Not often these days that you see a conservation story starting to go straight in the right direction, but that's shaping up to be the case in Virginia. I'll do my best to keep a very long story short for anyone who's not familiar.
The Chesapeake Bay ecosystem rests on the shoulders of a baitfish called Menhaden (or pogy or bunker- colloquial names for the same species, B. Tyrannus). They are smallish, oily and have no eating value to humans, but everything else eats them- Striped Bass, Cobia, Red Drum, Bluefin, Humbpack Whales, etc. When I was in high school ('08), the Bay was in the middle of a pretty incredible ecological comeback, with populations of trophy Striped Bass making national headlines. The night this picture was taken, we caught 14 fish this size; we literally stopped fishing multiple lines because a rod would go down with a fish like that every time you got a bait into the strike zone.
That fishery is completely dead now. The Mid Atlantic Rockfish Shootout, a tournament with a six figure payout for winners, literally raffled away the purse one year because not a single boat caught anything. Some people will debate this next point, but the death of not only that fishery but also of the Bay at large is mostly due to this company Omega Protein. Omega is a Canadian company that purse seines Menhaden and grinds them up into oil and meal to be used in cosmetics and nutritional supplements, and they are truly rapacious. They have violated their quotas, committed numerous environmental crimes and are generally in the business of destroying the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and lying about how irresponsible they are. I have many friends who are watermen and care deeply for the bay, and Omega is something very different than them.
Where this comes to a head is that they have recently stopped caring enough that it's gotten the public's attention, in the form of spilling tens of thousands of fish they killed onto beaches to the point that they became unusable for tourists or local families. So, politicians are taking notice. This one is from this week near an Omega net spill.
So if you've read this far, I implore you to help us out and sign TRCP's petition to stop industrial menhaden fishing the Bay. VA is the only state that currently allows them to fish within state waters, and the ecosystem simply cannot support what they are doing to it. Thanks in advance for the support and I'm happy to discuss if anyone has questions or input.
TL;DR- petition to stop foreign company from destroying the Chesapeake Bay's ecosystem for lipstick and pig food located below.
The Chesapeake Bay ecosystem rests on the shoulders of a baitfish called Menhaden (or pogy or bunker- colloquial names for the same species, B. Tyrannus). They are smallish, oily and have no eating value to humans, but everything else eats them- Striped Bass, Cobia, Red Drum, Bluefin, Humbpack Whales, etc. When I was in high school ('08), the Bay was in the middle of a pretty incredible ecological comeback, with populations of trophy Striped Bass making national headlines. The night this picture was taken, we caught 14 fish this size; we literally stopped fishing multiple lines because a rod would go down with a fish like that every time you got a bait into the strike zone.
That fishery is completely dead now. The Mid Atlantic Rockfish Shootout, a tournament with a six figure payout for winners, literally raffled away the purse one year because not a single boat caught anything. Some people will debate this next point, but the death of not only that fishery but also of the Bay at large is mostly due to this company Omega Protein. Omega is a Canadian company that purse seines Menhaden and grinds them up into oil and meal to be used in cosmetics and nutritional supplements, and they are truly rapacious. They have violated their quotas, committed numerous environmental crimes and are generally in the business of destroying the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and lying about how irresponsible they are. I have many friends who are watermen and care deeply for the bay, and Omega is something very different than them.
Where this comes to a head is that they have recently stopped caring enough that it's gotten the public's attention, in the form of spilling tens of thousands of fish they killed onto beaches to the point that they became unusable for tourists or local families. So, politicians are taking notice. This one is from this week near an Omega net spill.
So if you've read this far, I implore you to help us out and sign TRCP's petition to stop industrial menhaden fishing the Bay. VA is the only state that currently allows them to fish within state waters, and the ecosystem simply cannot support what they are doing to it. Thanks in advance for the support and I'm happy to discuss if anyone has questions or input.
TL;DR- petition to stop foreign company from destroying the Chesapeake Bay's ecosystem for lipstick and pig food located below.
