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Virginia lawmakers failed to advance three attempts this legislative session to fund research into the Chesapeake Bay’s menhaden population, extending the wait for Bay-specific data on the commonwealth’s largest commercial fishery.
Atlantic menhaden are small schooling fish that play an outsized role in the Bay. They provide food for striped bass, bluefish and ospreys while also supporting Virginia’s reduction fishery, which processes the catch into fishmeal and fish oil.
Omega Protein and its affiliates operate the fishery. Virginia is the only state where reduction fishing remains legal.
The General Assembly required plans for studying menhaden in Virginia waters in 2023, after spills involving Omega Protein left thousands of menhaden and gamefish washed ashore. The company supported that legislation, but lawmakers did not approve funding for the research in early 2024.
This year, Del. Paul Milde led an effort to have the Virginia Institute of Marine Science conduct a $3 million, three-year study examining menhaden ecology, the fishery’s effects and the population’s economic importance. House Bill 2713 and its accompanying budget amendment, Item 148 #4h, did not advance from the House.
A separate proposal from Del. Betsy Carr would have provided VIMS with the study’s first year of funding through the state budget. It was dropped during budget negotiations.
The proposed research would address major gaps in scientists’ understanding of the Bay’s menhaden population and the effects of reduction fishing.
More than 70% of the commercial menhaden harvest is landed in Virginia, largely because of the reduction fishery. Yet management decisions continue to rely on coastwide information that does not fully show what is happening within Virginia waters.
Menhaden also underpin Virginia’s $980 million recreational fishing economy by feeding prized sportfish such as striped bass. Concerns have grown as ospreys have experienced food shortages in parts of the Bay where they rely heavily on menhaden.
Chesapeake Bay Foundation Virginia Executive Director Chris Moore called the funding failures bad news for both fishermen and the Bay ecosystem. He said Virginia still lacks the baseline information needed to ensure the fishery’s long-term sustainability.
Moore accused Omega Protein and its lobbyists of blocking efforts to develop that science, despite the company’s previous support for the proposed research approach. He said the latest delay would frustrate members of the public who have long sought stronger menhaden science for the Chesapeake region.