Legislators in the U.S. state of Virginia have rejected funding for a study of menhaden abundance in the Chesapeake Bay, despite claims from conservation groups that regulators need more data on the species’ population.
Menhaden is Virginia’s largest commercial fishery, but conservation groups claim that state regulators lack the scientific data to manage it sustainably. To correct that, state lawmakers made three separate efforts to fund a three-year study by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) on the “ecology, fishery impacts, and economic importance of the menhaden population in the waters” of Virginia.
The effort to secure funding for the study was supported by 17 angling and conservation groups, with more than 24,000 Virginians signing a petition backing the effort.
All three attempts to pass the funding died in the Virginia House, however, with state lawmakers declining to approve the funding. The new study, which would have cost USD 2.8 million (EUR 2.6 million) would have relied on a new acoustic survey method to assess menhaden populations – which VIMS acknowledged was experimental.
Omega Harvesters and Omega Protein, the largest harvester and largest processor of menhaden on the U.S. east coast respectively, said that they fully supported additional research on the stock, and have "proudly supported or participated in" 15 separate menhaden research projects.
However, the economic significance of the industry was deemed too important to support with an untested study.
“Given its economic significance, concerns arose about relying on an unproven method to make decisions affecting workers’ livelihoods. Fishing industry stakeholders do believe that if successful, acoustic technology could enhance fishery assessments,” the two companies said.
NGOS advocated for the new study as means of better understanding the population of menhaden within the Chesapeake Bay – and the effects of removing them via industrial harvests.
“Unfortunately, other Virginia lawmakers weren’t willing to support those efforts again this year, but recreational fishing advocates and a wide range of fisheries conservationists remain strongly committed to pushing for the science needed to properly manage the fisheries in Chesapeake Bay,” Chris Macaluso, director of the Center for Marine Fisheries for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said in a statement.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation also denounced the legislature’s failure to fund the study.
“This is not just bad news for fishermen but bad news for a Chesapeake Bay ecosystem that continues to scream warnings about menhaden,” Chesapeake Bay Foundation Executive Director Chris Moore said in a statement.
The commercial fishing industry said there is already extensive science on the over 100 years of fishing the species.
“The available data on the menhaden population suggests that no drastic management actions are necessary at this time,” the companies said.
Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein have consistently fought against pressure from NGOs and recreational fishing groups over its fishing, despite the fishery achieving MSC certification in 2019.
The companies also said they offered to jumpstart some of the work by allocating money for a pilot program to study the effectiveness of the acoustic tagging technology, in order to determine if it would be effective at managing the fishery.
“However, no agreement was reached to support a pilot study, leading to the amendment’s exclusion from the budget,” the companies said.
