Virginia’s final budget, passed by the General Assembly Monday, includes funding for a highly anticipated study investigating menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay.
An amendment from Gov. Abigail Spanberger allocates $2 million to William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science for research during the next two years, in collaboration with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
Environmentalists and recreational anglers have raised concerns in recent years about what they say is an apparent decline in the menhaden population and in the species that feed on it, such as ospreys and striped bass.
Advocates point fingers at the menhaden fishing industry. Virginia is the last East Coast state that permits menhaden reduction fishing. (Others allow fishermen to catch menhaden as bait.)
Ocean Harvesters, which supplies Omega Protein, harvests up to 112 pounds of menhaden from the bay each year, using large walls of netting called purse seines. Omega then processes, or “reduces,” them into fishmeal and fish oil at a plant in Reedville.
Industry officials say there’s no evidence that menhaden are being overfished, pointing to assessments by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Environmental groups say coastwide data could obscure a localized decline in the Chesapeake Bay.
Getting accurate science has become the heart of the debate over managing the fishery.
Menhaden are particularly difficult — and expensive — to study, scientists say, because they’re hard to catch with traditional survey gear and migrate seasonally out of the bay.
Virginia lawmakers repeatedly rejected or postponed proposals to fund a study, including earlier this year.
“The story is always the same. ‘We don't have the science to prove anything.’ But then you go try to get the science, and it’s, ‘Oh, we're not going to do that either,’” Alan Wingfield, president of the Richmond Audubon Society, said in February. “It feels like a giant game of Lucy and the football.”
The $2 million for VIMS was one of 14 budget amendments proposed by Spanberger last week and accepted by lawmakers Monday.
“This is a solid down payment on urgently needed research,” Will Poston, forage campaign manager for the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, many questions remain about the health of the bay’s menhaden population.”
Monty Deihl, CEO of Ocean Harvesters, said in a statement that the company is “extremely pleased” about the funding.
He said it will complement an ongoing project launched last fall by the National Science Foundation’s Science Center for Marine Fisheries, which is funded by industry members, including Omega Protein and Ocean Harvesters.
That project focuses on studying the Chesapeake Bay harvest cap, or the total amount of menhaden the industry can pull from the bay. VIMS researchers are part of the team developing a “research roadmap” to analyze gaps in science and better manage the fishery.
Virginia’s budget amendment also directs state economic and workforce development agencies to analyze how reducing the bay cap could impact the workforce.
Editor’s note: Derek Aday, director of VIMS and dean of the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences at William & Mary, is an incoming member of WHRO’s Board of Directors. The board is not involved in any editorial decisions.
