Saving Seafood

Opinion

I’m a fishing boat captain. Green energy companies, government want to put me out of business

March 20, 2023 — Offshore wind energy might be killing whales, but there’s no question it’s killing American fishermen.

I’ve been a fishing boat captain for over 20 years. I live on an island in Maine and sail out of New Bedford, Mass. My brothers and cousins are lobstermen.

Fishing is the trade our family has plied for generations. We’re proud to practice the founding craft of our nation. When colonists first settled New England, they looked to the sea to sustain them. And so it is for our coastal communities four centuries on.

Read the full article at Fox News

Save us, Supreme Court, from runaway regulation

March 14, 2023 — Farmers and fishermen make their living the old-fashioned way — sweat and struggle. Increasingly they share another thing in common: oppressive bureaucratic oversight. If the Supreme Court can summon the courage this year, it can deal the bureaucrats a body blow and free millions of Americans from diktats from on high, each one of which makes their lives more difficult, more expensive and decidedly less free.

“Operating fishing vessels in the Atlantic is hard work.” So begins a brief to the high court on behalf of herring fishermen. In a new petition asking for the Supreme Court to review a case involving fishing for Atlantic herring, former solicitor general Paul D. Clement paints a picture reminiscent of last year’s Oscar-winning film “CODA.” You will be forgiven if you forgot that the movie featured two actors playing federally mandated monitors on the fishing boat where much of the drama plays out. The presence of the monitors — even the physical space they take up — is the sort of detail that makes a movie great, because it dives deep enough into the realities that reflect the lives made even more difficult by bureaucracy.

The role and cost of such monitors figure at the heart of Clement’s petition to roll back an out-of-control “administrative state.” Monitors figure as well in the tale of another bureaucracy — this one bedeviling the opposite coast, in California.

Read the full article at the Washington Post

Rep. Allison Hepler: More and better data can protect lobstering and right whales

February 28, 2o23 — The word “reprieve” is being used to describe the late-December federal action that produced a 6-year delay in implementing federal whale rules, as well as new funding for research and gear innovations in the lobster fishery. A reprieve is welcome, but it does not mean that the industry can step back and go about business as usual. Fortunately, that’s not what is happening.

This past summer, the National Oceanic and Aeronautical Administration (NOAA) had fast-tracked its implementation of rules around the endangered North Atlantic Right Whales, which would have made immediate and dramatic changes to Maine’s lobster fishery in two years rather than 10. In response, in the midst of our early-winter coastal storm that occurred just before Christmas last year, Maine’s federal delegation secured a 6-year pause in the implementation of those regulations, and also provided $55 million in funding for research and monitoring. This action was a welcome break for Maine lobstermen.

Science is at the heart of the work that needs to be done. Some of the funding will allow for continued research into better understanding the behavior and distribution of right whales as a result of the changing environmental situation in the Gulf of Maine. It is dramatically warming, and the whales’ favorite food is shifting east into Canadian waters. Organizations such as Bigelow Laboratories are likely to receive some of this funding to continue its research on the impact of this shift.

Read the full article at the Press Herald

 

Does offshore wind have a whale problem?

February 28, 2023 — Since Dec. 1, there have been 18 reports of dead whales washing ashore along the Atlantic Coast, according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

With each dead whale washing ashore, the blood pressure of offshore wind critics has risen.  They believe the survey and construction work associated with building new offshore wind farms in the New England and New York regions may have contributed to the whale deaths.

Government officials say there is no relationship between offshore wind and whale deaths. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website maintains a section where it reports on the number of whales washing ashore since “unusual mortality events” started being tracked in 2016.

Since 2016, a total of 184 humpback whales have washed ashore.  A peak of 34 whale deaths was recorded in 2017.  Last year, there were 19 whale deaths. But so far this year, there have been 10 deaths recorded.  Five East Coast states – Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina – account for 81% of all whale deaths.  Four are sites of offshore wind work.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Biden’s Offshore Wind Dreams Face Rising Controversy, Opposition

February 28, 2023 — In stark contrast to its do-nothing approach to holding lease sales for offshore oil and gas exploration, the Biden administration has mounted an aggressive push to speed along the development of offshore wind farms in the federally-owned waters of the United States. But that effort is now facing pushback from a rising number of stakeholders, even as a series of mysterious whale deaths along the Atlantic coast has raised concerns about potential negative impacts on marine life from the projects.

By now, most Americans are likely aware of the increasing number of whales that have been found grounded on Atlantic beaches, some of which lie adjacent to offshore wind projects already under development. At least 10 whales have died in such events along the coasts of New York and New Jersey in recent months, leading to speculation that noise and other impacts arising from offshore wind-related activities might be the cause. Increasing public concerns over the whale deaths led 30 New Jersey mayors last week to call for a moratorium on further offshore wind activities pending additional studies to assess possible cause and effect.

