Virginia and Maryland have a small fish problem | EDITORIAL
by Baltimore Sun Editorial Board
Maryland and Virginia have found themselves in conflict at various times in history. Maryland’s 17th century founding was disputed because it involved land formerly granted to the Virginia Company. And there was that Civil War business more than two centuries later. The latest quarrel may involve the least likely subject — a small, oily forage fish known as the American Menhaden that are critical to the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, particularly as food for striped bass and osprey. Conservationists in Maryland want a moratorium on the harvest of menhaden, and Virginia does not.
Virginia’s General Assembly has been debating the issue in recent weeks and is moving to adopt some seasonal restrictions. That’s the good news. The bad is that the state legislature has rejected what environmental groups had been chiefly advocating — a complete moratorium on the harvest of menhaden while a federally funded study of the fishery takes place. Just last month, Congress approved legislation to make that $2.5 million research possible, and President Donald Trump signed it into law as part of a series of federal spending bills. What’s lacking is the will in Virginia to protect menhaden while scientists conduct that much-needed inquiry.
And the consequences of that refusal? Experts say more dead osprey chicks, which are already starving from the reduction in the menhaden population. Striped bass populations are in collapse up and down the East Coast as the Chesapeake is a primary nursing grounds for the anadromous species. And the bay’s beloved blue crabs are thought to be at risk as well — such is the broad impact of those little menhaden on the food chain. And who is primarily benefiting from all the menhaden netted in Virginia waters? That would be one company, Omega Protein in Reedville, Va., which processes the fish into fish meal, oil and protein products for aquaculture, pet food and dietary supplements, hardly an essential use.
Enough is enough. There is simply too much evidence of overfishing to be ignored. We are inclined to side with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which is hardly a militant environmental group, in its call for Virginia to pause menhaden fishing inside the Chesapeake Bay until the science is finalized. Omega can continue to harvest in Atlantic Ocean coastal waters and in the Gulf of Mexico. Oh, and we might mention this fact to President Trump in case he’s weighing federal action on menhaden overfishing: Hey, did you know Omega Protein is Canadian-owned (by New Brunswick-based Cooke Inc.)? And that the Maryland watermen who are taking a financial hit from potential overharvesting are MAGA-leaning politically? Just thought we’d make sure you heard.
>> baltimoresun.com/2026/02/16/virginia-maryland-fish-problem/
