I'm a Plant Engineer at Omega Protein in Reedville and I'm opposed to this petition for a moratorium.

The 2025 ASMFC stock assessment is clear - menhaden are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. Yes, the assessment found fishing mortality was above the ERP target, but the Management Board already addressed this in October by cutting the 2026 coastwide TAC by 20%. That reduction carries a 0% chance of overfishing. The science doesn't call for a complete shutdown of the fishery.

The petition asks for a moratorium until a long list of conditions are "demonstrated" but doesn't define what that actually means or looks like. Meanwhile, the Science Center for Marine Fisheries just funded a research effort with UMCES, VIMS, and NOAA to develop real Bay-specific reference points. Why impose a moratorium before that science is even completed? The existing Bay cap of 51,000 metric tons has been in place since 2006 and provides meaningful protection.

I work at this facility every day. The Reedville plant is the last menhaden reduction operation on the entire Atlantic coast. We're talking about hundreds of union jobs in a rural part of Virginia that doesn't have a lot of other options. The fishery is MSC certified sustainable. Shutting it down based on conditions that go well beyond what the peer-reviewed science recommends would be devastating to this community.

ASMFC has already taken action based on the latest assessment. A moratorium isn't warranted and I urge the Commission to deny this petition.