Fin Fish advisory committee backs extended drift gillnet regulation with safety, hours changes

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission—s Fin Fish Advisory Committee on Feb. 12 recommended regulatory language to add an extended drift gillnet license that would allow permit holders to fish drift gill nets up to 6,000 feet, and asked staff to include safety markings and revised hours.

The committee voted to accept staff recommendations with changes, including removing the proposed fixed season and replacing it with fishing hours that begin a half-hour before sunset and end at 9 a.m., and giving permit holders the option of a radar reflector or an end-marker light on the free end of the net.

The recommended regulation would formally add a license category for an extended drift gillnet fishery that has been run on an experimental basis since 2022. Chris Davis of VMRC's Protected Species Observer Program told the committee the experimental permits initially issued to four harvesters in 2022 expanded to 20 permittees in 2024, and that observers and logbooks documented the fishery's operations and bycatch.

"The fishery itself does lean towards one of our cleaner fisheries we've observed in Chesapeake Bay with minimal bycatch," Chris Davis said, summarizing observer findings.

Staff said the draft regulatory language would limit extended drift gillnetting to the mainstem Chesapeake Bay and Virginia coastal…