Saving Seafood

Law

Federal judge to allow states’ offshore wind lawsuit to proceed

June 19, 2025 — A federal judge on Wednesday issued a tentative ruling, partially allowing and partially denying the Trump administration’s motion to dismiss the multistate lawsuit against its freeze on offshore wind permitting and leasing — a consequential case for the industry and the coastal states relying on it to supply electricity amid growing grid demand in the coming decades.

Judge William G. Young ruled that the states have standing to bring this case, and that the permitting freeze – which has been given no deadline or timeline – is essentially a final agency decision (as opposed to an ongoing review) and as such, can be challenged by the states.

Still, he continues to express concern as to how a lifting of the freeze would consequently lead to government agencies issuing the outstanding permits to wind developers. (In the words of the federal government in its filing, “they would not” automatically issue.)

For example, SouthCoast Wind received final project approval, but it still needs three federal permits, which were previously set to issue in March, before construction can start.

The lawsuit will tentatively proceed to a motion for summary judgment in September, for which the federal government must submit administrative records to the court that document its decision to implement the wind order by July 2.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

South Carolina shrimpers sue local restaurants over shrimp fraud

June 18, 2025 — The South Carolina Shrimpers Association has sued roughly 40 restaurants in the U.S. state, claiming they were falsely presenting the imported shrimp they sell as locally sourced.

“It’s illegal to say that a product is from South Carolina when it’s not, and similarly, federal law prohibits the mislabeling of the origins of seafood. It’s simply illegal at a state and federal level,” South Carolina Shrimpers Association Attorney Gedney Howe said, according to local news outlet WCSC-TV.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Commercial fishers, conservation groups sue to block Empire Wind offshore energy development

June 16, 2025 –A coalition of commercial fishers, conservation groups, seafood processors, and a local mayor has filed an emergency motion seeking to block the development of Empire Wind, an offshore wind project planned off the coast of the U.S. state of New York.

In their suit, the groups claim that the wind energy operations will cause substantial harm to the commercial fishing sector while threatening endangered whales and damaging the seafloor.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Opponents seek injunction to halt Empire Wind

June 13, 2025 — Commercial fishermen and opponents of the Empire Wind project asked a federal court to immediately halt pile driving and construction activity, weeks after the Trump administration allowed construction to resume.

The coalition, which filed a lawsuit June 3 in U.S. District Court, returned to ask for a preliminary injunction June 12, according to the group Protect Our Coast New Jersey.

Energy company Equinor would build an array of 54 turbines on its 80,000-acre federal lease near the approaches to New York Harbor. The plan dates back to December 2016 when Equinor (then known as Statoil) first won a lease sale by the federal Bureau of Ocean energy Management.

Commercial fishing advocates have long opposed wind projects in the area, citing nearby fishing grounds like the Mud Hole and Cholera Bank with historic mixed trawl fisheries, and sea scallops, the Mid-Atlantic’s most valuable fishery.

Protect Our Coast New Jersey contends the renewed construction poses “imminent, irreversible harm to marine life, fishing grounds, the seafood supply chain, and coastal economies.”

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Trump bid to shrink monuments could prompt big legal battle

June 13, 2025 –Armed with a new legal directive arguing that presidents have the power to abolish national monuments created by their White House predecessors, President Donald Trump is expected to move to eradicate or shrink sites — and trigger a legal fight that could find its way to the Supreme Court.

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) published an opinion Tuesday overturning nearly 90-year-old guidance that said presidents could not revoke national monument status.

Lanora Pettit, who serves as deputy assistant attorney general, wrote that the Antiquities Act of 1906 not only allows the president to set aside existing public lands to protect areas of cultural, historical or scientific interest, but also grants the power to rescind existing sites that “either never were or no longer are deserving of the Act’s protections.”

That opinion — which serves as legal advice to the executive branch, rather than a binding court ruling — could set the stage for a fresh legal battle over the 119-year-old law. Critics of the Antiquities Act have urged Trump to take the fight to the nation’s highest court and ensure the law is curtailed. The administration has been taking a look at monuments that could be targeted, focused on sites with the potential for mineral extraction.

