January 19, 2023 — Omega Protein recently announced its Ocean Harvesters captains delivered over $2,000 worth of school supplies last week to public schools in Lancaster and Northumberland counties.
NEW JERSEY: Orsted to take full ownership of first NJ offshore wind farm
January 19, 2023 — Orsted, the Danish wind energy developer, will become the sole owner of the first offshore wind farm planned for New Jersey.
The company said Wednesday that it has signed an agreement to buy the remaining 25% ownership stake in Ocean Wind 1 from New Jersey-based Public Service Enterprise Group.
No dollar amount was given for the transaction and Orsted did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford fishing industry considers compensation for offshore wind’s impact
January 19, 2023 — Fishing communities are looking to the federal government to determine the best way to compensate them for potential threats to their livelihoods from the offshore wind industry.
Massachusetts and eight other Atlantic Coast states proposed the establishment of a regional fisheries compensatory mitigation fund administrator.
In June, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a draft framework for mitigating impacts to commercial and recreational fisheries. Stakeholders have until Jan. 31 to submit comments to a Request for Information released by the states on Dec. 12 to guide the process.
New Bedford Port Authority Executive Director Gordon Carr said the initiative and leadership of the nine states and the extensive work involved in issuing the scoping document for a regional fisheries mitigation fund administrator and seeking stakeholder input through the RFI process is greatly appreciated.
ALASKA: Northwest, Alaska crabbers strike for better prices
January 19, 2023 — The new year started off with a fizzle for West Coast and Alaska crab fisheries, with fleets in Oregon and Alaska striking for higher ex-vessel prices.
In Oregon, the Dungeness Dec. 1 opening was delayed in hopes that meat fill in the crabs would increase, and that levels of domoic acid would decrease in some of the test areas. Equally driving delays was the fleet’s effort of nudging processors’ offers closer to $4.75 per pound, like they started with in 2022, rather than the $2.25 per pound they offered in the advent of the 2023 season.
The official date of the opening had been moved to Jan. 15, with areas in Washington opening on Feb. 1, but many opted to stay tied to the docks in hopes that prices among processors would start closer to $4.
MAINE: Maine Fishermen’s Forum is back and bigger than ever
January 18, 2023 — For the first time in three years, the Maine Fishermen’s Forum is holding a live event at the Samoset Resort March 2-4. This event is a one-of-a-kind event created for Maine’s fishermen and provides educational seminars covering topics from Management Actions Affecting Gillnet Fisheries, Plastic Aquaculture Gear, Economics of the Lobster Fleet, Eastern Maine Skippers Program, DMR Lobster Science Update, Gulf of Maine Scallop Fishery, and a Seafood Cooking Demonstration, to name a few. A tentative seminar schedule will be available on the website. Attendance is free, and families are encouraged to attend with children’s activities available.
This year’s event also features the largest trade show in the history of the Forum – exhibitors showing lobster traps, marine gear, new fishing gear, boatbuilders and dozens of others as well. They will be displaying their wares for fishermen, scientists and the managers who attend the show annually.
ALASKA: Kodiak fishermen sit out opener as dispute over crab prices continues
January 17, 2023 — Fishermen should have been setting their gear on Sunday morning for the opening of Kodiak’s biggest Tanner crab fishery since 1986. But the boat harbor was almost full – dozens of vessels were stacked high with empty crab pots. At the coffee shop downtown right near the docks, fishermen lined up for free coffee instead.
Frank Miles owns the fishing vessel Sumner Strait – it’s a 58-foot limit seiner – and has fished commercially for nearly 50 years. His first Tanner season around Kodiak was in the early 80s, when he chopped bait for a local boat.
“I’ve parlayed it into a very good livelihood,” he said. “I’ve raised three kids in this town on the back of fishing income, and it’s been a beautiful thing.”
Miles normally fishes pot cod and longlines for halibut and black cod. He also tenders salmon. He sat out the beginning of this cod season so he could go out for Tanners instead. He didn’t think prices would be quite as high as last year’s record of more than $8 per pound.
OREGON: Oregon Dungeness crab fishermen criticize repeated delay of season opener
January 17, 2023 — In an open letter to Caren Braby, the Marine Resources Program manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Dungeness crab fishers from Astoria to Port Orford lambasted the decision made by the Department to delay the opening of the Dungeness crab season along the entire Oregon coast.
The letter alleged that the decision flies in the face of the revised Tri-State Protocol, established to ensure that the Dungeness crab fishery remains sustainable and that the fishing communities of Washington, Oregon, and California continue to capitalize on this economic resource.
The letter, presented by captains Perry Kanury Bordeaux of Newport and Levi Cherry of Garibaldi, and bearing signatures from Dungeness crab permit holders who either own or operate fishing vessels that are 58 feet or less length, outlines in detail the struggles that have been imposed upon them as small vessel owners, upon consumers, and upon both the pelagic and benthic ecosystems by the unnecessary and extensive delay of the Dungeness crab season.
It also calls upon the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to make use of the revisions that allow for partial crab openers on the Oregon coast, revisions which fishers fought hard for, and points to the lack of transparency on the part of the Department in their decisions this season to not implement the accepted protocol.
ALASKA: Kodiak fishermen stand down to protest low tanner crab prices
January 17, 2023 — Kodiak’s biggest tanner crab fishery in nearly 40 years is set to open on Sunday, but the fleet is standing down. Fishermen say they won’t go fishing for the prices offered by local canneries. It’s the latest wrinkle on a winter fishing season already impacted by closures and strikes.
Processors in Kodiak offered $2.50 per pound for tanners when negotiations started earlier this month. Kevin Abena is the secretary and treasurer for the Kodiak Crab Alliance Cooperative, which represents about 120 permit holders in the fishery. He said since then, all of Kodiak’s canneries haven’t budged from their initial price.
“We haven’t been given anything to consider. $2.50 isn’t the number that we’ll consider,” Abena said.
Last year, fishermen were paid a record of more than $8 per pound. The tanner crab fishery was closed in 2021, but back in 2020, prices still were more than $4.
MAINE: New rule for Maine lobstermen to report catch
January 17, 2023 — Lobstermen in Maine have a new rule to abide by this new year that’s separate from the battle over right whale regulations that recently caused a lot of controversy for the industry.
The new regulation requires all commercial lobstermen to make monthly, electronic reports to the state including details on where, when, and how many lobsters are caught, and how many traps are in the water.
NEW JERSEY: No pause in wind farm prep after 7th dead whale
January 17, 2023 — New Jersey’s governor said Friday he does not think undersea preparations for offshore wind farms should be halted in response to a recent spate of whale deaths in New Jersey and New York.
Democrat Phil Murphy spoke after lawmakers at the local, state and federal levels called for a temporary pause in ocean floor preparation work for offshore wind projects in New Jersey and New York after another dead whale washed ashore in the area.
Also on Friday, most of New Jersey’s environmental groups warned against linking offshore wind work and whale deaths, calling such associations “unfounded and premature.”
The death was the seventh in a little over a month. The spate of fatalities prompted an environmental group and some citizens groups opposed to offshore wind to ask President Biden earlier this week for a federal investigation into the deaths.
The latest death Thursday was that of a 20- to 25-foot-long (6- to 7.6-meter-long) humpback whale. Its remains washed ashore in Brigantine, just north of Atlantic City, which itself has seen two dead whales on its beaches in recent weeks.
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