Anglers in the Chesapeake Bay region are keenly aware of the importance of menhaden to the success of both our fishing trips and the larger ecosystem. Most anglers are also aware that the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and coastal Virginia are the epicenter of menhaden harvests along the Atlantic Coast.

Anglers currently have an opportunity to lend their voice to the discussion of menhaden management not only in Virginia, but along the entire Atlantic Coast.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which manages menhaden along their entire range from Maine to Florida, is currently soliciting public comments on changes to their management plan which will be adopted in late 2017.

You can read the public information document by clicking here to access ASMFC’s website. This is an excellent opportunity for anglers to let fishery managers know how they would like to see menhaden managed in the future.

CBF believes that during this public comment period it is most important that menhaden’s critical ecological role be prioritized. To do this, the following four issues in the Public Information Document are most important for ASMFC to receive public input on:

• Issue 1: Support Option D which will ensure future menhaden management decisions embrace an ecosystem-based approach as soon as possible.

• Issue 5: To help ensure enough menhaden remain in the water each year, any unused quota should not be rolled into the subsequent year for any of our menhaden fisheries.

• Issue 6: Revisions to the management plan should include measures that will count all the catch from the various menhaden fisheries.

• Issue 8: Due to ongoing ecological concerns about the low abundance of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay, the reduction harvest cap should remain in place and be reduced to half of its current level.

To have your voice heard, simply email Megan Ware at ASMFC by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 4. Stay tuned, as another public comment opportunity will arrive during the spring.

FISHINGLINES

Newsletter of the Anglers for Clean Water January 2017

2017: A Most Important Year for the Most Important Fish in the Sea

New Year, New FacesIn January, CBF will welcome Allison Colden as our new fisheries scientist in our Maryland office. A native of Virginia Beach, Allison grew up near the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and most recently worked at Restore America Estuaries (RAE), a partner organization of CBF’s based in Washington, D.C. Prior to her work with RAE, she served as a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Allison obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and her Ph.D. from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Allison has extensive experience working on fisheries science and policy issues, especially oyster restoration. Much of her oyster work was accumulated while she conducted her Ph.D. research on restored oyster reefs and the ecosystem services they provide, including supporting strong recreational and commercial fisheries. She coordinated her work with federal marine resource managers in order to include the results of her research in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Native Oyster Restoration Master Plan for the Chesapeake Bay.

In addition to her scientific expertise, CBF is grateful to have Allison’s experience working with a wide range of stakeholders, including state and federal agencies, watermen, homeowners, and the public. These skills will be of a tremendous help as CBF continues its efforts to restore and sustain iconic Chesapeake Bay fisheries for both ecological and economic benefits.

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A friend sent a photograph of a small fish that he and his four-year-old daughter had caught and then released while fishing near Annapolis, Maryland. Yes, it’s a yearling black drum (Pogonias cromis), with the underslung mouth characteristic of its family, the Scianidae, which also includes the Atlantic croaker, Norfolk spot, and red drum. The surprise is that this “puppy drum” and another just like it turned up at Jonas Green Park, under Annapolis’s Severn River U.S. Naval Academy Bridge.

Black drum are bottom-feeders, equipped with chin barbels that allow them to taste food before they swallow it. Adult drum have hard crusher plates and strong throat muscles that allow them to crunch and eat clams and oysters, but pups— fish under eight pounds—love worms, mud crabs, and other small crustaceans like the grass shrimp that lured this one to my friend’s hook. These foods are the critters that proliferate on oyster reefs and other three-dimensional surfaces in the Bay’s bottom communities. At all stages of their lives, black drum are reef fish. The juvenile fish have four to five prominent dark vertical bars that become less pronounced as they mature.

Most likely these two puppies were spawned offshore of the Virginia Capes in the spring of 2015. They then made their way up the Bay to the nursery ground of the Severn River in the deep, salty current that flows northward in the Chesapeake’s main stem beneath the freshwater carried seaward by river flow. Female black drum can lay eggs every three days during their April-to-June spawning season. After spawning, the adult drum migrate up the Chesapeake in schools, stopping to feed on any reefs they can find as far north as Love Point, at the mouth of the Chester River. They hang around in the Bay through September before heading south to warmer waters for the winter.

It’s actually not accidental that those two little pups turned up at Jonas Green Park. The shoreline under the bridge is rocky rip-rap, next to a fishing pier recycled

from the preceding old drawbridge. Under and around the fishing pier and the shoreline lies a sanctuary oyster reef that CBF built with spat on shell (baby oysters attached to old shell). It’s a perfect feeding grounds for black drum, large and small.

If the scientific community is correct that we have reduced the Chesapeake’s oyster stock to one percent of what it once was, there’s no surprise that we have lost fish species that depended on those vast, navigation-impeding, bursting-with-life reefs. But those drum from Jonas Green Park are proof that restoring oysters creates habitat and brings back a host of species that were once plentiful. There are scattered but encouraging reports of other reef fish—like tautog, black sea bass, and sheepshead—caught around the Potomac and further north.

Encouraging catches like these two puppy-sized black drum well up the Bay are signs of ecological results. We are tipping the balance. Oyster restoration and water-quality improvements are paying habitat dividends. Our Bay is finally starting to recover. The signs are as subtle as this little fish, but they are real.

VirginiaCapitol Place 1108 East Main Street, Suite 1600 Richmond, VA 23219 804/780-1392 Hampton RoadsBrock Environmental Center 3663 Marlin Bay Drive Virginia Beach, VA 23455 757/622-1964

CBF HeadquartersPhilip Merrill Environmental Center 6 Herndon Avenue Annapolis, MD 21403 410/268-8816

Website: cbf.orgMembership information: 888/SAVEBAY

This is What Recovery Looks LikeFishing in the Community

ADVOCACY MENHADEN PUBLIC COMMENTS Submit comments to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to ensure a healthy menhaden population. Email your comments by January 4 to Megan Ware at comments@asmfc.org. VIRGINIA LEGISLATIVE SESSION January 11–February 25, 2017 Richmond, Virginia MARYLAND LEGISLATIVE SESSION January 11–April 10, 2017 Annapolis, Maryland

COMMUNITY MARYLAND WATERMAN’S TRADE SHOW January 13–15, 2017 Roland E. Powell Convention Center 4001 Coastal Highway Ocean City, Maryland Attend the only commercial fishing show produced in the mid-Atlantic region. Each year, thousands of commercial fisherman, charterboat captains, aquaculturists, scientists, educators, and citizens from Maine to Florida come to enjoy the show. For information, visit marylandwaterman.com/trade-show.

LEGENDS OF THE FLY FESTIVAL Saturday, March 11, 2017 12:00 noon–8:00 p.m. Museum of Contemporary Art 2200 Parks Avenue Virginia Beach, Virginia This community event is fun and educational. Portions of the proceeds will be donated to CBF. For more information, visit legendsoftheflyvb.com. GREAT BRIDGE FISHERMAN’S FLEA MARKET Saturday, March 11, 2017 8:00 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Chesapeake Convention Center 700 Conference Center Drive Chesapeake, Virginia This well-known and highly-anticipated event is hosting its eighth year. Learn more about recreational fishing and the conservation of our resources. Visit fishgbfa.com for more information.