“It’s quite obvious this opinion was done to try and justify something they plan to do going forward,” said Mark Squillace, the Raphael J. Moses professor of natural resources law at the University of Colorado Law School.

“That’s not to say the court might not agree with the opinion,” he added. “The court may be inclined to try and pull back on the Antiquities Act.”

Debate over the Antiquities Act tends to divide along political lines, with Republicans and other critics arguing that Democratic presidents have abused the law to set aside sprawling swaths of land that could otherwise be open to extractive industries, grazing or other uses.

Opponents have long seized on language in the law that requires a monument to “be confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”

But proponents point to decades of legal precedent supporting presidential prerogative to create monuments of any size, which dates back to President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1908 creation of what was then the 800,000-acre Grand Canyon National Monument.

The first Trump administration made clear it aligned with critics, initiating a massive review of monuments created since 1996 under then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

Read the full article at E&E News

Local, regional groups sue to halt Empire Wind project

June 13, 2025 — The U.S. government and several entities involved in the offshore Empire Wind 1 turbine project are being sued by environmental and fisheries groups seeking to halt construction, after an April stop work order on Empire Wind 1 was lifted by the U.S. Department of the Interior on May 19.

The plaintiffs in the suit, filed on June 3, hail from New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, and include groups like Protect Our Coast NJ, Clean Ocean Action Inc., Massachusetts-based ACK for Whales, the Fisherman’s Dock Cooperative in Point Pleasant Beach and Miss Belmar, Inc.

The suit alleges that the rescindment of the stop work order is “incomplete and failed to safeguard the ecology of our seacoast and the livelihoods it supports,” the plaintiffs’ lead counsel, Bruce Afran, said in a press release obtained by The Ocean Star last week.

“President Trump halted the Empire Wind project due to the Biden Administration’s failure to adequately assess the environmental harm posed by these offshore wind turbines and the impact on our coastal fishing industry,” he said. “None of those critical issues have been resolved. We are asking the federal court to reinstate the stop work order because the project’s federal approvals were incomplete and failed to safeguard the ecology of our seacoast and the livelihoods it supports.”

A representative from Equinor, the Norwegian multinational company that owns the Empire Wind project, did not respond to a request for comment by press time Thursday.

The plaintiffs contend that the project, which would place 54 wind turbines approximately 20 miles east of Long Branch in a triangular area of water known as the New York-New Jersey Bight, would cause environmental disruptions “in one of the Atlantic’s most ecologically sensitive areas.”

Read the full article at Star News Group

 

Fishermen, Environmental Groups Seek Injunction to Stop Empire Wind Project

June 12, 2025 — The following was released by Protect Our Coast New Jersey:

Wrecking Ball in the Water: Fishermen, Processors, and Environmental Groups Seek Injunction to Stop Foreign-Owned “Death Star” Empire Wind Project

Today, a coalition of commercial fishermen, seafood processors, fish buyers, and environmental organizations from New Jersey to Massachusetts filed an emergency motion in U.S. District Court to stop construction of the Empire Wind 1 offshore wind project—citing imminent, irreversible harm to marine life, fishing grounds, the seafood supply chain, and coastal economies.

The motion seeks a preliminary injunction to immediately halt pile driving and construction activities. Plaintiffs argue the project threatens endangered whales, destroys seafloor habitat, and cripples a multi-generational American industry that provides food, jobs, and economic stability across the East Coast.

“To allow Empire Wind to continue construction is to abandon us fishermen and our coastal communities who have, for generations, fed our great country and kept local economies thriving,” said Captain Shawn Machie of the F/V Capt. John in New Bedford, MA. “To turn a blind eye to the marine mammal deaths and destruction of ocean habitats is careless and shows a greed unlike any I’ve ever encountered.”

The lawsuit (Protect Our Coast NJ et al. v. United States of America et al., Case No. 3:25-cv-06890) also challenges the project’s legality under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), as Empire Wind is controlled by Equinor-a company majority-owned by the Kingdom of Norway. U.S. law bars foreign governments from holding offshore energy leases. The Empire Wind 1 project was fast-tracked and approved under the Biden administration, which granted key permits and lease rights before leaving office, enabling a foreign state-owned company to destroy American waters so Norway can profit, despite widespread warnings from fishermen, scientists, and coastal communities.

