October 4, 2022 — As tensions remain high between lobstermen and federal regulators, NOAA has scheduled a hearing in Portland Wednesday to take public comment on measures designed to protect right whales from entanglement in fishing gear.
ALASKA: Both sides dig in as EPA’s final decision on Pebble Mine nears
October 4, 2022 — Environmental advocates, Alaska Natives and commercial fishermen say they are at once confident and anxious as they wait for the EPA to announce a final ban on mining wastes in Bristol Bay, Alaska — home to one of the world’s largest salmon fisheries — that would effectively kill a gold and copper mine estimated to be worth $350 billion.
The Pebble Mine has endured a decadeslong fight spanning three administrations, all of which have moved to block the mine to protect the fishery. The developers, Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and other investors doing business as the Pebble Limited Partnership, are still determined to keep the project alive.
It would be unusual for the EPA to reverse its preliminary decision to ban mining wastes from Bristol Bay under a provision of the Clean Water Act, but the Pebble Limited Partnership won’t be reluctant to take the EPA to court to secure the permits it needs, according to a spokesman.
Meanwhile, Delores Larson, who lives in the Native Village of Koliganek, Alaska, on the Nushagak River, says the possibility of the Pebble Mine getting a green light is terrifying. There are no grocery stores where she lives, she said, no lettuce, bananas or any other imported foods. But there are native berries, moose and other wildlife, including the salmon that begin their northern journey to spawn about 125 miles downstream in the Bristol Bay fishery.
Her people are “salmon people,” she said in an interview in Washington last month as she scrolled through pictures of bright pink catch drying in a shed back home in Koliganek and the dark, glossy fillets of her famous salmon jerky. “Salmon is gold to us.”
Larson had traveled over 3,000 miles to pressure the EPA to finalize its “proposed determination” announced in May to “prohibit and restrict the use of certain waters in the Bristol Bay watershed (South Fork Koktuli River, North Fork Koktuli River, and Upper Talarik Creek watersheds) as disposal sites for the discharge of dredged or fill material associated with mining the Pebble Deposit.” The agency says the project would threaten the bay’s salmon fishery, which this year produced more than 76 million sockeyes, an all-time record harvest.
“Honestly, we would cease to exist as a people,” she said with a sigh, considering what would happen if the Pebble Mine was built. “It’s our whole life. We depend entirely on our salmon.”
But developers aren’t keen on letting the EPA strike down a multibillion-dollar project that would tap into what geologists say is one of the world’s largest reserves of gold, copper and other minerals. They hold that their plan to contain the wastes is sound, despite what the EPA has said in various reports.
“The record EPA has tried to create for this action is baseless,” said Mike Heatwole, vice president of public affairs for the partnership. “No matter the outcome, we will continue to press our case for this important mineral project.”
A final decision had been expected this month after the EPA received a flood of public comments mostly supporting the plan for banning waste. But the agency announced on Sept. 6 that it would postpone the final determination until December so it could fully review all the comments — though it hasn’t escaped notice that it means there will be no announcement before the midterm elections.
And the inevitable legal battle ahead would prolong an already lengthy fight for the project.
MAINE: New fisheries leader weighs in on the future of the lobster industry
October 3, 2022 — Amid looming environmental and legal threats to the Maine lobster industry, a new leader is coming to a fisheries organization in the state’s most lucrative lobstering port.
The Bangor Daily News spoke to Alexa Dayton, the new executive director of the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries in Stonington, about her vision for the future of coastal communities, especially in the wake of the group Seafood Watch telling consumers earlier in September not to eat lobster. The group red listed lobster after another blow to the industry, when a federal judge upheld fishing restrictions to prevent lobstering ropes from entangling critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.
The decision has been roundly criticized in Maine and raised concerns from fishermen about both their livelihoods and the future of their lobstering heritage. While scientists estimate that fewer than 350 right whales still survive, fewer than 100 of which are breeding females, Maine lobstermen argue there’s no evidence their lines are catching on whales and say they have complied with all regulations.
Dayton has more than 15 years of experience working in fisheries science and policy roles, and believes her background and relationships will help her serve in her new role, which she begins today. In the face of warming ocean temperatures, sea-level rise and water-quality challenges, her vision for the future is one of thriving and climate-resilient communities, she said.
MAINE: Wearing red and rallying for lobster fishermen
October 3, 2022 — Schoolchildren all over Maine wore red on Friday, September 23, to show support for lobster fishermen even as rallies were planned in Portland and in Stonington for October.
In Deer Isle, both high school and elementary school students wore red, according to Moriah Nutter, the high school’s administrative assistant. Many people wore red throughout the island towns. Spencer Insurance in Deer Isle posted signs in its window, “WEAR RED, 9/23.”
Lobster trappers voice beef with federal regulators over right whale protections
October 3, 2022 — Keys to the North Atlantic right whale’s survival as a species extend all along the East Coast of the United States, from vessel speed concerns in vital calving grounds off Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia, to New England and Canadian fixed-gear lobster- and crab-trapping waters.
Federal law dictates human-caused right whale deaths to decline to fewer than one a year. Currently, that statistic sits at more than 30, a real problem when there are fewer than 70 calving female North Atlantic right whales believed to be alive. In all, scientists believe there are fewer than 340 total North Atlantic right whales remaining.
What’s on tap is the second phase of an anticipated three-phase process in which NOAA Fisheries — also known as the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) — is developing a comprehensive effort to save the species from extinction. A federal court determined regulations finalized in September 2021 as Phase One of the plan didn’t satisfy the requirements of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).
