Saving Seafood

Management & Regulation

Vineyard Wind Dealt Setbacks By Local, U.S. Regulators

July 15, 2019 — The company hoping to build a planned wind farm off Massachusetts is appealing to the state after the project hit snags with local and federal regulators.

The Edgartown Conservation Commission on Martha’s Vineyard voted this week to deny Vineyard Wind’s application to lay transmission cables that would pass about a mile east of Edgartown.

Separately, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has delayed issuing a final environmental impact statement that would help clear the way for construction of the 84-turbine, 800-megawatt wind farm.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WBUR

Latest stab at Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization excludes stickiest provision

July 15, 2019 — The Magnuson-Stevens (MSA) reauthorization bill that Alaska Republican Don Young and New Jersey Democrat Jeff Van Drew introduced last week in the US House of Representatives may have a higher mountain to climb in the 116th Congress than it did in the 115th, but it’ll be doing the hike with at least one major weight off its back.

The Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act (H.R. 3697)  does not contain controversial language that would assert that MSA is the top federal statutory authority over the management of the fisheries, giving it power over the Antiquities Act, National Marine Sanctuaries Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, confirms a review of the bill by Undercurrent News with the help of sources.

That was the language originally contained in HR 200, the bill introduced by Young in January 2017. Following much consternation, especially by ocean conservation groups, the Alaska lawmaker put forth an amendment to have it stricken before receiving a final 222- 93 voteto approve the legislation in July 2018.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

VINEYARD WIND: Notice to Mariners and Fishermen No. 15

July 15, 2019 — The following was released by Vineyard Wind:

This notice replaces Notice No. 14. We wanted to let you know that Vineyard Wind will begin geological surveys on July 9th. The estimated duration is approximately 10 days, ending on July 19th (weather dependent). Surveys will take place nearshore in Centerville Harbor. Please see the full notice to fishermen and mariners here.

We encourage fishermen who may be working in the survey area to contact the fishery liaison.

This survey will gather data on the subfloor conditions that will assist in characterizing the subsurface conditions along the proposed offshore horizontal directional drilling (HDD) route.

Vineyard Wind is committed to communicating and working with the local fishermen in the region during all stages of development of the proposed offshore wind farm.

If you have any questions, please contact Erik Peckar, Fishery Liaison via email at erik@vineyardpower.com or via cell phone at 703-244-9585.

Maine lawmakers ask Trump to intervene against lobster trap rules

July 12, 2019 — All four members of Maine’s US congressional delegation are asking president Donald Trump to personally intervene against the implementation by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of new lobster trap rules that they say could impose unnecessary economic hardships on harvesters in the state.

The rules, which are intended to preserve endangered North Atlantic right whales, are expected to go into effect in two years, forcing a 50% reduction in lobster trap lines. However, the members of Congress suggest in a three-page letter sent to the White House on Wednesday that “there is no credible evidence indicating the rules would have real impacts on the agencies’ stated goals”.

“Your administration has made a point of targeting regulations that you believe are ill-conceived or overly burdensome,” says the letter, signed by Democratic representatives Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree and senators Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent. “By applying the same logic to Maine’s lobster industry and intervening in the implementation of NOAA’s regulations on Maine lobstermen, you can prevent unfair harm to an iconic Maine industry and save many good American jobs.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Vineyard Wind to request superseding order from MassDEP to avoid project delays

July 12, 2019 — Vineyard Wind says that it will request a superseding order from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to overturn denial of the project’s application before the Edgartown Conservation Commission. The company announced yesterday that U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management delayed the issuance of Vineyard Wind’s final environmental impact statement.

“Vineyard Wind always places a priority on working with local communities, and was fully responsive to all information requests received from the Edgartown Conservation Commission,” said Erich Stephens, Chief Development Officer for Vineyard Wind. “We are disappointed in the Commission’s decision, which was flawed, inconsistent with the evidence before it, and in contrast to the conclusions of many other regulatory authorities.”

The offshore developer stressed that the project provided the Edgartown Commission with a detailed, comprehensive filing, then responded to all additional requests for information.

Read the full story at Wind Power Engineering & Development

Feds: Vineyard Wind review window ends in 2020

July 12, 2019 — The federal agency evaluating the environmental impact of Vineyard Wind provided no explanation for its decision to extend the time period for review beyond Friday, but noted it has until March 2020 to complete its work, several months after the offshore wind developer had planned to begin construction.

Stephen Boutwell, a spokesman for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, issued a statement Thursday afternoon saying the agency is continuing to evaluate the environmental impact of the project.

