This petition is based on feelings and not facts from people that have never worked in the menhaden industry or had to catch menhaden before. The menhaden fishery has thrived in Virginia waters since before the 1900s and supported multiple factories and several times the amount of ships today for over 100 years. The methods used to catch this schools of fish, while improved for efficiency and safety, are relatively the same concept of two small boats rowing around a school of fish that my ancestors and may of the ancestors of those in the northern neck did day after day. While our industry has be sustainable year after year and not changed much since it started, there have been large amount of change on shoreline development, increased recreation fishing, deforestation along coast lines, introduction of non native species such as blue catfish, and the building of hydroelectric dams along many of the rivers that run into the Chesapeake bay which at times release large amount of fresh water full of sediment that covers the entire bay just to name some factors that have changed over the history of menhaden fishing. If you want to understand the health of menhaden or the health of bay itself talk to commercial fishermen who are out on the water who's careers and income depend on having a healthy bay and healthy fish population year after year.