Bill to shift oversight of menhaden fishery sent to briny deep
-A state Senate committee rejected a bill that would have moved regulation of menhaden out of legislative hands.
The bill, from Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, would have moved menhaden management to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, which handles other fisheries in Virginia. Menhaden is the only saltwater fish regulated by the legislature.
Bills to move menhaden oversight away from the legislature come up every year in the General Assembly, and fail under opposition from lawmakers from the Northern Neck and lobbying from watermen and Omega Protein, which processes menhaden.
Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Stafford County, and Del. Albert Pollard, D-Northumberland County, regularly argue that changing oversight of menhaden would lead to tougher caps or limits on the fishing of menhaden, which would hurt Northern Neck jobs.
"Would you like to see Omega Protein shut down?" Stuart asked one of the bill's supporters yesterday in the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources committee.
Northam said his bill wasn't intended to hurt jobs.
Supporters of Northam's bill said it's unfair to leave one fish to the legislature while others are handled by the VMRC. They also said new data suggest that menhaden are overfished.
But those who fish for menhaden say that efforts to move oversight of menhaden are just efforts to kill jobs in the Northern Neck, where Omega Protein fishes for menhaden and employs about 300 people.
Menhaden are primarily processed into other products, like bait or fish oil supplements.
"The menhaden fishery has been under constant assault and battery for years," said Margaret Ransone of Bevans Oyster Co., who also was representing the Virginia Bait Industry and Seafood Council. Ransone is running for the Republican nomination for the 99th House of Delegates seat.
Ransone said she and other opponents of moving menhaden management don't understand the purpose of changing a process that she said is working just fine.
The committee voted down the bill 14-1. Northam was the only vote in favor of it. A similar bill has already failed in the House.
The House had several bills to regulate or limit fishing of menhaden in other ways, but four of them were pulled by their sponsors after Stuart--who has been appointed to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission--promised to request a new study of the health of the menhaden fishery.Read More ...
0 comments:
Post a Comment