“Proposed offshore wind facilities are major infrastructure projects, and BOEM is still within the two-year review window established under Executive Order 13807 to complete its reviews,” the statement said. “When the work has concluded, BOEM will publish its findings and notify all stakeholders.”

The federal agency published a notice of intent to issue an environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind in the Federal Register on March 30, 2018, which would mean the two-year window would end on the same date in 2020.

The timing is important because Vineyard Wind is operating on a very tight construction schedule calling for work to begin this year and be completed in 2021. A delay of any length could jeopardize that schedule and put the company at risk of missing key milestones in its power-supply contracts with Massachusetts utilities.

Read the full story at The Commonwealth Magazine

Maine lobstermen get new bait option amidst herring quota cuts

July 12, 2019 — Maine lobsterman have gained a new option for baiting their traps as Cooke Aquaculture USA has secured permission from the state’s Department of Marine Resources to process and use whole blackbelly rosefish as lobster bait.

The new bait comes as the fishery’s main source of bait, herring, has faced a significant cut to quotas in 2019 and potentially beyond. The New England Fishery Management Council elected to slash the herring quota from nearly 50,000 metric tons (MT) to just over 15,000 MT – a 70 percent reduction – in the wakes of biomass surveys that indicated substantial declines in recruitment and biomass of the fish.

That quota cut means the lobster industry has to go without roughly 55 million pounds of bait in 2019; and the management council may cut quotas further in 2020 and 2021.

“Lobstering is an important part of the communities where we operate. Lobster fisherman are our friends, neighbors, and in many cases, family,” Glenn Cook, CEO of the Cooke Inc. family of companies, said in a release.  “When we learned about the bait shortage and its impact on the lobster industry in Maine, we began to explore possible solutions.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Vineyard Wind faces new delay

July 11, 2019 — Offshore wind power developer Vineyard Wind may miss its late 2019 construction start, with a delay in the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s review of the project’s environmental impact statement.

The plan for 84 wind turbines off Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., was poised for a formal start to onshore construction activity in December 2019. But on Tuesday the company announced BOEM would not meet an anticipated July 12 milestone for approving the final EIS for the 800-megawatt project.

“We understand that, as the first commercial scale offshore wind project in the U.S., the Vineyard Wind project will undergo extraordinary review before receiving approvals,” the company said in revealing the delay. “As with any project of this scale and complexity, changes to the schedule are anticipated.”

BOEM and the company are under pressure from Massachusetts and Rhode Island fishermen who fear loss of access to fishing grounds, and dangers navigating turbine arrays. BOEM and Coast Guard officials last year put wind developers on notice that they will be required to plan for safe transit lanes through the wind towers.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Lobster Bait Fish Coming to Maine From Uruguay Amid Shortage

July 11, 2019 — Maine’s lobster fishermen will be able to use a new species of bait fish to try to get through a shortage of herring that has troubled the industry in recent years.

Lobstermen typically bait traps with Atlantic herring, but federal fishery regulators have enacted dramatic cutbacks to the catch quotas for that fish. The Maine Department of Marine Resources said Thursday it has approved the blackbelly rosefish as a new species that can be sold and used as lobster bait in the state.

The blackbelly rosefish is an abundant species that ranges from Canada to South America. Cooke Aquaculture, a New Brunswick, Canada-based company, requested Maine’s approval to sell rosefish as bait, and the company announced plans to harvest the fish off Uruguay.

“We believe this is a solution to address concerns from the lobster fishery on the challenges they are currently facing on account of bait shortages,” said Glenn Cooke, chief executive officer of Cooke Inc., which includes Cooke Aquaculture.

Most of the U.S. lobster catch comes to the shore in Maine, where lobstermen landed nearly 120 million pounds (54 million kilograms) of the valuable seafood last year. Fishermen rely heavily on herring as a bait source, though they also use other species, such as menhaden.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Nantucket group protests draft authorization for Vineyard Wind

July 11, 2019 — A Nantucket group wants to delay a key permit needed by Vineyard Wind to construct its 84-turbine wind farm south of the Islands.

ACK Residents Against Turbines, a group of more than 100 citizens, claims that federal regulators favor offshore wind over commercial fishing and intend to allow serious harm to endangered North Atlantic right whales.

“This process is moving too fast, and everyone needs to slow down and make sure we aren’t creating problems for the North Atlantic right whale that can’t be reversed,” Vallorie Oliver of ACK Residents Against Turbines said Tuesday. “This particular animal is clearly struggling, yet it appears that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, in their rush to clear the path for Vineyard Wind, are forgetting their obligation to protect the whale.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times