I support the petition. Virginia Marine Resources Commission, and members of the Atlantic Menhaden Technical Committee of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission can not provide scientific assurance that the spatial or seasonal stock of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay is healthy. VMRC should take conservative measures now to protect our fishery and enact a moratorium on menhaden reduction fishing in the Chesapeake Bay until science is conducted and can be reviewed.

Plummeting ERPs and key predator indicators such as Striped Bass and Osprey are indicating that Atlantic menhaden have dropped below critical thresholds in the Chesapeake Bay. By design, industrial extraction methods at the scale and frequency occurring in the Chesapeake Bay are causing a local depletion of menhaden. With the use of spotter airplanes, the industry quickly covers the entire Virginia area of the Chesapeake Bay in a matter of hours, locates the menhaden schools, dispatches multiple vessels to the schools, and extracts the schools of menhaden with purse seines. The repetition of the industry's daily aerial surveillance based large scale extraction campaigns in a confined area like the Chesapeake Bay causes localized depletion. VMRC should pause all industrial purse seining of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay until VMRC can provide evidence that regional overfishing and localized depletion of menhaden is not occurring, and Atlantic menhaden are at a stable threshold to support key predators in the Chesapeake Bay.