Some great news concerning the menhaden fishery. New legislation has been approved by the Virginia House and Senate, which passed bipartisan legislation to transfer the management of Virginia’s menhaden fisheries from the General Assembly to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC). This comes after many years of work by the conservation and angling communities to move management of Virginia’s largest fishery to VMRC, where all other marine species in the Commonwealth are managed.
Politics, rather than conservation, has controlled the menhaden fishery – protecting Omega Protein Menhaden Reduction fishery in Reedville. This has causes serious shortages in Virginia’s most important fish – the menhaden. Expect our striped bass populations as well as flounder to bounce back quickly with proper management on menhaden!