The Virginian-Pilot
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Another session of the General Assembly means more controversy about an oily little fish called menhaden.
Lawmakers will consider at least four bills related to regulating the harvest of this species, which provides hundreds of jobs in a fishing industry centered for more than a century on the rural Northern Neck peninsula.
Silver colored and massing in great schools, menhaden are not eaten by humans but are fodder for many popular game fish, including striped bass and bluefish, as well as dolphins and brown pelicans. They also filter pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay. Environmentalists have been clamoring for more protections for decades, only to be rebuffed by politicians who manage the fish from Richmond.
Perhaps the most sweeping proposal this year would have Virginia withdrawing from a coastal regulatory body, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which wants to impose new catch limits on menhaden in 2013. The commission, with members from Maine to Florida, argues that stocks are stressed and need relief.
The withdrawal bill is sponsored by state Sen. Richard Stuart, a Republican who represents sections of the Northern Neck, including the menhaden industry's capital, the town of Reedville. There, tons of the fish are ground up each year into animal feed, fertilizer and omega-3 health supplements.
Environmental groups and sports fishermen oppose the bill, saying it would do little good and would represent the first time in 62 years that a state has quit the commission's compact.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other environmental groups instead support two proposals from state Sen. Ralph Northam, a Norfolk Democrat who also represents the Eastern Shore.
Northam wants to let the Virginia Marine Resources Commission write regulations and implement them to match those that the coastal commission develops over the next year for curbing menhaden harvests.
The company that processes menhaden in Reedville, Omega Protein, opposes Northam's bills as well as one from Virginia Beach Del. Barry Knight, a Republican who wants to cement an existing harvest cap that Omega must abide by each year.
Scott Harper, 757-446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com
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Menhaden and the Virginia Legislature
Question: Who really owns the menhaden purse seine fleet and its spotter aircraft?
Answer: the Bush family through Zapata Oil Company and through a series of shell corporations.
Next question: where did Zapata oil make its money?
Answer: Because Zapata Oil’s Gulf of Mexico oil platforms were unable, in the sixties and seventies, to compete with OPEC and their super tankers, why, Zapata went the more lucrative alternative. That would be using their offshore oil platforms as transshipment points for South American cocaine. That way the helicopters and launches returning from Zapata’s Gulf oil rigs to the continental United States did not have to clear Customs. Clever, don’t you think?
To learn more about the Clinton-Bush Cocaine ca
Menhaden and the Bush Family
Next time you talk to the governor or a member of the general assembly ask them about Zapata Oil, Omega Protein and narcotics money laundering. Chances are they will say “I don’t know what you are talking about” You can then confront them with the facts.
But chances are they will go about their business stuffing laundered narco dollars in their pockets, just as before!
Wake up Virginia! If you repeatedly confront your elected officials and embarrass them with the facts behind the menhaden slaughter, why, they might just change their ways!
Jeff Thomas
Williamsburg
Protect the valued resource, the resource will protect the Bay
The wee-small fish supports way more than a few dozen families in a rural county. Once removed from the water, their fate is certain and results in nothing more than dust, oil and steam with potentially toxic residues pumped back to the local waters where Omega is located. Heck, even the antiquated vessels used for the harvest are ignored by the EPA via legislation when it comes to potentially troublesome wastes from the boats during their coastal operations. Our local reps in the lousy box of rocks in Richmond see the worth in the resource and protective measures, but why don't others? Once the fish are depleted, Omega will close and the jobs will be lost regardless. Someones getting paid off and it ain't any of us. Protect wee-small fishes.
Omega strip mines the bay
How many of you have seen Omegas' rusty hulks at work? They almost added me to their "by-catch" one day as I was fishing off the Eastern Shore, and was about to be encircled by their nets. Their nets catch everything!
I'm no scientist, just a life-long boater. The menhaden are way down in numbers. Something, anything, must be done to curb Omega. The menhaden are a critical link in the marine food chain.
menhaden catch limits and politicians
It is amazing to me that with all the work our elected representatives have to do that they refuse to give up control of this resource. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission is an organization of professionals tasked with managing marine (salt water)species. Why do you suppose our elected politicians refuse to relinquish control of this resource to the experts? Do they not have enough to manage without this responsibility? God forbid, could they be gaining personally or politcally from their vote on this issue? I don't know if this is the case but it sure looks suspicious.