A group representing Virginia’s seafood harvesters is looking to recruit a dozen similar organizations to potentially sue Virginia or the federal government for failing to halt the Chesapeake Bay’s environmental degradation, the group’s president said Thursday.

The Virginia Watermen’s Association has not decided whether to mount the lawsuit over the pollution that has dwindled harvests — and hurt their livelihoods — and members won’t decide for a few weeks while they try to bring together 12 other Virginia watermen groups, said President Dale Taylor, whose group discussed the issue at a meeting Wednesday night.