Under a bill overwhelmingly approved by the state General Assembly and signed by Gov. George Allen, Virginia next year will withdraw from the commission that jointly manages fish species that migrate along the Atlantic coast. The action targets legislation passed by Congress in 1993 that gave the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the federal government more powerful roles in managing migratory fish species. The bill was sponsored by Del. W. Tayloe Murphy Jr., D-Westmoreland County, who has raised constitutional objections to the federal law.
Critics say the Virginia vote is a blow to cooperative fisheries management.
Proponents of the 1993 law argue that joint fisheries management is needed to keep individual states from taking so many fish that they deplete the entire coastal stock, as happened to the striped bass in the late 1970s and early 1980s. We have been poorly managing those fisheries, with all the states acting parochially. Recent history has proven that the states simply have to work together in a coordinated fashion or we are not going to have any fisheries. Like all state compacts, it was approved by Congress. In fact, he said, such a change should have to be ratified by all compact participants.