Commission: Virginia let company defy fishing limits in bay
Source: Associated Press
Ben Finley, Associated Press
Updated 7:14 pm CDT, Thursday, October 31, 2019
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Fishing regulators accused Virginia on Thursday of allowing a company that makes fish-oil supplements to exceed catch limits on a fish that's an important link in the Chesapeake Bay's food chain.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted to find Virginia out of compliance because the state didn't enact a new harvest cap for a fish that's called menhaden. The species serves as food in the bay for large predators that include striped bass, bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales.
The commission's vote escalates a simmering conflict in Virginia that involves only one company, Omega Protein, which defied the commission's catch limit.
Environmental groups have called into question how one corporation can have so much influence on state policy. But the company and lawmakers who support it say the catch limit is unfair and lacks scientific justification.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Commission-Virginia-let-company-defy-fishing-14650620.php
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