Buy Fish Oil??? Here is what you are supporting!

     Last Saturday we were out on the water around the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay when we started seeing a few floating fish. As we followed the ones and twos floating on the surface like a Hansel and Gretel pebble trail it led us to a more disturbing scene. The numbers increased and soon we were driving by THOUSANDS of dead menhaden.  This was the everyday practice of the most hated company on the Chesapeake, Omega Protein!

Miles Long String of Dead Menhaden 

 

       We came across the Trail of dead wasted fish out in the middle of the lower bay... this picture was taken by another fellow angler off Cape Henry around the same time on the same day. That is about a 15 mile gap between us and I have a strong feeling that we could have continued to follow this string the whole way.  The local newspaper made it out to sound like everything was hunky dory and downplayed it as a few dead fish so I wanted to share the REAL story here. THIS IS WHERE YOUR FISH OIL PILLS COME FROM! This was a confirmed net dump of menhaden by OMEGA PROTEIN because they had caught over their limit. None of these fish lived to swim another day yet they do not count towards their catch limits. They were not fined or even reprimanded by Virginia Marine Resource Commission either. Think about that next time they are checking your fish to the millimeter to make sure they are legal catches.

He is a link to the attempt of a news article covering this event.

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/06/commercial-vessel-may-be-tied-dead-menhaden

Here is what the locals think about it.....

http://www.tidalfish.com/forums/showthread.php/398130-Thousands-of-dead-fish

Omega Protein has been flying around in planes, marking fishing for their boats to encircle with giant nets and catching whole schools not leaving behind any to reproduce. I would also like to mention that many other non-taget fish are caught and often die in the process. It is a very thing going on here in Virginia waters and politicians recieve HUGE compaign donations to look the other way...