Management & Regulation Archives

NMFS planning for offshore aquaculture areas

December 4, 2020 — Now in the early stages of planning, NMFS officials are seeking public comments on the potential for “aquaculture opportunity areas” off southern California and the Gulf of Mexico.

It’s an early step in what will be a three-year process to identify those areas and develop “programmatic” environmental impact statements, agency workers said in a online virtual public information session Dec. 3.

The California and gulf areas outlined so far by NMFS for study will not entirely become set aside for aquaculture, stressed Kristy Beard, a NMFS fishery policy analyst.

“Aquaculture opportunity areas are about spatial analysis and environmental analysis,” said Beard. The process aims to maximize compatibility of aquaculture with other uses, including wild fisheries, navigation, commercial activities and military missions, she and other speakers explained.

That’s one reason it makes sense to start with the Gulf of Mexico and California, said Beard. There is already a lot of long-existing spatial analysis and environmental data that can be mined and help run the aquaculture planning process.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Vineyard Wind pauses U.S. permitting over switch to GE turbines

December 3, 2020 — Vineyard Wind, which is developing the first major U.S. offshore wind farm, has temporarily withdrawn the project from the federal permitting process so the company can incorporate turbines from a new supplier, General Electric Co, in its design.

The move, which requires a technical review that will last several weeks, will almost certainly delay a federal decision over whether to approve the project until after President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20.

Calling the decision to pause the permitting process “difficult,” Vineyard Wind Chief Executive Lars Pedersen said in a statement issued on Tuesday that he hoped it would help avoid further delays.

Read the full story at Reuters

Industry-Funded Monitoring Coverage in the Atlantic Herring Fishery will Begin in April 2021

December 3, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries intends to begin selecting vessels with Category A or B herring permits for industry-funded monitoring (IFM) coverage on April 1, 2021, unless ongoing health mandates and travel restrictions cause a further delay. Beginning IFM coverage at the start of the 2021 IFM year (April 1, 2021 – March 31, 2022) will provide us time to resume the onsite and field-based activities necessary to train observers, and develop applications to successfully implement this program. Also beginning April 1, 2021, midwater trawl vessel owners will have the option of purchasing additional observer coverage to satisfy the requirement of carrying an observer to access Groundfish Closed Areas.

In the meantime, vessels are still required to adhere to all Pre-Trip Notification System (PTNS) requirements for the herring fishery. For complete information on notification and reporting requirements, please see the Notification, Reporting, and Monitoring Requirements for the Atlantic Herring Fishery webpage.

Some herring vessels have the option of being issued an exempted fishing permit (EFP) to use electronic monitoring and portside sampling instead of at-sea monitoring coverage to satisfy IFM requirements in 2021. We will work with the herring fleet by the end of 2020 to determine who is interested in being issued an EFP.

There are currently four companies approved to provide IFM services to herring vessels. Additionally, the agency has contracted Saltwater, Inc. to supply electronic monitoring services for vessels issued an EFP. Outreach will continue through 2020 in support of the program to ensure that the industry understands its requirements.

Read the full release here

Vineyard Wind will use GE turbines for its massive project off Martha’s Vineyard

December 2, 2020 — Vineyard Wind LLC said Tuesday that it has picked General Electric to provide the turbines for what would be the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, a major step forward for the long-delayed project.

The wind farm developer, a joint venture owned by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, had originally planned to install turbines from the manufacturer MHI Vestas in waters about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

But the federal permitting delays that have beset the $3 billion project and the expiration of a contract with MHI Vestas prompted Vineyard Wind to reimagine the layout of the wind farm. Instead of 84 towers, Vineyard Wind’s first project will consist of 62 of Boston-based GE’s Haliade-X towers, the most powerful offshore-wind turbines on the market.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Vineyard Wind pause may kick project decision to Biden admin

December 2, 2020 — On the heels of another federal permitting delay, Vineyard Wind announced Tuesday that it is temporarily withdrawing its construction and operations plan from further review by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management but the company says its pause won’t delay the planned start of clean power generation.

The announcement came in conjunction with news that the 800-megawatt offshore wind project plans to use GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X wind turbine generators when it begins construction, which it called “industry leading” and “the most powerful in operation to date.”

Project developers told BOEM on Tuesday that they plan to launch their own “final technical review associated with the inclusion of the Haliade-X into the final project design” and have asked for a pause in the federal review, which had been expected to be completed this month before recently being pushed to January.

“While the decision to pause the ongoing process was difficult, taking this step now avoids potentially more federal delays and we are convinced it will provide the shortest overall timeline for delivering the project as planned,” Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen said. “We intend to restart the BOEM process from where we left off as soon as we complete the final review.”

