Following opposition by Virginia’s industrial menhaden fishery, the Commonwealth is facing yet another delay in letting science answer one of the Chesapeake Bay’s most longstanding and controversial questions.
The House of Delegates Studies Subcommittee unanimously pushed consideration of House Bill 19 into next year. HB 19, introduced by Delegate R. Lee Ware, would have funded a robust study of the population of menhaden—the small, silvery fish that’s a crucial part of the larger Chesapeake Bay food web and the target of Omega Protein, one of the largest fisheries on the Atlantic Coast.
