Fish spill soils bayside beaches

A torn menhaden trawler net has resulted in hundreds of dead fish washing ashore in an area between Silver Beach and Pungoteague creek Tuesday.

Omega protein of Reedville released the following announcement:

“On Tuesday, July 5th, a vessel harvesting menhaden on behalf of Omega Protein was fishing approximately 1 mile off of the shore of Silver Beach, Virginia when its net was entangled and eventually tore, releasing menhaden into the water. We believe many of the fish were alive and swam away, but we acknowledge that many were already dead at the time of the tear. The incident was reported immediately to the staff at VA Marine Resources. Since that time, the Company has monitored the situation and sent clean-up crews to the location on Silver Beach as soon as fish began to appear on the beach. The clean up operations began on the morning of Wednesday, July 6th, both on the beach and in boats on the water, to minimize the impact to location residents and vacationers. We estimate that the cleanup will take several days. We take full responsibility for the spill, and we will continue to be as responsive as possible in cleaning up the remaining fish as best we can.”

.