“The Fisherman’s Dock Cooperative in Point Pleasant Beach is one of the oldest and most successful fishing cooperatives in the country,” said Gus Lovgren, a generational fisherman and Coop spokesman. “For over 70 years, we’ve passed down our heritage and our commitment to sustainable fishing. But Empire Wind is a wrecking ball. It’s not just destroying our ocean, it’s destroying our future. It just took away our tomorrow.”

The project would install 54 massive turbines and dump more than 3 billion pounds of rock onto the seafloor, a burial-level disruption that threatens vital habitat for scallops, squid, fluke, and other species. The plaintiffs warn that industrial ships like the Thialf, a foreign mega-construction vessel dubbed the “Death Star of the Atlantic” are being brought in to build what would never be allowed in Norway’s own fishing waters.

“The ocean teems with life, especially in summer when marine animals reproduce and care for their young,” said Cindy Zipf, Executive Director of Clean Ocean Action. “Impacts from pile driving are just horrendous–the powerful blasts and concussions disturb, harm, and kill marine life. This destructive impact must be stopped, now.”

The lawsuit also accuses the Department of the Interior of violating federal law when it abruptly lifted a stop-work order on April 16 without addressing the very environmental and safety risks that prompted it.

“There are fewer than 350 North Atlantic right whales left on the planet,” said Amy DiSibio, board member of ACK for Whales. “Empire Wind was sited directly in their migratory path. This project should never have been permitted—and it must be stopped now.”

Last week, a worker was electrocuted during Empire Wind-related construction—raising urgent new concerns about oversight, safety failures, and the reckless pace of development.

The plaintiffs are calling on the court to act now, to protect the ocean, protect the people who depend on it, and stop a foreign government from turning U.S. waters into an industrial dumping ground.

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Media Contacts:
Bruce Afran, Esq., Attorney – bruceafran@aol.com | 609-454-7435
Robin Shaffer, Protect Our Coast New Jersey – protectourcoastnj@gmail.com | 703-861-2809
Cindy Zipf, Clean Ocean Action – zipf@cleanoceanaction.org | 732-996-4613
Amy DiSibio, ACK for Whales – cdisibio@comcast.net | 908-451-6072

List of plaintiffs:

1. Protect Our Coast New Jersey
2. ACK for Whales
3. Clean Ocean Action
4. American Seafood (Stonington & New London, CT)
5. Belford Seafood Co-op (Belford, NJ)
6. Miss Belmar Inc. (Miss Belmar Whale Watch, Belmar, NJ)
7. Fisherman’s Dock Cooperative (Point Pleasant Beach, NJ)
8. Heritage Fisheries (F/V Heritage, Westerly, RI)
9. Long Island Commercial Fishing Association (Montauk, NY)
10. Shawn Machie (F/V Capt. John, New Bedford, MA)
11. Mackenzie Paige LLC (F/V Mackenzie Page, Stonington, CT)
12. NAT. W. Inc. (F/V Tradition, Westerly, RI)
13. David Aripotch, Old Squaw Fisheries, Inc. (F/V Caitlin & Mairead, Montauk, NY)
14. Mayor John Peterson, Jr. (Seaside Park, NJ)
15. Seafreeze Shoreside (North Kingstown, RI)
16. Lund’s Fisheries, Inc. (Cape May, NJ)

References:

https://www.offshore-mag.com/special-reports/news/55296154/reports-crew-member-dies-while-working-on-empire-wind-project

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xa5lp70yWSWeWkIQJqnIOnuWBgipDFvO/view?usp=drive_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f3IAuUTaEF-7vmZxJ1e8K7vbjBCA4puy/view?usp=drive_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LG2ctvRnUoTg_5DMVf7uPioQRuj9VIcv/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sLsBE9-73BZyDUzUos98vNbjYeN83Q6j/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AgOfr4j_b9_s3cbKiv1Ox9Rk6z3zWvrA/view?usp=drivesdk

US district court judge dismisses lawsuit against Mary Mahoney’s, Quality Poultry and Seafood

June 12, 2025 — A U.S. federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit against Biloxi, Mississippi, U.S.A.-based seafood wholesaler and retailer Quality Poultry and Seafood (QPS) and Mary Mahoney’s Old French House – a Biloxi restaurant QPS supplied with seafood.

