A attainable finish is in sight for business menhaden fishing in Virginia. A invoice was launched for the following session of the Virginia Basic Meeting for a two-year moratorium to be positioned on Atlantic menhaden. The moratorium could be put in place in Virginia’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay. The invoice is sponsored by State Delegate Tim Anderson (R)-Virginia Seashore.
The Atlantic Menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) is a silvery-scaled baitfish that serves as a serious forage species for a lot of completely different bigger and sportfish species. Being such an essential prey species for a lot of widespread species of sportfish within the Chesapeake Bay there has at all times been a number of rivalry concerning the business harvest of Atlantic menhaden. Beginning with simply the strategy of fishing for the menhaden, also called bunker, a fleet of purse seining boats has gotten main flak from sportfishing and conservation teams. Their argument is that the Omega Protein fleet has pushed down the variety of menhaden within the Chesapeake Bay, and in flip, the sportfish numbers who prey on the bunker have adopted.
Omega Protein although has insisted up to now that the science is on their aspect, saying the menhaden numbers are nonetheless wholesome. They as an alternative blame the game fishers and business anglers for the drop in sportfish numbers. Omega Protein’s annual harvest is capped at 51,000 metric tons of menhaden out of the Chesapeake Bay. This can be a sizable portion of their 137,000 metric ton common annual harvest. So the lack of the power to fish contained in the Chesapeake Bay could be substantial for the enterprise. This isn’t the primary time we’ve heard the title Omega Protein this yr with the blunder in Louisiana earlier in September.
Anderson’s invoice would moreover closing the Chesapeake Bay to business bunker fishing would additionally set up an advisory committee to do analysis on discount fishing through the two-year moratorium. The advisory committee would then present the info on its findings to the Virginia Marine Sources Fee (VMRC) after its analysis is full.
