A Fish Called Menhaden

VIRGINIA LAWMAKERS love paying lip service to the vital importance of the Chesapeake Bay's ecology. But when the bay's health collides with the commercial interests of a single fishery plant, guess what? The bay comes out the loser. That's what's happening in the General Assembly, where legislators in thrall to the fishery industry have rejected a modest step to safeguard the already imperiled waters of the Chesapeake.

The issue involves menhaden, an oily, bony relative of herring found in the coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Unimposing in stature and unlovely to eat, menhaden does have its uses: It is converted into fish oil and fertilizer and also used for bait. In the bay, it also plays a vital environmental role, both by providing a source of food for striped bass, bluefish and gray trout and by consuming and filtering out nutrients. That's why tentative signs of depletion in the bay's menhaden population have raised concerns.

In a measured response to those concerns, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a 15-state coordinating body, has recommended imposing a five-year cap on the menhaden catch in the bay's Virginia waters (Maryland forbids menhaden fishing). The idea is to use the five years to study the extent and causes of possible menhaden depletion in the bay. That has prompted howls from Omega Protein Inc., the company that fishes menhaden from the Chesapeake and renders it for oil and other products at a plant in Virginia's Northern Neck, one of the nation's largest fish processors.

The cap of 105,783 metric tons a year is not exactly drastic; that's Omega's average catch of menhaden from the Chesapeake for the first five years of this decade. Moreover, the menhaden catch has been steadily declining for years. The cap, which is actually greater than Omega's catch in several recent years, would impose little hardship.

That hasn't stopped the pushback from Omega's lobbyists. They acknowledge that the menhaden catch from the bay has dipped, but they insist on Omega's right to try to keep fishing, while warning that that jobs at the Virginia plant are in jeopardy. Omega contends that the commission's recommendation is arbitrary and scientifically unfounded; that it's unfair since it does not apply to the (much smaller) bait industry; and that it was formulated using improper procedures. Backed by a friendly opinion by Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R), Omega has managed to kill legislation to impose the commission-recommended limit in Virginia's House of Delegates.

The commission has been in business for more than 60 years, and its decisions on limiting fishing have frequently annoyed member states that sense a threat to their narrow interests. In this case, Omega's grousing is to be expected; it dislikes the precedent that a cap would represent. But the fact remains that the cap would impose little burden while ensuring that no further harm is done if indeed the bay's menhaden population is declining. If Virginia's legislature refuses to act, then Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) should impose the cap on his own authority. Failing that, Omega should be warned that it courts disaster if it continues to resist: By law the Commerce Department may step in and impose a moratorium on states that refuse to comply with the commission's recommendations. That would reduce Omega's future menhaden catch in the bay to zero.