Read the full story at WWLP

Layers of regulations to protect European seas ‘not working,’ audit finds

December 2, 2020 — Europe is failing to protect its oceans, despite having policies in place to safeguard its marine environment, according to a report published by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) on Nov. 26.

The ECA, an independent institution within the European Union (EU), looked at marine protection efforts between 2018 and 2020 to see if existing policies within the EU framework were addressing key pressures on marine biodiversity and habitats. What the report ultimately found was that the EU had not taken sufficient action to restore its ailing seas, or to keep fishing at sustainable levels, especially in the Mediterranean.

“It’s pretty grim,” a member of the audit team told Mongabay in an interview. “Europe does have a framework in place, but what is there isn’t working.”

There is an intricate web of rules, laws and directives to manage the EU’s marine environment, including the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), designed to regulate fishing fleets and conserve fish stocks; the Birds and Habitats Directives (BHDs), which aim to protect threatened species and habitats through a network of protected areas; and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) that provides an overarching marine policy meant to integrate fishing and environmental regulations. While these policies appear adequate, they’re not being put into practice, according to the report.

“It all looks great on paper,” the auditor said. “It all looks very sensible, but the reality is that when you try to apply [them] there are gaps.”

In some instances, policies even seem to be at odds with each other. For example, many EU member states have established marine protected areas (MPAs) in their territorial waters as per the conservation commitments set out in the MSFD and the BHDs, which allows them to impose fishing restrictions on vessels owned and operated by their own citizens. However, the CFP gives EU member states the right to fish in other member states’ waters, even within other countries’ MPAs. To ban other EU members from fishing within these MPAs, nations would need to engage in multilateral discussions under the CFP, a process that could take many years.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Feds Push Vineyard Wind Decision Into 2021

December 1, 2020 — The Vineyard Wind project has been delayed again.

The project, which is poised to be the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the country, is already more than a year behind schedule and now will have to wait about a month longer. A federal decision on final permitting for the project had been expected by Dec. 18, 2020, but the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management updated its timeline in recent weeks and now expects a final decision by Jan. 15, 2021.

“BOEM received more than 13,000 comments on the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Vineyard Wind,” a spokesman for the agency told the News Service in an email. “BOEM continues to work with cooperating agencies in the review of these comments. An updated schedule is posted on BOEM’s website.”

A final federal decision on the 800-megawatt offshore wind farm had initially been expected by Aug. 16, 2019 but BOEM sent shockwaves through the offshore wind industry in August 2019 when it announced a plan to withhold the final environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind while it studies the wider impacts of an offshore wind sector that is hoping to ramp up in Northeast and mid-Atlantic waters also used by the fishing industry.

Read the full story at WBUR

$980K aid available to fishermen

December 1, 2020 — Gov. Ralph DLG Torres announced yesterday the allocation of $980,000 in CARES Act funds to assist commercial and subsistence fishermen in the CNMI—estimated to be in the thousands—who’ve been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Torres said at a press conference that the money is available after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration approved the CNMI’s “spending plan” for the money it got from the Coronavirus Aid, Recovery, and Economic Security Act.

Torres said all resident fishermen and qualified fishing businesses who sustained losses are eligible.

Qualifying businesses refer to commercial fishing businesses, charter-for-hire fishing businesses, qualified aquaculture businesses, fish processors, and dealers.

All eligible applicants will receive assistance based on an approved formula that will determine the amounts of help for businesses and individual fishermen.

Application distribution will begin tomorrow, Wednesday, and the deadline to submit applications is March 1, 2021.

The distribution of assistance checks will be made directly via mail from the NOAA Hawaii Office to approved businesses and fishermen between May 3 and June 16, 2021.

Read the full story at the Saipan Tribune

New tool tracks progress of fishery management worldwide

December 1, 2020 — A new tool has been released in order to provide an evidence-based diagnostic tool for analyzing how a country’s fisheries management system is performing.

The Fisheries Governance Tool allows anyone using it – from fishery managers to funders, investors, and key stakeholders – to get a comprehensive look at how well a country’s a fisheries management system is doing. The tool allows users to track progress against sustainability goals, identify gaps, and more.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Extended: Slow Speed Zone Southeast of New York City to Protect Right Whales

November 30, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In Effect Through December 15

NOAA Fisheries is extending a Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction zone), southeast of New York City.

This Slow Zone was first triggered on November 17, when the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute acoustic monitoring buoy detected right whales in the New York Bight, New York. The buoy detected right whales again on November 30.

Mariners, please go around this areas or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

Southeast of New York City Slow Zone is in effect through December 15.

40 41 N
40 01 N
073 03 W
073 55 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones and dynamic management areas currently in effect.

Read the full release here