1325 comments
I fully support the petition for the following reasons:
Stop them from over harvesting our precious bait
and bay food
Please
pretty please
we know you get $$ from this
so stop
I fully support the petition for the following reasons:
I have lived on the St. Mary's River for 8 years and have noticed a steady decline in the number of Atlantic Menhaden in our local waters. The fewer and smaller schools that I have come across are juveniles. This leads me to believe that when harvesting the smaller fish are able to escape through the nets being used. We need to ensure that there is an abundance of this species because so many species of fish and birds rely on them as a food source. Stop! the overfishing of Atlantic Menhaden
Commenting for purpose.... I am in favor of stopping all harvesting of menhaden from the Chesapeake, mouth of the Chesapeake, and surrounding VA waters. The overharvesting done by Omega Protein, which benefits that corporation and not the citizens of VA or MD has to stop. The damage being done to the ecosystem is undeniable.
I support the petition measures limiting the harvesting menhaden in the VA waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Current harvesting of this key forage fish is doing unreversable damage to other critical marine resources.
I support any petition/legislation that bans Omega Protein from fishing in the Chesapeake Bay or within 1 nautical mile of Virginia coastline.
When charter boat captains from Deltaville and Gwynn’s island are having to go to the Maryland line to catch stripers, you know there’s a problem in the bay! The blue boats get their bay cap, then sit outside the bay bridge tunnel and keep any menhaden from coming into the bay until they are shut down in mid December!
Virginia's irresponsible mismanagement of the Menhaden population by allowing overharvesting, has decimated native species throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. While states work to clean up pollution entering the Bay, Virginia's policies are literally starving the life out of the Bay. Stop it! If someone shoots an Osprey they go to jail. If you starve it to death, you get a campaign contribution. Virginia's policies are at best 'penny wise and pound foolish' economically and at worst a crime against nature when it comes to preserving vital natural resources.
I support the petition measures limiting the harvesting of menhaden in the VA waters of the Chesapeake Bay. It is imperative to the health of the bay that Virginia to join every other state on the East Coast in protecting the menhaden population and limiting the number of fish that reduction fishing can take from the bay and within several miles outside the mouth of the bay.
The frequent net tears and spills, the massive amount of "accidental" by-catch, the tons of seaweed that wash up after the Omega ships have come through, and the clear decline of osprey and sport fish all signal the immediate need for better management of the fishery, including studies not funded by the company that has the most to lose with better regulations.
I support the petition and a ban on Omega Protein fishing our Menhaden from the Chesapeake Bay. Please place an immediate stop and ban during 2025. Do not let this go on any longer. Stop before more damage is done. PLEASE!!!
The overharvesting caused ospreys not having enough food.
Controlled balance is needed for this important species!
Don't kill these "trash fish" because they are a gourmet feast for our stripers!
Stop the Menhaden reduction fishery ! Fishery regulators please step up and do your job . This is ridiculous that the public has to spend so much time asking public officials that get paid to wake up and regulate a critical species . Maybe a national news channel should start covering this story .
Please help stop the harvesting of men Haden in the chesapeake bay. I have fished the bay for 60 plus years and the amount of men Haden has been declining for years along with the number of rockfish. To counter the effect of the ban on the people who harvest the menhaden, pay them the amount that they claim on their taxes.
thanks for your support,
Dennis Burton
here in northern nj and the Long Island sound there has been a lack of bunker for the past 2 years. they used to be so thick in the sound you could not avoid running over them in my boat not the past 2 years almost none. HELP
As a retired college and university biologist, and more recently as a retired fishing guide, I am very concerned about the condition of the menhaden stocks in the Chesapeake Bay. As a result, I support the petition. When a forage fish stock such as menhaden is depleted to a level that it is negatively impaction predators, as appears to be the case with reduced striped bass stocks and severely reduced nesting success in ospreys in the Chesapeake region, the message is clear.
Omega had only three hits in the Middle Bay this summer before they gave up and moved operations to Delaware Bay, to wipe out the populations heading north, and later in the summer off the Virginia Capes, to catch everything trying to move seasonally back to the Bay. There model is failing, and it is doomed. Meanwhile, the pelicans who showed up in 2018 (Omega study) are long gone from Gwynn. Tarpon fishing in Anne Arundel? Yeah, the large fish are all way out of range, desperate to find food. Porpoise activity is down off Gwynn, but they are up the rivers near the salt-fresh water split. . The Gannett did not fly through the Bay this year. More fish limits! It's headed one way downhill for every fish species. No other explanation is credible - but Omega's greed and political timidity. I saw with my own eyes a lone Osprey trying and failing to catch mehadden fry near the shore in July, they were fingerlings, too small to catch for them. The osprey caught nothing all day as I watched.
