Industrial Reduction Fishing is Devastating Wildlife and Degrading Our Waters

America’s greatest bay, the Chesapeake, and its adjacent coastlines are under attack by industrial reduction fishing.

The Chesapeake Bay is the primary estuary for most major marine and bird species that call the Atlantic Coast home. Its health is critical to the Atlantic coastal ecosystem.

What is the issue?

In 2023 alone, over 400 million wild Menhaden were slaughtered in Virginia to make industrial products. This wasteful industry leftover from the 1800s has fractured our coastal marine food chain for 150 years. It continues to play an outsized role in degrading the waters, wildlife, and marine-based economies of Virginia, Maryland, and the entire East Coast.

And what about the waste? For every metric ton of fish caught, only 1/3 is actually made into a product; the other 2/3 is waste that is dumped back into our oceans. Wasteful both in terms of resource loss and pollution.

Why is the Loss of the Menhaden Fish Species so Important?

Menhaden were put on this earth to feed other marine species. That is their role. They are the "Keystone" prey fish in our coastal and bay waters, the number one source of protein.

Menhaden average 12" in length and less than a pound in weight, but they pack enormous Omega-rich protein in their bodies and congregate in vast schools measured in metric tons. While not palatable for human consumption, predator and scavenger marine species from Humpback Whales and Dolphins, Osprey, Eagles, Pelicans, Stripped Bass, Tuna, Crabs, and countless others depend on Menhaden for their survival. The loss of abundance of Menhaden equates to the ongoing struggles along the entire food chain. They are foundational. Learn More about why the menhaden is so important.

It is time to end industrial reduction fishing in our near-shore coastal waters.

Americans have made a stand and stopped the wholesale industrialized killing of wild species before, including whales, seals, sturgeon, buffalo, beaver, waterfowl, migratory birds, and many others. Now is the time to do it again and curtail this last holdover.

Federal waters start at just 3 miles offshore. The regulatory agencies, the fishery certification organizations, and the reduction industry themselves all claim loudly that there are billions of menhaden to be found in the ocean. A third of their annual quota is already caught there. Every day across the globe reduction fleets fish in the ocean, including in extreme places like Antarctica. We only ask that American reduction fleets do the same.