Virginia State Senate Bill (SB) 414, calling for the state to “renounce and withdraw” from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Compact, has stalled in the Va. Department of Finance and Appropriations Committee.
The committee voted 15-0 on Feb. 11 to “continue (the bill) to the 2027” legislature. The vote came on the heels of a revealing costly fiscal impact study by the Virginia Department of Planning and Budget.
By leaving ASMFC, the study showed Va. would lose $842,866 in federal grant funds in the FY 2028 budget and that over four years the added cost for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) would total $1,445,748.
SB-414 was introduced January 2026 by Sen. Richard H. Stuart, R-25th District, who drafted the bill to have the state withdraw from ASMFC and shift all current ASMFC regulatory authority to VMRC. It states, “that the VMRC shall, on or after February 1, 2027, take all actions necessary and appropriate to effectuate the Commonwealth’s renunciation of and withdrawal from the ASMFC…and shall complete such actions no later than July 1, 2027.”
The bill further stated that VMRC shall establish a Menhaden Management Advisory Committee to provide guidance to VMRC on the sustainable management of the menhaden resource and harvest of the bait and reduction fisheries in the waters of Virginia, including the Chesapeake Bay.
The bill was sparked in part by ASMFC approval in Oct. 2025 of a 20 percent reduction in the 2026 Atlantic menhaden coast-wide quota, lowering it from 233,550 to 186,840 metric tons. The decision followed a 2025 menhaden stock assessment update showing a 37 percent decline in menhaden biomass compared to previous models. Omega Protein argued that the reduction in the harvest quota was not warranted because the stock assessment also noted that menhaden were not being overfished.
Whether SB-414 will resurface again in the 2027 Virginia legislature remains to be seen.
1995 Virginia Assembly approved withdrawal from ASMFC
This is the second time Virginia has attempted to withdraw from the ASMFC. The first time was in 1995 when ASMFC, federal authorities, Virginia and other southern and mid-Atlantic coastal states got into a dispute regarding commercial quota levels for striped bass, grey trout, etc.. ASMFC and federal authorities were imposing strict regulations that could have imposed commercial and recreational fishing moratoriums on states that did not comply. Virginia, North Carolina and Florida were strong allies over the question of whether or not the compact (all the Atlantic coastal states) should have authority over specific fisheries and fish. Some fisheries and species were not specific to all of the states, it was argued.
Virginia legislative approval in 1995 of HB-374 repealed the state’s authorization to participate in the ASMFC compact, effective March 16, 1995. Virginia eventually rejoined or maintained a functional relationship with the commission primarily to avoid loss of federal grants and the possibility of federal intervention.
