Maine delegation proposed menhaden compromise ahead of January quota split

Maine entitled to 4.8 percent of quota, Virginia just over 75 percent

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will convene in January to work out how the new menhaden quota is divided state by state, and that meeting follows the compromise Maine’s delegation brought to the commission this week. Maine’s proposal sought a middle course between the unchanged coastwide limit that commercial fishermen supported and the steeper reductions conservationists pushed for. The commission regulates the nearshore fisheries that the East Coast states from Maine to Florida share.

The commission approved a schedule of reductions under which the total menhaden catch limit along the Atlantic coastline falls 9 percent in 2027 and 17 percent in 2028, measured against the current limit. The numbers behind that schedule are specific: the coastwide catch limit for 2026 is 186,840 metric tons, down from 233,550 metric tons in 2025, and the limit will be 170,000 metric tons in 2027 before dropping to 155,000 metric tons in 2028. Commercial fishermen landed a little less than 147,000 metric tons in 2025. Conservationists attributed that shortfall to a lack of menhaden in the ocean; fishermen said they had fewer fishing days because of bad weather.

States receive shares of the coastwide quota based on their historic fishing patterns. Maine is currently entitled to 4.8 percent of the total quota, while Virginia is entitled to the vast majority of the catch, at just over 75 percent. Maine has fished well above its quota for the past several years, which it is permitted to do by taking quota transfers from other states and by using “episodic events” when more menhaden were found in Maine waters than expected. Maine’s actual landings in 2025 came to nearly 10 percent of the coastwide total.

The argument that produced the compromise has been building all year. Atlantic menhaden — also called bunker or pogies — sit near the bottom of the food web: they are an important food source for larger marine species such as striped bass and for birds of prey such ospreys. The Atlantic striped bass population has failed to reproduce for nearly a decade, and ospreys have recently shown signs of decline, and concern has been mounting about how the menhaden fishery is managed.

The reduced catch limit “is a step in the right direction” to protect menhaden and those that depend on it, said Nick Lund, Maine Audubon’s advocacy and outreach manager. “We will continue to look to science to determine the correct next steps.”

For New England’s lobster fleet, menhaden are no longer a marginal fish. As herring quotas have been cut, menhaden have become the preferred bait for lobster fishermen, and New England fishermen have been catching and buying more of them in recent years. The fish cost less than frozen bait imported from other countries and add income for people who catch both lobster and menhaden.

Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, told The Maine Monitor that she was disappointed the commission lowered the overall catch limit but relieved that the compromise proved less restrictive than other proposals on the table. Splitting the reduction across two years will help the fishery adjust, McCarron said. “To have to take the full cut in one year would be very difficult,” she said.

Suzannah Raber, a bait dealer who owns the New England Fish Company in Portland, told the commission at its Nov. 10 meeting that reducing the catch limit would produce a serious bait shortage in Maine and New England. Many lobster fishermen have come to rely on menhaden as a second source of income, Raber said. “The lobstermen very much need menhaden to survive. It accounts for a lot of their income now,” she said.

Other New Englanders who addressed the commission said they had seen plenty of fish in the Gulf of Maine and suggested that climate change is pushing menhaden northward. “The fish are moving north. The waters are warming,” said Doug McQuarrie, a menhaden harvester in Maine.

Because of the role menhaden play in the ecosystem, the fishery is not meant to be managed on its own but alongside species such as striped bass. The 40 percent catch reduction that many public commenters and some of the states supported would have lowered the probability that menhaden fishing harms striped bass and other predators.

Tony Friedrich, president and policy director of the American Saltwater Guides Association, said in an interview that the approved catch limit “abandoned” that ecological framework. He said the commission was caving to pressure from the commercial fishing industry and noted that the organization has let other fisheries it managed collapse in the past, including cod and Northern shrimp. “If we just give Mother Nature a chance, things can come back unless you exploit them to a tipping point,” Friedrich said.

Commissioners argued the opposite case, particularly from Virginia, where members said the menhaden fishery is already managed conservatively. Several commissioners spoke about weighing ecological needs against the socioeconomic impact of the decision. Virginia, and Maine as well, had initially wanted to keep the current coastwide catch limit.

In the months before this week’s meeting, the commission received more than 48,000 public comments on how the fishery should be regulated over the next few years. Most favored cutting the coastwide quota by 40 percent and adding special limits on fishing in Chesapeake Bay, the nursery habitat for both menhaden and their predators. People who work in and around the commercial fishing industry spoke in favor of keeping the status quo.

When the states voted, the narrow majority ran to Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia, joined by representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission; that bloc approved the 17 percent cuts by 2028. The states that had wanted steeper cuts — Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, North Carolina and Florida — voted against the measure.

The commission reconvened on Nov. 11 to take up a separate cap on fishing inside Chesapeake Bay and set that cap at 21.8 percent of the total coastwide limit. Only Virginia and the representatives from federal agencies voted against it. Several members acknowledged that the cap is a precaution and that more scientific research on menhaden is needed.

Congress recently appropriated $2.5 million to study the fish and their role in the ecosystem and the economy, money that scientists will receive through the commission. The commission plans to issue a request for proposals in the next few weeks and will coordinate with the Virginia Institute for Marine Science, which is getting $2 million appropriated from the Virginia state legislature for similar research. Preliminary findings are expected in 2028.

Money is not the only thing at stake on the industry side. The bait fish business is growing but remains small next to the Virginia operation that reduces or cooks down menhaden into oil for omega-3 fatty acid supplements and protein for pet food. That industry has a long history in the United States, and only one facility is left: a processing plant in Reedville, Virginia, owned by Omega Protein, a subsidiary of Canada’s Cooke Inc.