The Moss Point fishmeal factory is known locally as the “pogie plant” (the colloquial term for menhaden).1 A neighbor described the plant’s smell as like “a can of tuna, open, left inside your truck for four days in 100 degree heat” in a forum post in 2015.2
The factory has a history of dangerous conditions. On April 9, 2012, a 24-year-old worker named Christopher Herbert was killed at Omega Protein plant in Moss Point, Mississippi after getting caught in a rotating screw converter.3 Federal investigators subsequently deemed the accident as “avoidable.”4 Federal labor authorities issued 25 OSHA citations, of which 21 were classified as “serious.” Federal authorities fined the plant $79,000.5 On July 28, 2014, 25-year-old Jerry Lee Taylor and three other workers were repairing one of the metal towers used to store fish oil. The tank was supposed to be empty. Instead, it contained methane and hydrogen sulfide gases, which exploded.6 The blast was so powerful that it scattered debris more than 85 yards away, and blew the cap off the tank onto a nearby building, according to the Moss Point Fire Chief Tommy Posey.7 Taylor was killed while the other three workers were injured. Federal labor authorities investigated and eventually fined four companies $187,260. OSHA officials concluded that two temporary workers hired to cut and weld pipes at the Moss Point plant had no training to recognize the potentially fatal gases in the tanks.8 Families of the dead and injured workers sued Omega Protein and its sub-contractors for negligence, resulting in confidential settlements.9
Between 2020 and 2025, Omega Protein’s Moss Point Facility was the subject of 10 “informal enforcement actions” for environmental violations including of the Clean Water Act.10
This facility was certified under the MarinTrust Global Standard for Responsible Supply between 2023 and 2026.11 This program requires plants holding this certification to comply with national environmental legislation, a standard that seems to have been violated according to research by The Outlaw Ocean Project.12
When asked for comment about issues relating to this plant, the spokesperson for Omega Protein, Bob Vanasse, said: “there are numerous publicly available statements and press releases that address the issues.”13