Omega agrees to limit areas where catches bunker Chesapeake Bay

According to an article in the Richmond Times Dispatch, the controversial menhaden fleet that supplies Omega Proteins’ Reedville plant is promising to limit areas in the Chesapeake Bay where it will set its nets and catch fish.

In a memorandum of understanding with the state, Ocean Harvesters said it wants to limit potential areas of conflict with other users of the bay.

Conservationists and recreational fishermen had pushed for limits — with some calling for an outright ban on catching menhaden in the bay — after two spills of dead menhaden last year washed ashore.

Omega’s operation, which catches menhaden to be rendered into fish oil and fish meal in Reedville, where it employs several hundred people, has sparked controversy for years. Recreational fishermen and environmental groups complain it takes too many fish that are prey for other species, including popular game fish such as striped bass. Menhaden, which were used by Native Americans to fertilize corn crops, is the oldest commercially harvested fish in the Chesapeake Bay.