Menhaden fishery workers caught in the middle of debate

By Lauren Hines-Acosta

Carolmane Diggs was seasick the first week he was on an Ocean Harvester vessel in 2011. It was his first time on a boat, ever. But his dad, with decades of experience fishing for menhaden, was there to help him. Diggs had explored college and the military but ultimately decided to be a fisherman “to make my dad proud.”

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) will vote in November on whether to cut the company’s allowable menhaden catch in the Chesapeake Bay. Bait watermen believe the cut will mean more menhaden in their pound nets, while Diggs and other employees of Ocean Harvesters and its partner, Omega Protein, worry they’ll lose pay or even their jobs. Public comment on the cut is open until Oct. 9.

Many watermen catch menhaden in pound nets to use or sell as bait for catching crabs and other fish. That harvest is dwarfed, though, by the menhaden “reduction” fishery in the Bay. Omega Protein, based in Reedville, Virginia, and its fishing partner Ocean Harvesters catch tens of thousands of tons of menhaden annually to pulverize them into fish oil and fish meal.

The ASMFC has deemed the menhaden population to be not overfished along the East Coast. The population’s biomass, or weight, has increased and remained stable since the 1990s. But the commission cut the company’s coast-wide harvest by 20% last October after concluding it had previously overestimated the species’ abundance.

Bipartisan group of Maryland legislators call for menhaden harvest reductions

Still, debate continues over whether menhaden are overharvested in the Bay specifically and whether that affects wildlife, especially osprey and striped bass, whose diet depends partly on menhaden.

Maryland and Virginia bait fishermen have been catching less menhaden in the Bay in recent years. According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, bait fishermen harvested 1 million pounds of menhaden in 2024, compared to as much as 10 million pounds in years past.

Robbie Wilson, a pound-netter on Tilghman Island, is a fourth-generation waterman. With people buying less seafood and diesel prices rising, he thinks this will be his last year fishing for menhaden.

“It’s not worth the hassle,” Wilson said. “The money’s not there.”

Tyree Smith, a Virginia crabber, said that the menhaden bait he buys comes from out of state and that its cost has doubled while the size has shrunk. Smith worries that the reduction fishery is taking too many menhaden from the Bay. He wants the commercial fishery to only harvest along the coast. But no research has measured the size or health of the menhaden population in the Bay.

Some answers may finally be on their way. After years of failed bills and advocacy, federal lawmakers gave $2.5 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in February to conduct such a study. But some want to take precautionary steps now.

“The science is years away, and the warning signs are worsening,” said Will Poston, forage campaign manager with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Environmentalists worry that declines in osprey breeding rates and striped bass populations are caused by a lack of menhaden.

The ASMFC will hold a vote at its meeting on Nov. 10-11 on whether to cut the company’s harvest up to 50% in the bay and add quota periods that would evenly distribute the catch over time.

Poston said the company can still catch all 186,840 metric tons of its allowable catch out at sea. But Diggs, now a mate with Ocean Harvesters, said high winds and waves from bad weather make fishing in smaller boats at sea more dangerous than in the bay.

“That one concern does not supersede the health of the ecosystem,” Poston said, but he doesn’t want to ignore the health and safety issues at sea.

Commercial fishermen say that harassment from some bay harvest opponents has become expected but rare. Mostly, other boats break up schools of menhaden before the industrial vessel can catch them. The fishermen say, though, the incidents have become more personal in recent years.

David Haynie, bosun with Ocean Harvesters, was aboard a harvesting boat when a jet skier yelled obscenities and drove over a net in 2023.

“The harassment is nerve wracking because you don’t know when a certain individual could just be on his worst day and get mad at us and do something very irrational and harm us,” Haynie said.

The menhaden reduction fishery has shrunk over time, whether through regulation or lack of fish. The harvest peaked in 1956, catching more than 700,000 metric tons of menhaden with at least 20 factories along the coast. But the industry grew and contracted alongside the fish population in the 1970s and 1990s. Now, only Omega Protein remains, and Virginia is the only state on the coast allowing harvest for the reduction fishery.

Ben Landry, vice president of public affairs for Ocean Harvesters, said the company has survived past cuts by retiring four boats since 2012 and cutting staff through attrition.

According to a report by the ASMFC’s Committee on Economics and Social Sciences, there will be a “break-even threshold” where, if the harvest limit is pushed too low for the company, it will have to shut down instead of instituting layoffs. It’s unclear where that point lies.

It’s also unclear if any layoffs would take place following the proposed cut. If the company catches less fish, employees would be paid less. Ocean Harvester fishermen are paid based on the number of fish caught. Diggs expects to lose $10,000 over the season due to the most recent cut.

The fishery employs about 510 people directly and indirectly. Because menhaden fishing is seasonal, many employees have side jobs, from cutting trees to catering to oystering. If layoffs were to happen, many said they would retire early or need to commute two hours away to find something with the same pay and benefits.

Omega Protein is the main employer in Northumberland County, Virginia. According to the socioeconomic report, “job losses in this sector could potentially lead to structural unemployment.”

The report added that bait fishermen have more “elasticity” than the reduction fishery and could switch to other species if menhaden continue to be scarce. The report relied on data from 2010, though, and did not account for how fuel prices and labor markets have evolved.

If the proposed cut in bay harvest is approved, Poston with the Bay Foundation said he hopes that bait fishermen would soon feel relief.