The board will annually review measures to determine if they are appropriate given the most recent information available about the stock and fishery. At any future meeting, the board can initiate development of additional or alternative management measures.

The board’s action was requested by the Commonwealth of Virginia in order to accommodate its legislative process and to ensure the current management program is extended while menhaden research efforts continue. Virginia’s legislature, which convenes in January each year, is responsible for regulating the menhaden reduction fishery in state waters. With these measures in place this year, Virginia state administrators can work with the legislature in early 2010 to amend Virginia law to extend the harvest cap without the current cap expiring.

The current annual cap of 109,020 metric tons on reduction fishery harvests in Chesapeake Bay was established as a precautionary measure while research was conducted to address the question of menhaden abundance in the bay.

The cap was first instituted in 2006 to extend through 2010. With adoption of the latest addendum that cap will be extended through 2013 with the following provisions:

• Harvest for reduction purposes is prohibited in Chesapeake Bay when 100 percent of the cap is landed.

• Overharvest in any given year will be deducted from the next year’s quota.

• Underharvest in one year will be credited only to the following year’s cap, not to exceed 122,740 metric tons.

Since 2006, reduction landings of menhaden from the bay have never exceeded the cap of 109,020 metric tons.

A copy of Addendum IV is available at asmfc.org, or contact Braddock Spear, senior FMP coordinator for policy, at 202-289-6400 or bspear@asmfc.org.