ANNAPOLIS — Maryland watermen who net menhaden for crab bait say there are fewer of the fish to catch, and the state’s comptroller is now pressing coastal regulators to leave more of them in the Chesapeake Bay.
Comptroller Brooke E. Lierman on Nov. 9 urged the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to reduce the amount of menhaden that industrial fishing operations may take from the Bay. She backed a proposal that would cut the Bay’s industrial catch limit by up to half and spread the harvest more evenly through the season, and she asked the commission to revisit the limit every three years.
The commission’s Atlantic Menhaden Management Board was scheduled to take final action on the proposal, known as Draft Addendum II, at its annual meeting Nov. 10-11 in Newport, Rhode Island. Maryland is one of the Atlantic coast states with a vote.
“Too many menhaden are being taken out of the Chesapeake Bay,” Lierman said in her statement. Her office said catches by Maryland’s own menhaden fishermen have fallen by more than 80%, and that crabbers who depend on the fish for bait are struggling to find it at a price they can afford.
What is on the table
The cap at issue applies to the reduction fishery, which nets menhaden in Virginia’s part of the Bay and processes them into fish meal and oil. It has stood at 51,000 metric tons a year since 2018. The options the board sent to public comment in August, on a vote that drew a lone dissent from Virginia, would leave it alone or lower it in steps:
- 10% cut: 45,900 metric tons
- 20% cut: 40,800 metric tons
- 30% cut: 35,700 metric tons
- 50% cut: 25,500 metric tons
Other options would tie the Bay cap to the coastwide quota, split it among seasonal periods, and require a review every three years.
Conservation groups are pushing for the deepest cut. In a joint column sent to news outlets this week, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Choose Clean Water Coalition and the Maryland League of Conservation Voters called on Gov. Wes Moore and Maryland’s commissioners to lead on the issue. The groups point to record-low osprey breeding in the Bay this year and to research examining whether the birds’ food supply is a factor. The Bay Foundation also said commission data show the reduction fleet caught fewer than 35,000 metric tons in the Bay in 2025, well under the cap, which it reads as a sign the fish are scarce. Maryland’s young-of-year striped bass count, another measure tied to the debate, came in below average for an eighth straight year.
The case against a cut
The industry disputes that reading. The commission’s own stock assessment finds menhaden are not overfished along the coast, and the commission has acknowledged that the available science cannot fully show how fishing affects the number of menhaden inside the Bay. Lierman’s statement described the fleet as foreign-owned; the Reedville, Virginia, operation is run by Ocean Harvesters and its partner Omega Protein.
In late October, industry supporters said 1,267 employees and community members had signed letters asking the board to reject new Bay limits. They argued that the cap was adopted in 2006 as a precaution rather than a calculated biological limit, that the osprey research does not establish commercial fishing as the cause, and that Virginia has committed $2 million to Bay-specific research that should be finished first. Workers have told Maryland Matters they fear for their pay and their jobs.
Any change the board adopts is expected to be in place for the 2027 fishing season. The board was also due to set the coastwide menhaden catch limit for the years ahead at the same meeting.
