May 2, 2024 — Congressman Jared Golden wants to delay a proposed minimum catch size increase for Maine lobstermen.
MAINE: Maine’s wharf owners scramble to repair what they can before lobstering season starts
May 1, 2024 — Chris Hole was busy at work on a sunny Friday morning, taking apart his commercial fishing wharf like a game of Jenga.
After pulling up the surface wooden slats, Hole used a fork lift to lower large wooden beams down to the deck. Josh Saxton, Hole’s right-hand man, would then slip between the large gaps in the deck to put the support beams in place.
Hole owns Henry Allen’s Seafood, a wholesaler and retailer with a commercial wharf that was battered by the series of storms in January that swept away many working waterfronts along Maine’s coast. The storms flooded Henry Allen’s historic buildings and wiped out the dock’s seawall. At a quick glance from above, Henry Allen’s wharf doesn’t look all that bad. But most of the repair work is invisible, the pummeled structure hidden beneath the surface of the deck.
Hole is of course familiar with storms.
Feds pinch Southeast Alaska skippers for illegally transporting crab
May 1, 2024 — Three men are charged in federal court for illegally transporting Alaska crab to sell in Washington. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Alaska says Kyle Potter and Justin Welch caught crab in Southeast Alaska this spring and moved them to Seattle at the direction of Potter’s dad, Corey.
The federal indictment says Corey Potter owns the two fishing vessels involved, which were run by his son, Kyle, and Welch. One of the boats is the 97-foot Arctic Dawn, which has been docked in Petersburg this spring but is registered to a Kodiak residence.
The two captains participated in the Southeast Tanner and golden king crab fisheries in February and March, harvesting over 7,000 pounds. Corey Potter allegedly directed the two captains to transport the crab to Seattle to fetch a higher price. By the time they arrived, a lot of the king crab was already dead and about 4,000 pounds of Tanner had to be thrown out because of bitter crab syndrome. Bitter crab is a common parasite and is sorted out at Alaska ports when fishermen sell their catch. It causes the crab to taste bad but isn’t harmful.
BOEM Proposes Offshore Wind Area Auctions in Gulf of Mexico and Oregon
May 2, 2024 — The U.S. Department of the Interior took its next steps in the aggressive plans to accelerate the development of offshore wind energy in the U.S. They released proposals for two new wind areas off the coast of Oregon and in the Gulf of Maine which they said combined could provide 18 GW of energy. It however includes more controversial areas especially along the Oregon coast.
The Biden Administration highlights that it has already approved eight offshore sites with a combined capacity of more than 10 GW, which they said will power nearly four million homes. They are also continuing the lengthy review process for additional proposals after having conducted four auctions including the New York Bight, offshore of the Carolina, and the first sales off the coast of California, and in the Gulf of Mexico.
Today’s proposals include eight lease areas offshore Marine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Combined it represents nearly one million acres in the Gulf of Maine and the potential for 15 GW. The Bureau of Offshore Energy Management (BOEM) is proposing to conduct simultaneous auctions for each of the eight lease areas. Before finalizing the plan, they said they are seeking feedback on various aspects including the size of the lease areas, orientation, and location. They are also looking for input if any areas should be prioritized for inclusion or exclusion.
MAINE: Federal government seeking feedback ahead of Gulf of Maine offshore wind auction
May 1, 2024 — As Maine is still figuring out where to build a port for its budding offshore wind industry, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced its proposal to auction offshore wind leases in the Gulf of Maine Tuesday.
As part of the Biden administration’s efforts to drive more offshore wind development, the Gulf of Maine is slated to have eight lease areas offshore Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which have the potential to generate 15 gigawatts of clean energy to power more than five million homes, according to a news release from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
“We’re taking decisive action to catalyze America’s offshore wind industry and leverage American innovation to provide reliable, affordable power to homes and businesses, all while addressing the climate crisis,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
ALASKA: The federal government is assuming management of salmon fishing in parts of Alaska’s Cook Inlet
May 1, 2024 — Commercial and recreational salmon fishing in the federal waters of Cook Inlet will resume this summer, but under new management by the federal government, according to a rule made final this week.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, also known as NOAA Fisheries, is taking over what had been state management of salmon in inlet waters designated as the federal exclusive economic zone, located more than 3 miles offshore.
The new rule goes into effect May 30.
Until now, the state had managed salmon fisheries in both state and federal waters of the inlet. But the switch in management was ordered by federal courts, as a result of litigation stretching back a decade.
The United Cook Inlet Drift Association, or UCIDA, which is made up of commercial salmon fishermen, sued the federal government in 2013 for failing to develop a salmon harvest management plan for the federal waters of the inlet. The National Marine Fisheries Service, rather than developing a Cook Inlet salmon plan, had deferred to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which since statehood has managed salmon harvests throughout the inlet in both state and federal waters.
The UCIDA lawsuit took issue with state management decisions and argued that the National Marine Fisheries Service was failing in its duties. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2016 ruled in UCIDA’s favor.
NORTH CAROLINA: Five whales have died along NC’s coast this year. Here’s what researchers know so far
May 1, 2024 — Whales found stranded along the North Carolina coast in recent years have died from parasites, infectious disease and – too many times, marine experts say – as a result of human interactions.
At least five whales have been stranded on or near the shore this year, dead or unable to be saved. They include a humpback whale, a minke whale and three dwarf sperm whales.
Dr. Craig Harms, director of the marine health program at N.C. State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology in Morehead City, said the degraded condition of whale carcasses by the time they reach shore means researchers can determine a cause of death in fewer than half the recorded cases.
Court shuts down offshore wind challenges over endangered whale
May 1, 2024 — Two attempts to sink the first major offshore wind project in the country over its impact to an endangered whale were shot down this week by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Solar developer Thomas Melone of Connecticut and a coalition of coastal residents in Massachusetts had separately sought to block the 62-turbine Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts. They argued that federal agencies did not address how offshore wind farm construction could threaten the endangered North American right whale population when issuing key permits.
Their appeals are part of a flurry of lawsuits that have sought, and so far failed, to bring down major offshore renewable projects that are keystones in President Joe Biden’s climate policy.
Read the full article at E&E News
Court shuts down offshore wind challenges over endangered whale
April 30, 2024 — Two attempts to sink the first major offshore wind project in the country over its impact to an endangered whale were shot down this week by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Solar developer Thomas Melone of Connecticut and a coalition of coastal residents in Massachusetts had separately sought to block the 62-turbine Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts. They argued that federal agencies did not address how offshore wind farm construction could threaten the endangered North American right whale population when issuing key permits.
Their appeals are part of a flurry of lawsuits that have sought, and so far failed, to bring down major offshore renewable projects that are keystones in President Joe Biden’s climate policy.
ALASKA: Economic report portrays a mixed picture of Alaska’s huge seafood industry
April 30, 2024 — The Alaska seafood industry remains an economic juggernaut, but it is under strain from forces outside of the state’s control, according to a new report commissioned by the state’s seafood marketing agency.
The report from the McKinley Research Group, titled The Economic Value of Alaska’s Seafood Industry, is the latest in a periodic series commissioned by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
The total economic value of the Alaska seafood industry in 2021 and 2022 was $6 billion, slightly more than the $5.6 billion tallied in 2019, the last full year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the new report and the previous version published in 2022.
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