How’d ‘ya like that slap in the face Tuesday? You know the one. Came from somewhere around the hip, surprising and brutal. Probably saw stars or felt faint.
That pretty much describes how members of the recreational angling community felt when a meeting of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission concluded over at Fort Monroe.
Talk about a curveball. But the fact that nobody saw it coming speaks volumes about local anglers.
Commission fisheries staff had recommended a regulations change that would shut off menhaden fishing operations along Virginia shorelines from a mile out and from a half mile on either side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. There would be total shutdowns for three days each around Memorial and Labor days, and from July 1-7 for Independence Day – all three big holidays for beach goers.
The reason was two more spills from Omega Protein’s menhaden reduction fleet, which scoops up schools of the small, oily fish and turns them into pet food and human supplements. The second of the two spills had enraged anglers when it also killed thousands of pounds of mature, breeding stock red drum – a cherished game fish.
Staff’s recommendations weren’t enough for some, but a large group of conservation organizations approved of them – seeing them as a good start after decades of failures to reign in the Canadian-owned company’s efforts that were shown to have hurt the bay and its fish populations.
Here’s the catch, one that many are calling a ruse.
The commission votes and approves staff recommendations almost all the time. And this one had the governor’s stamp on it. But after a painfully boring 3-plus hours of public hearing and a lunch break, associate commissioner Spencer Headley, a commercial fisherman from Reedville, made a motion that altered the time frames and took any law enforcement out of the equation.
“What just happened,” anglers in the crowd questioned. The firestorm continued on social media. The conservation groups sent out statements of their displeasure.
Welcome to back room politics.
This could have been avoided if, a couple of decades ago, anglers would have organized their money and political clout and fought Omega on its own turf – in the legislature.
But it would have called for the entire recreational saltwater fishing community to be on one page. Showing up to important meetings needs to be a priority. You all saw the vast number of Omega employees and backers who showed up. It doesn’t matter if they were bussed there or even if they got paid. They were there in an orchestrated effort.
That’s what the recreational angling community needs to start doing. Face it, as a group, we put more money into the state’s economy by a long shot. There are a lot more of us and each is a vote.
Politicians understand money and being able to stay in power. So let’s show ‘em what we’ve got.
I know that Capt. A hates Capt. B. But when it’s time to go to Richmond or Hampton to fight for our turf, they’d best be arm in arm when they show up.
All is not lost, we’ve gotten their real attention this time. But nothing is going to change unless we come at them united.
Otherwise we’re going to have to deal with what we get.
