TITLE 4. CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES
MARINE RESOURCES COMMISSION
Agency Decision
Title of Regulation: 4VAC20-1270. Pertaining to Atlantic Menhaden.
Statutory Authority: § 28.2-201 of the Code of Virginia.
Name of Petitioner: Tanya O'Connor.
Nature of Petitioner's Request: The petitioner requests that the commission:
1. Grant this petition by adopting a temporary moratorium on purse-seine reduction fishing for menhaden within the Chesapeake Bay and initiating rulemaking to amend 4VAC20-1270-35.
2. Maintain the moratorium until the commission has affirmatively demonstrated, on the administrative record, compliance with all applicable statutory and public-trust obligations, including that the commission has:
a. Determined bay-specific menhaden abundance and bay-specific ecological dependence, including the needs of predator species, juvenile life stages, and dependent fisheries within the Chesapeake Bay, consistent with § 28.2-201 and subdivision 2 of § 28.2-203 of the Code of Virginia;
b. Demonstrated, on the administrative record, compliance with the mandatory requirements of § 28.2-204.1 of the Code of Virginia by evaluating, before authorizing industrial menhaden removal, the impacts on species and fisheries, age structure, and the abundance of the resource;
c. Demonstrated compliance with all fishery management standards set forth in § 28.2-203, including: (i) prevention of overfishing while achieving optimum yield (subdivision 1); (ii) reliance on the best scientific, economic, biological, and sociological information available (subdivision 2); (iii) management of individual and interrelated stocks as a unit, including forage-dependent predator species (subdivision 3); (iv) fair, equitable, and non-discriminatory management measures that do not grant excessive fishing privileges (subdivision 4); (v) promotion of efficient utilization of fishery resources without economic allocation as the sole purpose (subdivision 5); (vi) consideration of variations among and contingencies in fisheries, fishery resources, and catches (subdivision 6); and (vii) minimization of unnecessary regulatory burdens while still achieving conservation objectives (subdivision 7);
d. Demonstrated compliance with § 28.2-204 of the Code of Virginia by obtaining or commissioning necessary fisheries data and implementing independent monitoring, verification, and enforcement mechanisms sufficient to ensure compliance with any future authorization of industrial menhaden removals, including verification of landings, bycatch, juvenile impacts, and cumulative removals across fisheries; and
e. Demonstrated satisfaction of interstate conservation responsibilities, including documented evaluation of cross-jurisdictional ecological and economic impacts within the Chesapeake Bay, consistent with Virginia's obligations under the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Compact (§ 28.2-1000 of the Code of Virginia), which is an interstate marine fisheries compact.
The petitioner does not request a specific numerical quota and requests that no industrial reduction fishing resume until these conditions are satisfied.
Agency Decision: Request denied.
Statement of Reason for Decision: A public comment period was held from January 26, 2026, to February 17, 2026. During that time, the Marine Resources Commission received a total of 1,266 comments through the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall. Of the total comments received, 260 were in support and 896 were in opposition of the petition.
The commission reviewed the petition at its April 21, 2026, meeting. At the meeting, 24 individuals provided public comment, with 12 in favor of supporting the petition and 12 in favor of denying the petition. Following public comment and thorough discussion between associate commissioners, the commission ultimately voted six to two to deny the petition in its entirety.
Agency Contact: Benjamin Foster, Regulatory Coordinator, Marine Resources Commission, 380 Fenwick Road, Building 96, Fort Monroe, VA 23651, telephone (757) 247-2200, or email benjamin.foster@mrc.virginia.gov.
VA.R. Doc. No. PFR26-20; Filed December 31, 2025, 9:25 a.m.