[Broad Bill]

What bewilders me more than anything else with fisheries management and Virginia in this particular case is their insistence of focusing only on short term greed and economic impacts while completely ignoring long term consequences. If the fishery collapses or there's a moratorium, the economic impact will far outweigh a management plan that attempts to balance both over a manageable period. It's a formula for failure in every aspect. If we retain status quo regulations, it's simply a matter of time before the Chesapeake becomes a barren oxygen deprived polluted wasteland it's almost at already, the menhaden stock will disappear creating major consequences in the oceans food chain, Cooke Inc. only then will be forced to look elsewhere when there's nowhere else to look, Virginia fish houses will be shut causing hundreds if not thousands of jobs to be lost locally and up and down the coast. Absolutely perplexing.