MENHADEN processing company Omega Protein is defending its operations in the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia from critics that say stocks are depleted.
The company has come under fire from groups representing the environmental and sports fishing sectors, who claim that there is ‘localised depletion’ in the Chesapeake Bay area.
However, menhaden stocks are assessed as abundant on a coastwide basis. Omega Protein, which harvests menhaden in the region to produce fish oils, has moved towards fishing offshore but says this is due to economics, not stock depletion, reports sister publication Fishing News International.
‘The
