This effort to modify the Menhaden industrial fishing is long overdue for these reasons:

ASMFC single stock assessment of Menhaden on the East Coast ignores the unique biology in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem - how rude and ignorant can our scientists be to treat the ocean and bay as a single ecosystem?

VMRC and VIMs adopt the ridiculous quota setting by ASMFC and say the same ridiculous thing - that there is no difference between the ocean and Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem - VMRC senior leaders stated to me as much in person.

• ASMFC and VMRC ignore the role of Menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay and it’s criticality for feeding the largest striped bass nursery on the East Coast - 60-90% of all east coast bass live in the Chesapeake Bay for the first 9 years before they head to the ocean - we ASMFC and VMRC policies allow industrial fishing to starve the resident striped bass population in the Bay
• striped bass populations are collapsing on the East Coast and ASMFC and VMRC want to blame sport fishing as the cause - if Sportfishing stopped entirely the population will still collapse if we don’t ensure the bay nursery has food - look at the Bay as an aquarium the striped bass are resident for 9 years if we starve them In the Bay the fishery collapses
• Nobody has any data on how many Menhaden are needed to support Striped Bass or Osprey populations in the Chesapeake Bay - the only data collected is how much is taken out of the bay nothing on how much are left for the ecosystem
• ASMFC and VMRC Fishery managers are myopic - they say if you can catch the quota the population and quota are justified - they don’t assess the Menhaden in the Bay available to the ecosystem 
• ASMFC is a single species management organization - Menhaden managers don’t talk or work together with Striped Bass managers  - crazy 
• Rhode Island knows how many Menhaden are needed in the Narragansett Bay to support their ecosystem and they measure using overflights to Maintain a sustainable supply of Menhaden - VMRC could copy the methodology if they were unafraid of industrial fishing lobby and the Governor
• Governor Youngkin, the Va the legislature and administration are willing to sacrifice the Virginia economy associated with a healthy bay costing jobs and revenue and instead support industrial fishing jobs for a Canadian company
• the Bay is 1/2 Maryland and 1/2 Virginia and we need a partnership with Maryland because ecosystems do not recognize state boundaries- this is essential for the proper science to devise the solution - a study on 1/2 the bay is a joke
• Maryland needs to step in asa partner with joint legislation with Virginia to save the Chesapeake Bay fishery
• Most people overlook that the mouth of the Bay is considered part of a separate ocean quota granted by ASMFC and VMRC to industrial fiahing that allows the fishery to capture all schools coming and going from the bay up to 236 million lbs more than the quota of 112 million lbs allowed in the Chesapeake Bay proper
• Any study or solution for industrial Fishing of Menhaden impacts on the Chesapeake Bay must address both the Bay and ocean quotas in Virginia waters
• Virginia is the only state on the East Coast that allows industrial fishing within 3 miles of the state shoreline
• Mayland outlawed industrial fishing in their portion of the Bay and their state ocean waters - Virginia needs to do same