I believe that it is vital to curb the commercial fishing of menhaden in the Bay.  We are citizen scientists who have been observing ospreys for more than two decades. The Osprey population in the lower Chesapeake bay has been drastically affected by the lack of menhaden, a main food source for osprey. Osprey is a sentinel of the bay marine ecosystem because the bird diet is 90% fish.   We can prove that the fish hawk’s reproductive rates in the Mobjack bay in particular is in historic low, below the starvation point, because they cannot find fish to feed their chicks.

I totally support the moratorium of commercial fishing in the Bay and the Va Marine Resource commission should ban commercial fishing of menhaden just as Maryland and all the other States surrounding the Bay have already done, in order to help recover the  Bay’s most seminal fish population.