New Momentum Behind Menhaden Research in Virginia in Crucial Budget Year

Critical Funding at Stake as Lawmakers Prepare for Special Session

After legislative proposals to study a controversial fish failed three years in a row, Virginia House Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) this week threw his support behind researching menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay.

Scott’s comments are a positive step toward helping secure much-needed funding to study the small forage fish important to a healthy Chesapeake Bay. Menhaden serve as highly nutritious food to some of the most iconic and important commercial and recreational species in the Bay, including striped bass, osprey, red drum, and marine mammals. These fish are the target of several fisheries including the largest industrial fishery on the East Coast, which harvests more than 100 million pounds of menhaden from the Bay annually. Troubling signs are growing around menhaden in the Bay.

Scott told the Virginia Mercury that even as he and other legislators look to cut back on the number of state-approved studies and commissions, research into topics like how menhaden are faring in the Bay is beneficial.

“These studies are important because they inform the legislation, and you can’t make good legislation if you don’t understand it,” Scott said.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation strongly supports the $2 million for research into menhaden that House lawmakers included in their two-year budget proposal.

Estimates from Maine to Florida show that there are far fewer menhaden up and down the East Coast than previously thought. Menhaden catches by small-scale watermen in the Bay have declined more than 80 percent in recent years. Osprey chicks are starving at unprecedented levels in parts of the Bay where they traditionally feed on menhaden.

Existing research focuses on the entire menhaden population up and down the East Coast and does not specifically consider whether menhaden are struggling in the Chesapeake Bay, where the fishery is concentrated.

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science has stated that data on menhaden in the Bay remains “woefully inadequate,” and has developed a plan for a menhaden study in 2023 together with the industry and other groups.

The coming special session on the budget next month will give lawmakers an opportunity to invest in this science. Unfortunately, time and time again the industry has worked to undermine Virginia menhaden research with delay tactics.

Recent polling shows that 80 percent of Virginia voters support state funding for a study to improve management of the menhaden fishery and answer longstanding concerns.

The General Assembly did not advance several promising pieces of legislation during the 2026 session that would have protected menhaden in the Bay—making it all the more important that lawmakers send money for research to Governor Spanberger’s desk.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Forage Campaign Manager Will Poston issued the following statement:

“We appreciate Speaker Scott’s highlighting the importance of studying the menhaden population in the Bay. We agree—research on menhaden in the Bay is long overdue amid growing ecosystem alarm bells.

“Menhaden catches by Chesapeake Bay watermen are plummeting and osprey chicks are starving to death at unprecedented levels. There’s no denying that something is wrong. Virginia can’t keep putting off action.

“Menhaden science would inform sustainable Chesapeake Bay management and improve our understanding of the ecological impacts of this highly concentrated factory fishing operation.

“The industry has consistently blocked science and conservation, but bipartisan public opinion polling is clear: 92 percent of Virginia voters think the Commonwealth should leave more menhaden in the Bay.

“As lawmakers head back to their districts ahead of the special session on the budget, we urge them to listen to these constituents and support funding for menhaden research.”