Saving Seafood

State and Local

MASSACHUSETTS: Fuel, diesel oil spills and bilge leaks continue to plague New Bedford Harbor

September 21, 2023 — They are called “mystery” spills, and they can be caused by a fuel line dislodging, a bilge leak or a diesel spill like the one that occurred near the State Pier on New Year’s Eve.

Andrew Jones, an environmental analyst in the Department of Environmental Protection’s Lakeville office, has been an emergency responder with the emergency response section for the last 24 years.  He said it’s called a “mystery” spill when there is no way of knowing its source or who caused it. He said it could have been an accident, a boat sinking, a land source or an elicit bilge discharge or another cause.

“I have been working with my supervisor, Dan Crafton, and my supervisor that preceded him, on efforts to figure out how to address a persistent and complex mystery sheen-oil spill problem that has been occurring in New Bedford Harbor for what amounts to decades essentially,” he said.

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: NMFS plans to end ‘Massachusetts Wedge’ exemption for trap gear

September 21, 2023 — The National Marine Fisheries Service is taking public comments until Oct. 18 on its plan to make the so-called Massachusetts Restricted Area Wedge fully covered by seasonal prohibitions on fishing trap and fish pot gear with vertical buoy lines.

The change is in a proposed amendment to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan for expanding boundaries of the Massachusetts Restricted Area to include the wedge between state and federal waters. Previously exempted from the strictest gear limits, the was closed by emergency rulemaking in 2022 and 2023 when federal officials said there was immediate risk to North Atlantic right whales from “mortality and serious injury caused by buoy lines in an area with a high co-occurrence of whales and buoy lines. This risk is expected to recur annually.”

Closing the wedge closes a gap in protection for right, fin and humpback whales from entanglement danger during the existing Massachusetts Restricted Area seasonal closure from February 1 through April 30 every year, according to the agency. Its proposed rule and draft environmental assessment can be found on the NOAA Fisheries webpage.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

VIRGINIA: Dominion offers Virginia Beach $19 million for offshore wind transmission easements

September 20, 2023 — Dominion Energy wants to pay Virginia Beach $19 million for roughly 4 miles of city easements to transmit energy from its offshore wind project. The power company has also agreed to provide $1.14 million to replace trees that will be razed to make room for the transmission lines and power poles.

Director of Public Works LJ Hansen briefed the City Council on the transmission easement proposal Tuesday.

The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm will be 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach and will include 176 wind turbines. It will generate energy to power up to 660,000 homes, according to Dominion.

Offshore construction is scheduled to begin next year

Read the full article at the Virginian-Pilot

CALIFORNIA: Half Moon Bay fishermen reeling from lost income amid salmon fishery closure

September 21, 2023 — Commercial salmon fishing season has been closed in the state of California for the past several months and fishermen in Half Moon Bay are feeling the impacts.

At Half Moon Bay’s Pillar Point Harbor, it’s so quiet even the sea lions are bored.

“It’s quiet, you look at this harbor and it’s just empty, there’s no activity,” Porter McHenry, a commercial fisherman said.

McHenry says at this time of the year, from May to October, he would typically rely on salmon.

“There’s going to be nothing until crab season,” he said.

Back in March, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the drought from recent years limited salmon’s ability to breed and that there weren’t enough to open the commercial season this year.

Read the full article at ABC 7 News

ALASKA: Four years into the Yukon salmon collapse, an Interior Alaska village wonders if it will ever fish again

September 18, 2023 — Without salmon, Gwichyaa Zhee is missing its heart.

“It’s just no good,” said Linda Englishoe, sitting on the sofa in her house not far from the Yukon River. An elder now, Englishoe has lived in the village for her entire life.

There are signs of fall in Englishoe’s house — a pan of apples and cinnamon on the stove, a tray of lowbush cranberries waiting to be processed. Fall usually also means the arrival of chum salmon on their journey upriver. But this year, the run is a fraction of the size it once was. As a result, federal and state fisheries managers have restricted most salmon fishing, cutting the village off from its traditional harvest.

Without fish, Englishoe said, nothing in the village is the way it’s supposed to be. The smokehouses, normally full of salmon drying for the winter, are empty. Even the smell of town is different.

“It used to smell so good, smelling those fish,” Englishoe said. “Ooh, I used to just sit outside, smelling.”

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Georgia shrimpers struggling as demand for local shrimp declines

September 18, 2023 — Georgia shrimpers say they’re struggling. Several factors have led to the drop in shrimp prices and lowered demand for local shrimp. This is leading one group and some local lawmakers to try to get them some help.

Roy Reagan has shrimped for decades. He says he’s worried about the industry’s future.

“I wanted my son to keep doing this, he works with my best friend here, he’d be fourth generation in my family, and I don’t know that he’s going to make it, he’s going to have to find something else to do… if we don’t get some kind of change,” said shrimper Roy Reagan.

Members of Georgia Commercial Fishermans Association say an influx of imported shrimp is to blame.

According to the FDA, 94% of seafood sold in the U.S. is imported, and shrimp accounts for the largest percentage within that, and they’re sold for much lower prices.

Read the full article at WTOC

LOUISIANA: Edwards requests emergency declaration to help Louisiana shrimping industry

September 17, 2023 — Gov. John Bel Edwards has requested an emergency declaration for disaster relief for Louisiana shrimpers amid a flood of foreign shrimp that has driven dockside prices to below $1 per pound.

Edwards made the request in late August at the behest of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, which penned a letter to the governor in August seeking the declaration, the first step in securing disaster relief funding for shrimpers from the federal government.

“Louisiana will be pursuing a federal fisheries disaster declaration from the U.S. Department of Commerce,” Edwards wrote to association president Acy Cooper.

Read the full article at The Center Square

VIRGINIA: Virginia looks to expand blue catfish fishery and processing

September 17, 2023 — The Virginia General Assembly approved USD 250,000 (EUR 232,000) on 6 September to support and encourage blue catfish processing, flash freezing, harvesting and infrastructure projects in an effort to enhance the growth of a blue catfish fishery in the U.S. state.

It voted down a proposal to invest USD 2 million (EUR 1.9 million) grant program to establish the Catfish Industries Development Program, but instead voted to start off with a smaller initiative funded with state seed money. Before it becomes law, however, Virginia Governor George Youngkin must sign off on the budget, which he is expected to do.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

 

GEORGIA: Thunderbolt mayor signs resolution to support Georgia shrimpers

September 14, 2023 — Thunderbolt was built on shrimping, but an influx of imported shrimp is forcing city leaders to take action.

Mayor Dana Williams signed a resolution tonight to make sure a longstanding tradition in coastal regions here at home and across the country is not killed.

Members of the Georgia Commercial Fisherman Association watched as Mayor Williams spoke on the need for economic protection from shrimp dumping.

Read the full article at WSAV

NEW JERSEY: 6 protesters arrested as onshore testing work for New Jersey wind farm begins

September 13, 2023 — Police arrested six protesters Tuesday who tried to disrupt the start of land-based testing for New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm. But the work progressed anyway.

Police in Ocean City, which has become the hub of resistance to offshore wind projects in New Jersey and elsewhere along the U.S. East Coast, arrested demonstrators after the city said they failed to heed four warnings to get out of the roadway.

“There were three people lying in the street,” said Robin Shaffer, a spokesman for Protect Our Coast NJ, a residents’ group opposed to the local project and to offshore wind in general.

Read the full article at the Associated Press