VA should not allow the industrial reduction of the key stone species (bunker) that provides the foundation of the food for many of the creatures in and around the Chesapeake Bay
I am a recreational boater and fisherman with a home and boat on the Potomac. I fully support this petition and hope Virginia will shut down the harvesting of Menhaden in the Cheasapeake Bay. It's damaging our native fish and birds.
The Chesapeake Bay is a estuary,stop the harvesting of Menhaden. A foreign company is not covered by the first ammendment.
End overharvesting of Atlantic menhaden in Virginia waters. They are critical forage fish for Striped Bass, osprey, and mammals dependent on Atlantic menhaden for their survival.
Stop allowing corporations to destroy the ecosystem for profit; preserve, protect, and promote this natural habitat.
I support this petition.
I am a recreational fisherman from Williamsburg Va and I support the proposed menhaden regulations and studies to support a healthy Chesapeake bay ecosystem. The bay and its wildlife depend on healthy baitfish populations and is an important economical and cultural resource for Virginians
These commercial boats are not only taking a very important part of the Atlantic Ocean’s ecosystem, but the by catch of Striped bass is devastating. They are netting while the Striped bass are on their spawning run to the north. The bass are mixed in with the Menhaden.
It is our responsibility as the ones who let this get to the dangerous point it has reached to make amends with the ecosystem of the Bay. This is the first step. The companies responsible for the overfishing have been donating to campaigns on both sides of the aisle for years and anyone in office who respects the wishes of their constituents will say enough is enough. Stop the overharvesting and trust science, not bribery. Thank you!
If you wipe out all the bait you will have no fish. Cut all this crap out. While your at it cut all nets out too. Greed is killing the ecosystem. We are running out of Natural Resources!
Menhaden harvesting in the Chesapeake Bay must stop. It is time for Virginia to get on board with the rest of the east coast and halt the overharvesting of a prime natural resource in the Bay, menhaden. Osprey are starving as the their main food source is being stripped away from them by the greed and self serving entitlement of industry to send the menhaden to Canada to feed farm raised salmon. The purse seine nets used to capture millions of tons of menhaden are indiscriminate and catch anything that is in their reaches...turtles, dolphins, red drum. Anything. Stop the calamity!
I support this petition. There are way to many menhaden being removed from the chesapeake bay and virginia waters.
Limit menhaden overfishing. Save the osprey.
While proper study has not been done yet, evidence of localized depletion of Atlantic Menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay is clear. Reduced stocks of striped bass and other game fish within the estuary, along with low Osprey hatch rates point to inadequate forage fish for a number of species that rely primarily on Menhaden for their survival.
I have lived in the area all my life and although I have no scientific proof there is a large amount of antidotal proof that points to over fishing of any species causes a major issue with the bay and surrounding waters health. It’s been proven again and again with the moratoriums that have been put on other species and their recovery. When you remove a major cog in the food chain you affect the whole chain and that’s what the politicians are allowing with the menhaden harvesting. The bay will be healthier and happier if the menhaden is left alone. Any politician who does not agree with is NOT interested in keeping the bay healthy.
Commercial fishing nets are killing the fish life in the Chesapeake Bay not just the targeted species of Menhaden but game fish, striped bass, red drum, cobia, blue fish and others. Fishing regulations have limited the size and number of recreational fishers of many species that populate our waters because of over fishing but the number of fish killed by commercial netters far out numbers the fish caught by recreational fishermen. When comparing the cost benefits of commercial Menhaden fishing to the costs of recreational fishing, there is no comparison. SAVE THE BAY! Clean up the waters and the wild life will prosper and survive.
I am in agreement with the partition. Please lower harvest limits so proper studies can be done showing the impacts of the lack of menhaden has on these waters. The immediate lowerering of harvesting would give scientists and water quality specialists the ability to see how having more menhaden in these waters affects the other fish and wildlife. Also by having more of these forage feeding fish this can help filter the bays waters creating a healthier environment in the Chesapeake Bay. Thank you.
Please stop the harvesting of menhaden and preserve the health of the Chesapeake Bay!
