The day Virginians went to the polls on redistricting, another vote was taking place at
the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. It was on a fourth petition questioning whether there is enough menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay to support the marine ecosystem and industrial products like fish oil and fish food.
This time, the petitioner, a Virginia woman, stood before the eight commissioners and made compelling arguments for why they should pause industrial menhaden fishing in the Chesapeake Bay and collect data to answer that question.
It pitted her against a corporate giant and the village that fishes for them.
Tanya O’Connor says it wasn’t her intention to take on a village. Among the hundreds of written comments by Reedville’s multigenerational menhaden fishing family names was a retired math teacher, a 9-1-1 operator, an electrician, and a manager of a boatbuilding company.
At the meeting Russell Ferguson, spoke on behalf of the 120 hourly employees who work at the plant in Reedville.
"Our hours worked are directly determined by the amount of fish that’s brought to the dock," Ferguson said. "I would like to ask this commission that you not limit any of the fishing season in the Chesapeake Bay. This would have a drastic effect on our families and on our livelihoods."
But O’Connor focused on the lack of data that would determine if there was localized depletion from industrial fishing.
"I'm talking about the law. You know, it's not because I don't care about jobs," O'Connor stated.
VMRC uses data, scientists have collected for the entire Atlantic Coast to make its management decisions. According to the last 2023 study, menhaden are not being overfished.
But O’Connor, and three organizations that have petitioned before her and failed, want specific data for the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary. Estuaries are nature’s nurseries. Other Atlantic Coast states have closed industrial fishing in their bays.
"Ask not even a fifth grade or a third grader, right? 'We're going to issue these permits for industrial fishing. Like how much fish should we give away?' Again, they would ask, well how much fish are there?"
O’Connor told commissioners the Virginia Institute of Marine Science called data on menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay “woefully inadequate.”
They asked VIMS scientist and advisor Lyle Varnell to explain.
"To get to the question of what is the biomass of a certain species in Chesapeake Bay needed by many other species and various levels of a food web that’s hard to answer, quickly. Where we’re starting with menhaden versus other species comparatively, we’re way behind the curve on this," Varnell explained. "So that was how “woefully inadequate” term came about."
The commissioners voted 6 to 2 against the petition.
In May, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will vote on potential solutions for concerns related to industrial fishing in the bay, including increasing the cap.