The Omega Protein company has become a target for Greenpeace. According to the Greenpeace website, the environmental group criticizes Omega Protein for its use of menhaden:
" . . . much of Omega’s fishmeal is sold to feed livestock or fish farms - uses that harm marine ecosystems and threaten fishing communities. In fact, one of the main uses for Omega’s fishmeal is as chicken feed, adding to the high-nutrient wastes already choking many bays and estuaries – including the Chesapeake. Runoff from chicken farms is also connected to the outbreak of toxic algae in the mid-Atlantic region. Omega fishmeal is also used as food for large-scale fish farms, which privatize the oceans and threaten wild fish stocks and traditional fisheries through pollution and parasitic infestations, among other dangers. Most of the remaining fishmeal goes into pet food".
Greenpeace has started a campaign against Omega Protein and urges public action to "help put an end to Omega’s rotten fishing practices".
The company said that in its Reedville, Virginia-based operations, Omega fishes for and uses Atlantic menhaden, which Federal and state fisheries scientists have determined is a healthy and sustainably fished resource. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which manages the coastal menhaden fishery, is required by law to base management measures on the best scientific information available.
