VMRC denies petition to regulate Atlantic menhaden reduction fishery in Chesapeake Bay after extended hearing

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission on April 22 denied a petition asking the agency to initiate rulemaking that would impose precautionary limits on the Atlantic menhaden reduction fishery in Chesapeake Bay and the bay mouth.

David Reed, representing the Chesapeake Legal Alliance and a coalition of conservation groups, opened the petition presentation by telling the commission the public record and a growing body of scientific work show signs of localized depletion in the bay and harm to predators that depend on menhaden. "We believe continued inaction is itself a decision not to regulate," Reed said, urging the commission to adopt shoreline buffers, lower the bay cap and other measures while a coastwide reassessment is completed.

Reed cited recent scientific papers and described concerns about reanalysis of a coastwide stock assessment; he told commissioners that an independent review had identified large errors in a key parameter and that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) technical committee had begun reexamination of the assessment. He also pointed to recent peer‑reviewed work on osprey productivity and to declining juvenile abundance indices as evidence supporting…