Menhaden Truth Social Post
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114802338481041350
And therefore ask of you..........
We the people of Virginia are asking you and Secretary of Commerce, Honorable Howard Lutnick to sign an Executive Order to require Cooke Seafood, a Canadian Company, from removing menhaden on an industrial scale from the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia Water. Background. Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association (VSSA) Is a grassroots, 501 (c)3 non-profit organization in Virginia, we are dedicated to advocating for a healthy saltwater fishery and responsible management of our marine resources.Menhaden Position.
Our position on menhaden is that the massive menhaden reduction industry should be moved out of the bay until science can show it is not causing harm. https://joinvssa.org/ There are growing concerns about localized depletion, bycatch, damage to the ecosystem, including potential impacts on striped bass, osprey, cobia and others, and a long history of damaging net spills. They currently harvest up to 112,000,000 pounds annually from the most important estuary and nursery on the East Coast. This is simply unacceptable. While menhaden are not considered “overfished”, this is a coast wide designation and has nothing to do with conditions in the bay. We continue to support the much smaller Menhaden Bait industry, which helps crabbers and recreational anglers. We also call on all politicians to stop taking donations from this Canadian owned company.
Finally, we call on the industry and the Youngkin administration to actively support research on these critical forage fish. Our efforts thus far have proven futile as Virginia continues to allow the industrial scale removal of menhaden which as resulted in a significant decline in the health and marine life in the Chesapeake Bay. We are not asking to put anyone out of the job. We are simply asking for responsible fishing moving this fishery out away from our local waters.
Signed, The People of Virginia
Menhaden
The Biggest Little Fish You’ve Never Seen
The public hardly knows anything about these fish since they are never seen on menus; however, they are crucial to the Chesapeake Bay and our Atlantic Coast. Like other small but critically important forage fish, menhaden play a central role in the Chesapeake Bay’s food web. In these areas, they are a keystone species because a staggering number of predators, such as striped bass, ospreys, eagles, marine mammals etc. rely on menhaden for their sustenance. This is why Virginia’s sportsmen and sportswomen are calling for Virginia’s elected officials and our Marine Resource Commissioners to change their approach to how fish like menhaden are managed in our Chesapeake Bay waters.
The main conflict in the film is between Omega Protein (owned by Cooke Seafood), and the local community of recreational fishermen and conservationists. Against this juggernaut are the local fishermen, tourist operators, charter boat captains and many others that live and work along the Bay and the Gulf. These local commercial and recreational fishermen struggle as the loss of menhaden hurts the number of game fish available to sustain the local population and the marine environment. In addition, conservation groups such as Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and the Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association (VSSA) have been fighting to remove Omega from the Bay.
However, Omega Protein is fighting back by making political donations to government officials to prevent any changes. In the middle of this conflict is the state regulatory body, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC). They establish the rules for all menhaden fishing.
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