The Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) voted 5-3 on April 23 in Newport News to deny a petition from the Chesapeake Legal Alliance and Southern Maryland Recreational Fishing Organization that would have placed a moratorium on menhaden purse seine fishing in Virginia waters of Chesapeake Bay.
Virginia is the only state on the Atlantic coast that allows large menhaden reduction fishing.
Omega Protein, owned by Cooke Inc. of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, and Ocean Harvesters, firms that process and harvest the fish, are the largest reduction menhaden fish companies operating on the East Coast. Omega and Ocean Harvesters are two of the largest employers on Virginia’s Northern Neck and corporate offices are located in Reedville.
The petition also called for VMRC to require:
- No less than 40% of the harvest be caught from federal ocean waters.
- Set a limit of no more than 60% of current purse seine menhaden landings within Virginia waters.
- Codify a one-mile shoreline buffer and establish a permanent one-nautical mile buffer along Virginia’s shoreline prohibiting the use of menhaden purse seines.
- Fund and implement a menhaden population study.
- Implement and enhance the Atlantic Menhaden Research proposal to investigate localized depletion to determine local impacts of menhaden fishing in the Chesapeake Bay.
- Establish proper industry oversight requiring increased vessel and landings monitoring and reporting to ensure compliance and reduce bycatch and impacts on bay habitats.
With everyone of these items pros and cons were addressed at the meeting. In the end, VMRC commissioners resisted passing a motion by commissioner Heather Lusk and seconded by commissioner Patrick Hand to consider a permanent one-nautical mile restricted buffer along all the shoreline of Virginia and for more monitoring and reporting to ensure compliance and reduce bycatch.
The motion never made it to a vote as commissioners balked at the cost of having to pay for fish inspectors on menhaden vessels and felt that the partial one-nautical mile shoreline buffer established last year in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between VMRC and Ocean Harvesters/Omega Protein agreeing to put limits on menhaden fishing in some areas of Chesapeake Bay would suffice.
The MOU restricted areas in the bay from being fished on weekends during busy recreational holidays; not to fish within one-half mile on either side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel; and not to fish within a one-mile limit along a portion of the Eastern Shore on Chesapeake Bay and on the western shore in the Hampton area.
Executive Director for CLA David Reed said that the MOU is no more than a “handshake deal with no sanctions for violations (and in some ways) it is less than a handshake agreement,” he said.
VMRC officials stated that the MOU was more than a “handshake agreement” and there had been no violations of the MOU by Ocean Harvesters since the agreement became final…
