If only menhaden wrote campaign checks
editorial, The Virginian-Pilot , April 10, 2006
 Campaign contributions can have a corrosive power in politics. Money
often "encourages" (if it did more, it'd be a bribe) politicians to do
things that otherwise would be impossible to justify.
Take the little silvery fish with the big problem, better known as
menhaden.
Humans don't eat menhaden, but other fish do. They live in such vast
schools that when they're left alone, they help clean the Chesapeake
Bay.
The species' big problem is that it's also a good raw material for
industrial fish oil and meal. The company that gathers menhaden like
fishy ore is called Omega Protein, and it runs a processing facility in
Reedville.
Omega's factory-fishing operations are removing enough menhaden from
Virginia waters that it has forced fishermen and environmentalists to
band together in hopes of limiting its catch, to protect the sports fish
population and the Bay itself.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has recommended limiting
Omega's harvest in the Chesapeake at 105,783 metric tons each year.
Omega contends that the cap isn't based on good science and that
regulators should wait until studies confirm its necessity, essentially
the same stalling tactic used to delay oyster and crab curbs until those
populations crashed.
The menhaden cap needs to be implemented by the General Assembly. After
counting $23,500 worth of donations from Omega last year, Richmond
declined.
In the House of Delegates subcommittee where the implementing bills
died, the Virginia Public Access Project shows contributions for
chairwoman Kathy Byron ($500), for Robert Orrock ($500), Ben Cline
($500), Stephen Shannon ($500) and Robert Wittman ($1,000).
The committee's decision was supported by an opinion from Attorney
General Bob McDonnell, who said that the fisheries commission's
recommendation wasn't binding on Virginia. McDonnell's campaign received
$1,000 from Omega.
Gov. Tim Kaine (he got $2,000 from Omega, which gave his November
opponent, Jerry Kilgore, $6,500 over a couple of years) now has his
hands firmly tied. For technical reasons, his office says, Kaine can't
implement the cap himself. So Omega is essentially free to take as many
menhaden as it can catch this season.
The problem is that in the absence of state action , the federal
government might ban all menhaden fishing in the Bay. The company,
obviously, has made a bet that the feds won't do that.
This issue points out the ridiculous lengths that Richmond will go to
protect a single campaign contributor. Menhaden is the only saltwater
fish species - the only one - regulated by the Assembly instead of the
Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
The VMRC is probably more likely to rationally consider all arguments
for stewardship of the menhaden fisheries, rather than the single
argument that apparently controlled the General Assembly's
deliberations: Fish don't write checks.
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