Anglers Call for Stop to Industrial Menhaden Fishing in Bay As Dead Fish Wash Ashore 
By Whitney Pipkin US Source: Bay Journal News Service 7/29/2022
Whitney Pipkin
Credit: Dave Harp
A coalition of groups representing recreational anglers and boaters has launched a campaign against certain types of commercial menhaden fishing in Virginia.

Together, 11 national and 10 Virginia-based groups sent a letter in mid-June to Gov. Glenn Youngkin asking him to move menhaden “reduction fishing” out of the Chesapeake Bay. Reduction fishing refers to commercial harvests of the oily baitfish to grind or “reduce” them into meal for use in pet food, vitamins and other products.
 

The groups, which include the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas and state and national sportfishing associations, are concerned that annual harvests of menhaden have “deprived gamefish like striped bass, bluefish and weakfish of a critical food source.”

 
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