Virginia Limits On Shad Fishing
March 7th, 2006 by Fishing admin
Virginia Eases Limits On Shad Fishing - The Virginia Marine Resources Commission has voted to slightly lift its 12-year moratorium on shad fishing, despite concerns from some scientists, conservationists and other state officials.
The regulatory commission voted last week that beginning immediately, and only this year, commercial fishers can keep a limited “bycatch” of American shad. That includes those accidentally netted in spawning grounds, in the York, Rappahannock and James rivers.
Under a compromise, only a handful of licensed netters with a history of fishing in inland waters can work in the spawning grounds. They can keep five shad per day. The action was adopted as an emergency regulation that amended a measure, passed in January, barring watermen from taking fish in the spawning grounds.
Professor John Olney at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science says the commissioners, “have regressed from something that started out as pretty progressive.”
Olney says that shad stocks continue to struggle in the lower Chesapeake Bay.