Todd McCain sued Mary Mahoney’s Old French House and QPS in August 2024, claiming he “purchased what defendants fraudulently marketed and represented as high-priced premium local snapper and red snapper,” but which was actually imported fish, at Mary Mahoney’s on three occasions.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEW JERSEY: NJ Commercial Fisheries Sue Trump Admin. For Allowing Wind Farm To Proceed

June 11, 2025 — Last Tuesday, multiple New Jersey fishermen and other groups — including Belford Seafood Co-op in Middletown — sued U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum for his sudden reversal to allow construction on Empire Wind farm to proceed.

You can read the lawsuit here.

Empire Wind will be a very large (80,000 acres of ocean) wind farm 19 miles off Long Branch, a distance too far out for turbines to be visible from shore. Empire Wind is owned by Norwegian renewable energy company Equinor, which has a contract with New York state to provide electricity to homes on Long Island.

On April 16, Burgum issued a halt-work order to Empire Wind, citing President Trump’s ban on all new offshore wind development, which Trump announced on his very first day in office.

But then just one month later, on May 20, the Trump administration reversed course and lifted the order. Reuters reported last week Equinor was allowed to proceed because of a deal Burgum and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reached where she agreed to allow canceled plans for a natural gas pipeline in New York state to be revived. In return, Empire Wind could resume work it already started, which includes laying rock on the sea floor.

The June 3 lawsuit seeks to have the stop-work order reinstated. In addition to Belford Seafood Co-op, many familiar Jersey Shore names and commercial fishing companies signed on, including:

Clean Ocean Action (the same group that hosts beach clean-ups every spring); Fisherman’s Dock Cooperative in Point Pleasant Beach; the “Miss Belmar” fishing and sightseeing boat, which docks in Neptune under Captain Alan Shinn; Lund’s Fisheries in Cape May and Seaside Park Mayor John Peterson, a Republican.

Commercial fishermen in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Long Island also joined the lawsuit.

The lawsuit sues the United States of America, Interior Secretary Burgum, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, under acting director Walter Cruickshank, Equinor and the kingdom of Norway.

Read the full article at the Patch

Aquinnah Tribe, fishermen file new wind lawsuit

June 9, 2025 — The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), along with environmental groups and fishing charter businesses, filed a new lawsuit last week against federal agencies that approved two offshore wind projects 20 nautical miles south of the Island.

Concern over impacts to the marine environment and mammals, especially the North Atlantic right whale, as well as adverse visual and cultural effects in areas of tribal significance from New England Wind 1 and 2 pushed the Tribe to join the lawsuit.

“We joined the lawsuit because this issue is so very important to us. Like all the other plaintiffs, we as individual Tribal Members and our Tribe as a whole are being harmed by these giant wind farms, making an industrial park out of our waters,” the Tribe’s Chairwoman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais said in a statement. “However unlike the other plaintiffs, the negative impacts to us go back as far as time immemorial and as deep as to who we are as Aquinnah Wampanoag People; harming our culture, traditions and spirituality, which connects us to the lands, waters, sky and all living things. Since individually we weren’t being listened to, we hope that maybe now with this lawsuit our collective voices will be heard.”

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it approved the two offshore wind projects in July last year, following authorization by the Department of the Interior in a Record of Decision on April 2, 2024. Together, both projects, which will include up to 129 turbines, are projected to have the capacity to produce up to 2,600 megawatts of renewable energy and could power more than 900,000 homes.

But plaintiffs — which include Nantucket-based nonprofit ACK for Whales, Rhode Island-based nonprofit Green Oceans, a group of charter fishing companies, and individual fishermen — argue that government agencies violated several federal laws in authorization of the offshore wind projects. The case was filed in federal district court in Washington D.C.

Read the full article at The Martha’s Vineyard Times