Omega Protein’s fishing partner Ocean Harvesters has successfully tested a new fish spill response vessel, designed to respond and recover fish in response to net tears and spills.
The new vessel, the F/V Hopeful Harvest, is designed to quickly arrive at the area of a net tear and work to recover spilled fish from the surface. Ocean Harvesters primarily harvests menhaden for Omega Protein, for use in the fish oil and fish meal industries.
The new vessel, according to a release, will arrive on the scene of a spill and operate similarly to how traditional menhaden fishing vessels operate. The main vessel, the Hopeful Harvest, will launch two smaller skimmer boats capable of taking floating fish off of the surface of the ocean and transferring them onto the main vessel for disposal. The main vessel, according to Ocean Harvesters, will work closely with the menhaden fishing operations.
“We’ve always been proactive in addressing fish spills, but this represents a big step forward in our ability to deal with potential spills,” Ocean Harvesters CEO Monty Deihl said. “We always strive to be good stewards of the Bay, and this is just the latest step in our long-term efforts to collaborate with state officials and local communities to improve our operations.”
Omega Protein has been criticized in the past for fish spills. A net tear in 2021 caused a spill of an estimated 400,000 menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay. The company also had a fish release incident in 2022 when a fishing vessel unknowingly set its net on a school of menhaden that were near a school of red drum, and the vessel captain ordered the crew to release all the fish to avoid catching more red drum.
The release in 2022 garnered media attention in Virginia after dead menhaden washed up on local beaches. The Shore Daily News reported on the fish spill soon after it happened, and the Virginia-Pilot reported on closed beaches in the area resulting from the release.
Those fish releases in 2022, Ocean Harvesters Vice President of Public Affairs Ben Landry told SeafoodSource, provided an extra push for the company to look into a way to clean up fish spills before they reach the shore.
“Last summer, we started thinking a little more,” Landry said. “We’ve always thought of this solution, but the ’22 spills really fast-forwarded us putting this vessel into service.”
The key purpose of the new vessel, he said, is to keep fish off of the beach to avoid piles of dead fish that cause bad odors and disturb people in the area.
“We always would go and take full responsibility and pay for the cleanups, but if you can do some things proactively before they get to shore and never have to do that, that’s the goal,” Landry said.
The new vessel, combined with the two smaller vessels skimming dead fish off of the surface, has so far proven effective in testing and should offer a solution for Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein in the event of another fish spill.
“We’re excited to have this vessel at our disposal,” Landry said. “We’re confident that if that happens again, going forward, this is a vessel we can deploy and keep fish from reaching the shore.”
Photo courtesy of Ocean Harvesters
