Virginia posts a menhaden bait petition; comments run Nov. 2–23

A menhaden bait petition is sitting with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. Dale Neal of Richmond emailed it Sept. 30, 2026, and Virginia Regulatory Town Hall lists “Menhaden Bait Preservation” as a pending Marine Resources Commission petition dated Oct. 1, 2026. VMRC’s agency news page says the public comment period will be advertised in the Virginia Register of Regulations from Nov. 2 through Nov. 23, 2026.

The petition asks the commission to raise the non-purse-seine menhaden bait-sector quota from 1.58% to 5%, and to write a legally binding one-mile shoreline zone, with penalties, barring purse-seine harvest in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay waters and along the Atlantic coast. Neal also asks the commission to expand and codify the memorandum of understanding for a one-mile purse-seine buffer that the commission agreed to at its December 2022 meeting. He points to regulation 4VAC20-1270-30 and says the request rests on VMRC landing data from the past five seasons that show large shortfalls of catch against the allowable quota.

The petition argues a nearshore buffer would leave more menhaden for bait fishermen, crabbers, hook-and-line anglers, and the fish and wildlife that eat menhaden. It is a citizen petition, not a commission proposal, and Town Hall still shows it as pending.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: VMRC — Menhaden Bait Preservation Petition (emailed Sept. 30, 2026). Comment window: VMRC agency news. Status: Virginia Regulatory Town Hall petitions (listed Oct. 1, 2026).