Atlantic menhaden weigh less than a pound, and measure little more than a foot long. But this small fish has big consequences for the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. A bill introduced in the Virginia General Assembly is looking to study the Atlantic menhaden population in the Chesapeake. There’s little data on Atlantic menhaden populations in the Bay, and fishing and conservation groups say that’s the problem. Jaclyn Higgins, with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, says menhaden populations aren’t well-researched in the Bay, despite studies on the species along the entire Atlantic coast.

"There were a couple studies kind of done throughout the last 20 years, but nothing super comprehensive and nothing that would allow us to say this is the amount of menhaden that we would consider healthy for the Chesapeake Bay. Really, we don’t know anything about Chesapeake Bay menhaden."

The bill would provide three million dollars for the study of menhaden populations in the Chesapeake. The research would look at if reduction fishing, that pulls millions of pounds of menhaden out of the Bay each year, is leading to local depletion.

But why is such a small fish so important to the Chesapeake Bay environment? Well, Higgins says Atlantic menhaden are a keystone species for the rest of the Chesapeake food chain.

 "They make up the base of the marine food chain along the Atlantic, but in particular, in the Chesapeake Bay. They are a primary food source for striped bass. Striped bass are really reliant on menhaden as a food source in those juvenile and adult stages while they’re in the bay. "

Studies indicate that 30-percent of the Striped Mouth Bass’s diet is Atlantic mendhaden.

 Atlantic menhaden weigh less than a pound, and measure little more than a foot long. But this small fish has big consequences for the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.