“The judge ruled the 2021 final rule should’ve reduced mortality and serious injury, caused by U.S. commercial fisheries, to below (the potential biological removal level, or PBR) within six months of implementation of those 2021 regs,” said Colleen Coogan, branch chief for the Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Team in the Protected Resources Division of the NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office.
VIRGINIA: Offshore wind project “at a crossroads” Dominion argues
October 3, 2022 — Dominion Energy is arguing that it may “be forced” to pull the plug on its proposed offshore wind project if a performance guarantee remains imposed on it by the State Corporation Commission.
On Aug. 5, the SCC approved a rate adjustment clause, or rider, attached to consumers’ power bills so Dominion can recover costs associated with its proposed offshore wind project. The SCC order also included a performance guarantee to protect consumers from potential extra costs if the wind turbines don’t perform as well as expected.
The $9.8 billion wind farm— planned for 27 miles off Virginia Beach— is the largest energy project ever undertaken in the state and would be the largest wind project in the country.
But Dominion challenged the performance guarantee and the SCC agreed to reconsider it — kicking off a window in which both the utility company and other parties have responded.
“It is the regulator’s job to balance monopoly profit motives by adopting common and reasonable standards that will protect Virginians,” Laura Gonzalez, a policy manager with Clean Virginia said in a statement.
Clean Virginia is one of the environmental groups that responded.
But Dominion objected to the guarantee, asserting it could create uncertainty for its investors and hold the company responsible for things outside of its control — citing extreme weather as example.
FLORDIA: They rode out Ian on shrimping boats. Now they fear their livelihood is destroyed
October 3, 2022 — Shrimp Boat Lane is a crook in the middle of San Carlos Island. Inside pulses the heart of a storied fishery.
But with little warning and punishing winds, Hurricane Ian shredded it.
Huge swells tossed shrimp boats into the mangroves and washed away docks. Jesse Clapham walked through what was left Friday morning, sweat soaking the back of his black T-shirt.
“My dad was a fisherman. His was a fisherman,” said Clapham, fleet manager for Erickson and Jensen, a seafood and marine supplies company. “This is life-changing.”
Just three of the company’s 12 boats are still in the water, he said, and one has a hole in the side. Clapham is sure he can patch it.
What to do with the others, however, is overwhelming.
Joined by a handful of coworkers, Clapham, 47, gathered tools and set to work repairing the flooded engine of a front-end loader, so he could clear debris. A mash of rubble fringed the Double E, a 96-foot, steel-hulled shrimp boat left listing sharply to port on the ground.
Clapham’s head mechanic, Jerry Richards, 54, had stayed onboard during the hurricane with a captain and the captain’s wife and five kids. He watched the swelling sea overtop his Chevy Silverado, parked nearby on land. The waves lifted the Double E onto an old dock, before the surge rushed back out, he said. The force caused the ship to lean so far over that they decided to climb down a ladder and off the vessel Wednesday night.
“When they said it was going this way, it was too late to do anything,” Richards said, recalling forecasters’ predictions for Hurricane Ian. He had avoided evacuating to Tampa, where he worried his mother’s home would face intense storm surge in Town ‘N Country. The Erickson and Jensen crew hadn’t even had enough time to drive all the boats up to a safer spot in the Caloosahatchee River before Ian descended.
Asian countries feature on US Labor Department report for child, forced labor
October 3, 2022 — Taiwan and Thailand both feature prominently on the new edition of a U.S. Department of Labor report on child and forced labor, which identifies abuses in both countries’ seafood sectors.
Released 28 September, 2022, the “List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor,” dinged Taiwan and Thailand for alleged use of forced labor in their fishing sectors, while Thailand also received mention for alleged use of child and forced labor in its shrimp-processing industry.
Net Gains Alliances makes case for fishermen to adopt electronic monitoring
October 3, 2022 — The Net Gains Alliance (NGA) has released recommendations for an electronic monitoring program designed to advance data modernization in the U.S. seafood industry.
Contained in the report, “Recommendations for electronic monitoring program design and requests for proposal,” NGA’s effort was focused on defining fishery monitoring objectives and evaluating a full suite of tools and approaches to best achieve those goals. The effort centered around ensuring the inclusion of the fishing industry in the program’s design process and in meetings and consultations with electronic monitoring (EM) equipment and service providers, according to California Environmental Associates Consulting Lead Technical Consultant Mark Michelin, who helped develop the program under the leadership of NGA and Council Fire – a sustainability-focused consultancy – and backed with funding from the Walton Family Foundation and the Packard Foundation.
ALASKA: Sustainable Pacific Oyster Farming
October 3, 2022 — The following was released by the NOAA:
Alaska’s aquatic farming industry is relatively new—it only became legal in the state in 1988. Since then, the industry has flourished.
Want a meal that’s good for you and good for the planet? Pacific oysters farmed in the United States are a smart seafood choice because they are sustainably grown and harvested under state and federal regulations. Oysters provide environmental benefits by removing excess nutrients and improving water quality. They are low in saturated fat, and excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc, and vitamin B12.
Pacific oysters, also called the Japanese oyster, Miyagi oyster, or Pacific cupped oyster, are sustainably farmed in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. They are the most cultivated species of oyster, originally introduced from Asia to 66 countries. They are the only non-indigenous species allowed to be imported to Alaska for cultivation. Pacific oysters take 18 to 30 months to develop to the market size of 70 to 100 grams (2.5 to 3.5 ounces; shell on) live weight. Pacific oyster growth depends on water temperature and salinity.
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