The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition (MFC) is pushing back against a congressional effort to further restrict Atlantic menhaden harvest in the Chesapeake Bay, arguing that lawmakers should not make additional cuts before ongoing Bay-specific research is complete.
In an Oct. 15 statement, the coalition challenged an Oct. 9 letter led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Rep. Sarah Elfreth, D-Md., urging the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to take additional action to protect menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay.
The coalition said further restrictions could significantly affect fishermen, processing workers, and communities tied to the Reedville, Va., reduction fishery. Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein's Reedville operations provide approximately 250 to 300 jobs with benefits, according to the MFC.
The coalition also cited a review by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Committee on Economics and Social Sciences that estimated more than 500 full- and part-time reduction fishery jobs in Maryland and Virginia, including hundreds in Northumberland County. The MFC said the Reedville workforce is predominantly minority and unionized, with many families having longstanding ties to the fishery.
The dispute comes as ASMFC considers the future of menhaden management in the Chesapeake Bay amid concerns about the forage fish's availability to predators, including striped bass and ospreys.
Lawmakers pointed to recent osprey reproductive problems and declining Maryland bait landings in calling for action. The MFC, however, argues those indicators do not establish that commercial menhaden harvest is responsible for the changes or that additional restrictions would improve conditions.
Researchers have documented poor osprey reproductive success in portions of the Chesapeake Bay, but the coalition noted that a direct causal relationship between commercial menhaden harvest and the reproductive decline has not been established.
The MFC is calling on regulators to allow ongoing research to provide a clearer picture of menhaden abundance and distribution within the Bay before adopting additional restrictions.
Virginia has committed $2 million over two years toward Chesapeake Bay menhaden research, while another $2.5 million in federal funding has been secured for a Bay-specific menhaden survey. Researchers from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and NOAA are among those working to address information gaps surrounding the fishery.
According to the coalition, scientists currently lack sufficient information to determine adult menhaden abundance or survival specifically within the Chesapeake Bay, and there is no established Bay-specific biological threshold for harvest.
The MFC also pointed to ASMFC's existing ecological reference points, adopted in 2020, which are designed to account for menhaden's role as forage for predators when setting coastwide harvest levels. The system has been used to guide catch limits since 2021, with striped bass serving as the focal predator because modeling found the species particularly sensitive to changes in menhaden harvest.
Atlantic menhaden are currently considered neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing under ASMFC's latest assessment. The commission reduced the coastwide total allowable catch by 20 percent for the 2026 fishing season.
The debate over the Chesapeake Bay portion of that harvest, however, remains unresolved.
The congressional letter was signed by lawmakers from Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C., who argued that additional protections are needed to ensure adequate menhaden abundance for the Bay ecosystem.
The MFC maintains that regulators should wait for the new research before further reducing the Chesapeake Bay harvest cap or imposing mandatory seasonal allocations.
"Hundreds of working families should not pay the price for restrictions unsupported by completed Bay-specific science," the coalition said.
