Catching Menhaden on a "Snapper Rig"

Commercial fishermen have been harvesting menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay for 140 years. Today, with the catch at a 54-year low, only one menhaden processing company and a few smaller operations still harvest the fish in the Bay. A fleet of ten large vessels catch fish for the Houston-based Omega Protein factory in Reedville, Virginia, which compresses them for industrial uses. Between three and five smaller, privately owned "snapper rigs" harvest menhaden to be sold as bait. One of these snapper rigs is the FV Hush Puppy, owned by the Rogers family, also of Reedville. In these photographs, Captain Fred Rogers and his crew work a "purse seine" net to harvest a school of menhaden and bring its catch back to shore. Photographs taken in 2002 by Harold Anderson for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.