This article was originally posted on Feb. 2 but has been updated here to reflect the current status of Virginia legislation and the outcome of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Feb. 4 meeting.
President Donald Trump signed a three-bill spending package on Jan. 23 that will fund multiple departments — and it provides $2.5 million for research on menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay.
After waiting two years for legislators to fund menhaden research at the state level, businesses, scientists and anglers welcome federal dollars for the study. But some advocates say precautionary action to protect the fish is needed now instead of waiting even longer to get answers on the state of the population in the Bay.
Menhaden are fatty fish that are a food source for wildlife throughout the Bay, including osprey and striped bass. In the Bay, watermen catch menhaden in pound nets, or near-shore traps, selling the harvest as bait for catching crabs and other fish. That harvest is dwarfed, though, by the menhaden “reduction” fishery in the Bay, which accounts for tens of thousands of tons of the fish caught annually for Omega Protein in Reedville, VA, which pulverizes them to make fish oil, fish meal and other products.
Many debate whether menhaden are overharvested in the Bay specifically and whether that affects the wildlife whose diet depends on menhaden and other fish.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASFMC) lowered the allowable menhaden catch along the East Coast by 20% in October. The commission, which regulates near-shore harvesting of migratory fish, made the change after a new study found that the menhaden population was lower than previously thought. The commission still says the overall coastwide population is not overfished. In the absence of a Bay-specific study, though, debate has swirled for years about whether the reduction fishery causes a localized depletion of menhaden there.
The reduction fishery’s harvest in the Bay has been capped since 2018 at 51,000 metric tons per year. The entire catch comes from Virginia waters because Maryland does not allow purse seining, the method used by Omega Protein’s fishing partner, Ocean Harvesters.
At its winter meeting on Feb. 4, the commission discussed two sets of proposals in response to concerns from Maryland fishery managers. One would distribute the Bay catch more evenly throughout the year by dividing the harvest cap among three or five time periods. The other would reduce the overall Bay harvest cap by 10% to 50%. A decision on whether to move forward was put off until later in the year, and if any change is to be made, it would not take effect until 2027.
Maryland fishery managers contend that the fleet operating in Virginia waters is depriving the state’s watermen of menhaden to catch for use as bait. There have been significant declines in recent years in reported pound-net harvest of menhaden by bait fishermen.
Ocean Harvesters denies that its fleet is preventing menhaden from reaching Maryland and opposes any limits on the Bay harvest.
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science designed a study in 2023 to evaluate the behavior and population of menhaden in the Bay along with the population’s impact on predators. Legislators have tried twice to secure the funds needed for the study — more than $3 million — and failed.
The partial 2026 appropriations package passed by Congress in January and signed by Trump includes text from U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) stipulating that $2.5 million of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s funds will be earmarked for the menhaden study.
“There’s a lot riding on the health of the menhaden population, and we worked to fund this study to inform any future steps we need to take to protect it,” Van Hollen said in a statement.
To complement the federal funding, Virginia Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Fairfax) has introduced a bill at the state level to establish a fund for scientific research that would inform a “meaningful harvest limit” for menhaden in the Bay, but that failed in committee.
Chris Moore, Virginia executive director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the combination of federal dollars and potential state funding “could help us cover all the bases” because the $2.5 million won’t cover the full cost of the proposed VIMS study.
Bob Beal, executive director of the ASMFC, said NOAA will send the federal funding to the commission. The commission will assemble a workgroup to identify what kind of study the money should support.
Beal said the 2023 VIMS study is at the top of their list. So is a research “roadmap” being developed by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries — a partnership between academic scientists and the seafood industry, including Omega, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. The center’s effort will review current science on menhaden in the Bay, outline what new information is needed to inform a Baywide cap and recommend how to go about that research.
Almost everyone welcomes more money to study menhaden, including groups that want to further limit the harvest and groups involved with the menhaden fishery itself, which comprises Omega Protein and its partner fishing fleet, Ocean Harvesters. But some are tired of waiting.
Steve Atkinson, chairman of the Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association, said the industry-backed research roadmap is “kicking the can down the road.”
“The biggest concern about [the roadmap] is that this could take years and years to complete and, meanwhile, conditions in the Bay continue to decline,” Atkinson said. “We need action now, not 10 years from now.”
Del. Betsy Carr (D-Richmond) has filed two menhaden bills for the 2026 session of the Virginia General Assembly. One calls for the Bay’s reduction fishery harvest to be spread more evenly over the year. The other, which failed, would have paused the fishery in the Bay altogether until research can explore whether it negatively impacts the menhaden population.
Ocean Harvesters said in a statement that the bills threaten hundreds of jobs and that the commission already ensures there is enough menhaden to support the larger ecosystem.
Wheres it end there less menhand boats now than there was in thev60s and 70s by a lot the method has change so i dont see where its the fishing boats fault there been a decline in a lot of fish spots croaker sea mullet and mullets it self from about the same time that menhaden have decline i seen it being a retired commercal fisherman of over 50 years explain it to me