Please impose the moratorium on reduction fishing for menhaden within the Chesapeake Bay until all studies have been completed and considered. Current independent scientific studies have shown that the Menhaden population has declined due to overfishing and is severely impacting the wildlife (Ospreys) and other fish species (Rockfish) who depend upon them as a food source. This has a major impact on all industries that rely on these species and action is necessary now to preserve the Bay ecosystem.
I support and will contact my congressperson
This is long overdue
I support the moratorium
There are many indicators (prey species population decline — osprey, striped bass, etc.) that menhaden is being fished beyond the capacity of the Chesapeake Bay. These indicators are well known and have been published for many years. All requests made in this petition are needed. A study of the Bay ecology re: menhaden should be done including Osprey as an Ecological Reference Point for the menhaden species.
I am in total support of this petition. VMRC and this administration have long ignored their responsibility under the PublicTrust Doctrine and code of Virginia, to manage menhaden for all citizens of the commonwealth and not a singular company. The industry says there is no science to support not harvesting menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay. I say there is no science to support continuing the harvest in the bay. So, let’s give them the science. Shut down the industrial harvest, fund the previously proposed study, and live by the results of the study.
Imagine walking down to the shore of the Chesapeake Bay one morning and seeing a distressing sight: dead fish floating in the water as far as you can see. You get out your binoculars and, finding you can see one mile in all directions over the water, start counting. It takes quite a while, but when you are done you are astounded: 293,000 fish! And these are not small fish. You pick one up and weigh it - half a pound. Not small at all. How could this happen? Is your part of the Bay dying?
You call a neighbor 5 miles away who also lives near the Bay and ask him what he sees. A little later he calls back. He sees the same thing. Furthermore, he has called his neighbors and they are all seeing the same thing. Later you learn that this fish kill is not just localized to your extremely small part of the Bay, but afflicts the entire Chesapeake Bay. The entire Chesapeake Bay, all 4,470 square miles of it, is completely covered with dead Atlantic Menhaden, spaced an average of 4 yards apart in all directions!
The nightmare I just described is not fiction. It happens every year as a result one one single human activity: industrial purse seine fishing targeting Atlantic Menhaden. I suspect that most people cannot conceive of any fishing technique that would allow a modest number of boats (and planes) to capture that many fish in only a year over a body of water as large as the Chesapeake Bay. This enormous number is the consequence of the perfect storm of three factors: 1) the unfortunate habit of Atlantic Menhaden to gather in a small number of compact "pods"; 2) the fishing technique known as purse seine capture whereby a small number of boats can completely surround a pod and capture virtually the entire pod at once. (This works well as long as you don't mind also killing the other fish that are feeding on the Menhaden at the time ("bycatch"), and as long as you don't mind damaging the bottom of the Bay with your nets); and 3) Airplane "spotters" that can easily spot any pods that you may have missed anywhere in the Bay, and send your boats there to capture them too. Given the above perfect storm of factors, it is not difficult to imagine a small fleet of ships and planes capable of significantly reducing the Atlantic Menhaden population in the Chesapeake Bay. Which is precisely what is happening
The Atlantic menhaden has been called "the most important fish in the sea" and the Chesapeake Bay is certainly the most valuable estuary in the United states. We can no longer allow this anachronism of industrial purse seine fishing to destroy this most important fish and this most valuable estuary.
I support this petition with all my heart.
Dr. Steven T. Zalesak
Moseley, VA
Take the pressure from menhaden fishing in Virginia until there is valid data from the study on the Chesapeake Bay.
I 100% support this petition.
Due to the lack of managing commercial menhaden fishing in the Chesapeake Bay by the VMRC and the Governor of Virginia, change is needed. Due to the lack of managing menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay, by the ASMFC, dire change is needed in the commercial. purse seine menhaden fishery.
Reductions in annual commercial menhaden catches would have been nice to see, years ago. By now, changes to the Bay's ecosystem could have started to show positively. But now, as the environmental indicators, striped bass and osprey show, we are losing the battle with single minded, everything is OK attitude.
It's not OK, hence the importance of this petition. The science shows osprey are suffering breeding problems worse than the height of the DDT disaster. The science shows striped bass are again falling to historic lows.
Take the keystone species (menhaden) out of the ecosystem, without giving it a chance to rebound, what do you expect?
I fully support this petition and honestly do not expect VMRC to do a thing about it. Excuses will be found until they are compelled to make change. By God or by Governor.
I support this petition, Time to stop fishing the nursery.
I support this petition