Today’s Government Lesson: Menhaden vs the Commonwealth of Virginia
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Today’s Government Lesson: Menhaden vs. the Commonwealth of Virginia The Atlantic Menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus), is a small, oily, herring-like fish. They have been known for centuries along the east coast and Chesapeake Bay. The Native American word for the fish translated as “fertilizer”; it is thought by some to be the fish the Pilgrims were instructed to bury with their corn seed to ensure a crop. According to NOAA, “menhaden form a critical link between the lower and upper levels of the Chesapeake Bay food web, because they are a key forage species for fish such as striped bass, weakfish, and bluefish and are filter feeders, grazing on planktonic organisms such as algae and zooplankton. Menhaden is the only forage species in Chesapeake Bay that is also a major commercial fishery—the species is the largest fishery, by volume, in the Chesapeake Bay. More pounds of menhaden are landed each year than of any other fish in the United States other than pollock. Menhaden is considered unfit for human food consumption due to its small size and high oil content, but the modern purse seine reduction fishery grinds up menhaden into fish meal and oil for use as an ingredient in pet foods, livestock and aquaculture feeds, and various industrial products.”
So far, so good--a valuable fish resource, a free breeding ground, a sufficient population to fill its ecological niche, and an economic opportunity for a commercial fishery. Enter Omega Protein, a Houston-based commercial fish processor, with an operation on the Western Shore in Reedville, Virginia. It’s not by chance that they’re located in Virginia. According to the Chesapeake Bay Ecological Foundation, Inc., “the overwhelming majority of menhaden landings (over 50% in recent years) come from the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay. The remainder are caught in coastal waters from New Jersey to Virginia, mostly within 5 miles of the ocean shore. Maryland has prohibited purse seining in state waters (0-3 miles from the coast) and in the Chesapeake Bay since before the 1950's. (The Reedville plant) processes menhaden into fishmeal, fish oil, and fish solubles. Fishmeal is a valuable ingredient in poultry and livestock feeds because of its high protein content (at least 60%). The broiler (chicken) industry is currently the largest user of menhaden meal followed by the turkey, swine, pet food, and ruminant industries.” The Omega Protein website states that it “is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol OME). We are headquartered in Houston, Texas, with homeports for the company’s fleet of fishing vessels located in Virginia, Mississippi and Louisiana, where you will also find our four processing plants and refinery. Our fishing efforts are monitored in the Atlantic and Gulf coasts by regional, state and federal management agencies that closely oversee and regulate our fishing efforts, as well as the overall sustainability of the menhaden population. These government agencies have the ability to establish quotas, close environmentally sensitive fishing areas and limit the fishing season.” Now we know why the company uses only the lower Chesapeake Bay to net menhaden-- they are banned from the upper Bay by Maryland law. And the company relies on state management agencies to “closely oversee and regulate” their fishing efforts. If they were fishing for anything but menhaden, that state management agency would be the Virginia Marine Resource Commission (VMRC), the agency responsible for implementing the Interstate Fishery Management Plan. But the menhaden, and only the menhaden, are closely overseen and regulated by that overworked elected body, the Virginia General Assembly. Along with budgets and transportation and redistricting and education and health issues, the Delegates and Senators have been saddled with the responsibility of regulating one specific fishing industry, which has one production facility in the state. Enter the General Assembly But it turns out that not everyone in the General Assembly feels overburdened with the work of managing the menhaden fishery. Senator Ralph Northam introduced a Bill which would have transferred the oversight of the menhaden fishery from the General Assembly to VMRC. We budget over $20 million a year for VMRC to manage our fisheries, he said, we should let them do it. General Assembly members lack the time and scientific expertise necessary to make technical fisheries management decisions, he added. A similar bill had already failed to make it out of a House subcommittee. The bill was heard in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources----it too failed to make it out of committee. Almost every year there are bills submitted which attempt to manage the menhaden fishery; this year there were four. Any change to menhaden regulations requires a vote by the entire General Assembly. The four bills would have prohibited harvesting within one mile of some shorelines and in the Rappahannock River, assessed a fee of $10/ton to fund evaluation studies of the fishery and would have reduced the current cap on harvesting, currently 109,020/yr. All four bills were heard by the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources. All four bills failed in committee, as similar bills do every year. Why such consistent failures to further regulate the menhaden fishery? A visit to the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) yielded some information. VPAP posts campaign contributions to federal, state and local office holders, and lists donors and lobbyists. The Virginia Legislative Information System (LIS) lists names of committee members in the General Assembly. Of the fourteen members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources, eleven members had received recent campaign contributions totaling $8,000. from Omega Protein. Senator Northam was one of the three members who did not receive a contribution. Of the twenty-two members of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources, fourteen members received campaign contributions totaling $9,500. from Omega Protein. "In addition, VPAP reports that during the most recent year, Omega Protein listed $76,082 in lobbying expenses, plus donations of $79,244 to other elected officials and campaign committees----a private investment of $172,826 in the public workings of state government." No roll call of votes by either of the House or Senate Committee members voting on the menhaden bills was reported on the LIS site. There’s no moral to this story---just a score: Omega Protein 100---Menhaden 0. 1020 words Mary Miller for March 2011 ShoreLine Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 11.13 Kb. Share with your friends:
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