent without a risk of overfishing.

Virginia’s General Assembly is currently considering legislation that would accept the ASMFC’s quota and reallocation plan. The letter calls on legislators to vote against the pending bill.

“Should Virginia reject this, they will stand up for all fisheries managed by the ASMFC,” the groups wrote in their letter. “Should Virginia accede to the ASMFC on this issue, in the future other states may team up on Virginia, take our allocation of other fish, and distribute it to other states.”

The request from organized labor and business groups comes at a delicate time for the ASMFC. As their letter notes, there is recent new precedent for a state that believes its own rules provide adequate conservation to successfully appeal a decision made by the ASMFC. Last June, the Commission recommended to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross that New Jersey be found out of compliance with new rules on recreational summer flounder fishing, known as Addendum XXVIII. However, Secretary Ross did not agree with the Commission’s determination, and ruled New Jersey to be in compliance, marking the first time the Commerce Department had rejected a noncompliance recommendation from the ASMFC.

In a letter to ASMFC Executive Director Robert Beal, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Chris Oliver wrote, “New Jersey makes a compelling argument that the measures it implemented this year…will likely reduce total summer flounder mortality in New Jersey waters to a level consistent with the overall conservation objective…” As a result, “the Secretary has found that the measures are likely to be equivalent in total conservation as those required under Addendum XXVIII,” Administrator Oliver wrote.

According to the ASMFC, the menhaden fishery is sustainable and the stock remains healthy. The Commission’s most recent stock assessment, completed in 2017, concluded that menhaden is currently not overfished and is not experiencing overfishing.