Failed menhaden study bill betrays the Chesapeake Bay

As spring fishing season approaches, we are reminded it has been a tough few years for the mighty Menhaden — the most important fish in the Chesapeake Bay — and those who try to protect them. Menhaden are a critical but inedible bait fish that feed many species in the bay including striped bass, marine mammals and birds. They are essential to the health of the bay and are harvested in huge nets then ground up (i.e. reduced) to fish meal where they become feed for salmon farms and other animals.

For years this controversial fishery has been protected by a handful of politicians and an army of lobbyists. Concerns about menhaden depletion, damage from fish spills, unintended bycatch, and damage to habitat have long been raised by both fishermen and environmental groups, only to be told “there is no science to support your claims.”

So, this past summer a group gathered to provide input on the design of a long overdue scientific study of menhaden in the bay. This study is badly needed because coastal stock assessments, which declare menhaden are not “overfished,” do not account for conditions in the bay. This group included representatives from Omega Protein (Virginia’s sole industrial menhaden harvester), the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences and others. Afterwards we all agreed on this study and what would be included. It was a glimmer of hope.

In January, this proposed study resulted in House Bill 19, sponsored by Dels. Lee Ware and

Betsy Carr, to fund the study. It would take three years and cost $2.7 million to complete, but is necessary to better understand the impact on our bay’s ecosystem. Shockingly, for the second consecutive year, the bill was postponed until next year, likely killing the entire study. When asked why the bill failed with no public testimony, the chair of the legislative committee stated, “I did what I was told.”

What happened? The Canadian-owned menhaden company unleashed its lobbyists and political friends on the General Assembly to do what they do best. I guess they don’t want science after all. This is yet another breach of public trust.

All of this follows an ugly 2022 where the industry had multiple fish spills along the beaches of the Eastern Shore and 12,000 pounds of prized red drum killed as bycatch. It was a year that thousands of citizens, environmental groups and fishing businesses signed petitions and letters to the governor, all to no avail.

That year ended in the defeat of a proposed 1-mile, no-fishing buffer regulation on a 5-4 vote at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, which opted instead for a toothless “memorandum of understanding.” This is the same citizen board that the administration had earlier stacked with friends of the menhaden industry, and the same board that must now address yet another petition for rulemaking and a resolution from Northampton County supervisors to move the fishery out of the bay. And it’s the same board that must answer to scientific research showing that Osprey birds in the bay are starving due to scarcity of menhaden.

All of this makes us wonder, why is Virginia allowing the mass harvest of 112 million pounds of this public resource from the bay annually when the company is unwilling to embrace scientific research? Is this what a responsible company does in the 21st century? And what is the point of being a legislator if you allow lobbyists to make decisions for you? This industrial fishery should move out of the bay and into the ocean (where the company currently harvests about two-thirds of its total catch) until science can show it is not causing harm. By allowing harvest of these fish in the bay at a lower operating cost, the state is essentially subsidizing this operation.

We will remember this legislative fiasco the next time someone says, “There’s no science to support your concerns.” It’s not too late for the administration to fund this important study, and to the politicians who turn a blind eye and condone this betrayal of our bay: We vote.