Exmore man calls for changes to menhaden rules

Dear Mr. Geer:

We are writing to you, as the manager of the VMRC Fisheries Division, to add our support to the many voices that have recommended and lobbied for the cessation of  Menhaden harvesting in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay (herein referred to as “the Bay”).

 It is not our intention to repeat the many legitimate environmental reasons that have been voiced by citizen and sportsmen’s groups who frequent both Virginia’s Eastern Shore and the waters of coastal Virginia bordering the Bay.  While we will not endeavor to parrot those points, we fully embrace them and adopt them as our own.

 We are writing not only to reinforce their many salient points on this proposed ban, but to bring attention to the economic implications of allowing this mass harvesting of this critical component of the food chain- indeed the very nursery where these small bait fish grow to be bigger and ocean-worthy-  by Ocean Harvesters, an agent of Canadian-based Omega Protein to continue.

TOURISM REVENUE IN NORTHAMPTON COUNTY BREAKS RECORD IN 2021

In 2021, tourism revenue set an all-time record for the lower Eastern Shore of Virginia with visitor spending jumping 65.9% to $68.3 million overall.   From that spending, $4.2 million in state and local taxes were generated, with the local portion of those taxes ringing in at $2.6 million.

Among other attractions, many visitors flock to the Eastern Shore of Virginia to fish the waters of the Chesapeake and the Atlantic seeking rod action with the many varieties of marine life resident in those productive waterbodies.   

Over the last several years, our personal experience supports the fact that Northampton County’s northern most public boat launch, Morley’s Wharf in Wardtown off Occohannock Neck Road has enjoyed  record use and  attendance this summer.  To wit, we have experienced considerable wait time when attempting to dock our small skiff, something we have not experienced  prior to 2021. We often now opt for launching at Bayford where there is more  sporadic commercial watermen activity and less recreational use.

Relevant to these comments is how many fishermen (and women) we talk to while on and off the water about how the Striped Bass fishing has been over the  last several or more years.   Most if not all the comments  we hear say that this recreational sport fishery is not what it used to be and the number and size of  this species is thought to be in great decline in the Chesapeake Bay and its  tributaries.  Again, the vast majority of the recreational and commercial  fishermen and women, when asked why this is happening, anecdotally feel that the decline in Striped Bass in the Virginia Waters of the Chesapeake Bay is at’ least attributable to the mass harvesting of the Menhaden, a practice that has apparently been banned in other states.   

REMEDY AND COMMENT TO BE CONSIDERED BY VMRC

We join in the chorus of affected citizens (impacted by the multiple spills of dead  and rotting Menhaden and other wildlife that have spilled onto beaches and  waterfront homes lining Virginia’s Eastern Shore coastlines) and sportsmen’s organization who advocate for the cessation of Ocean Harvest’s netting of  Menhaden in the Bay’s waters off the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Our reason for this advocacy can be summed up as follows:

#1- The Chesapeake Bay is a nursery for many species or marine life.  This is true for the small feeder fish known as Menhaden.  For Omega to be stripping this nursery of the very small Menhaden that could be much more valuable to their ocean-based harvesting operation if left alone is like a musician chopping off his  or her fingers because the F chord on that cheap guitar is just too hard to muster.   

#2– Menhaden are natural cleansers of the water and enhance the productivity of  the nursery where they and other species spawn and grow;

#3- The ESVA, especially Northampton County, enjoys hundreds of millions of  Dollars in tourist revenue, with many of those annual visitors rely on the allure of sport fishing in the Chesapeake Bay.

#4- There has neve been an empirical and peer-reviewed study of the impact the  Purse-seine reduction fishery is having on the Chesapeake Bay alone, to our  Knowledge.    Hence in order to effect that long-overdue study, there has to be a baseline established to determine the number and size of the sport fish resident to the Bay without the reduction fishery harvesting.

This can only be empirically legitimate if there is a 3-5 year ban on the harvesting of Menhaden by Ocean Harvest and Omega in the ESVA waters of the Chesapeake Bay.   However, we join with thousands of others who, for both environmental  and economic reasons advocate for the complete ban of large scale harvesting of Menhaden in this fragile ecosystem.

                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                    Ken and Mary Dufty