While no conclusive linkage between the projects and the marine mammal deaths has been scientifically established, the controversy is leading some to wonder why the same environmental groups that have traditionally urged a cautious approach to oil and gas projects to protect marine life have failed to raise similar objections to the offshore wind activities. This apparent lack of concern seems especially questionable given that some of the whale deaths have been among American right whales, an endangered species consisting of just 340 remaining individuals.

Read the full article at Forbes

What we know — and don’t know — about offshore wind and whale deaths

February 9, 2023 — Offshore wind development in US East Coast waters has been blamed for a flurry of dead humpback whales off New Jersey and New York. But what do — and don’t — we know?

Since 2016 there has been an unusually high incidence of humpback whale deaths on the US East Coast: a total of 180 animals, of which about 40 percent had evidence of entanglement in fishing gear or being struck by vessels. The US National Marine Fisheries Service works with other organizations to examine dead whales found at sea or beached to determine the cause of death. The other cases remain undiagnosed because of decomposition, the inability to tow the whale ashore, lack of access to the whale, or an indeterminate cause.

Investigations of large whale mortalities can take many months, but NMFS has stated that the recent mortalities show no relation to offshore wind development. So what are the potential risks for whales of offshore wind development?

Marine mammals are sensitive to noise, which can result from weather events, earthquakes, and human sources, such as sonar, bottom drilling and coring, seismic air guns, and explosions. The effects can range from behavioral change to temporary or permanent hearing loss, and occasionally mortality. Most deaths related to acoustic exposure have been in toothed whales and dolphins related to sonar. There has been no recent evidence of humpback or other baleen whales dying from noise exposure.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

OPINION: Rural Alaska is suffering. Shutting down the Area M fishery isn’t the answer.

February 6, 2023 — I was born and raised in the Interior, in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (AYK) region, to be exact. I grew up in a community that depends on subsistence fishing, and my childhood memories are dominated by recollections of my father, my mother and countless other members of my family and broader community going out on boats and bringing back the fish that our people have harvested and survived on for generations. I grew up fishing for subsistence, and I know how deeply important it is not only for physical survival but for the survival of our cultures and the identities of Native people across Alaska.

I have lived in False Pass seasonally over the past 10 years and have raised my kids there. They have been raised to know subsistence and value it. They have created their own memories, both in False Pass and in the AYK region with my family. I have seen the harvests change in my lifetime, from years of abundance to some years where there is nothing at all, and I am brokenhearted by the impossible situation many communities in the AYK — including the one I grew up in — find themselves in with increasingly diminished salmon runs. However, I know that shutting down the fishery often referred to as Area M that my community and many, many other communities in Western Alaska depend on will not solve any of the problems the AYK is facing. Instead, it will cause more communities to suffer. We know this because every major research study and dataset demonstrates that limiting or shutting down Area M fisheries will not solve the salmon return crisis in the AYK. This conclusion is also that of the Department of Fish and Game, supported by both NOAA and Fish and Game studies demonstrating the impact that five-plus years of poor ocean conditions have had on AYK chum salmon.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

OPINION: A modest proposal for Alaska fisheries

February 2, 2023 — At the behest of Alaska’s Sen. Ted Stevens and Congressman Don Young, in 1976 Congress enacted the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which authorizes the U.S. secretary of commerce to regulate commercial fishing in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska seaward of Alaska coastal waters.

The Act established an 11-member North Pacific Fishery Management Council. While the Council purportedly is “advisory,” with only the rare exception, the secretary — in the guise of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — rubber-stamps whatever the Council recommends.

And there is the rub.

The Alaska Commissioner of Fish and Game has a permanent seat on the council. The secretary appoints five of the 10 other members from a list of three names for each seat that the governor of Alaska submits to the secretary. That enables the six Alaska members to control Council decision-making if they vote together.

The Council’s principal task is to decide how commercial fishing for pollock and other groundfish is conducted. Since catcher and catcher-processor vessels participating in the groundfish fishery earned $811 million in 2020, even minor regulatory restrictions can have significant adverse financial consequences for the companies, most headquartered in Seattle, that own the vessels.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News 

CONSTANCE GEE: ‘Strategy’ to protect right whales from offshore wind development is recipe for extinction

January 25, 2023 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a draft of their strategy to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW) from the hazards of offshore wind development this past fall.

The report is a heartbreaking portrayal of the plight of the 336 remaining right whales. Approximately 230 animals have died over the past decade. Autopsies and photo documentation conclude that fishing gear entanglement and vessel strikes have caused the deaths. “Stressors” of industrialized ocean noise and dwindling food sources have contributed to reduced health and compromised body condition in 42% of the remaining population.

“Human-caused mortality is so high,” BOEM scientists state, “that no adult NARW has been confirmed to have died from natural causes in several decades; for a species that might live a century, most animals have a low probability of surviving past 40.”

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

More safe, sustainable seafood for America, by Eric Schwaab and Mary Sue Milliken

December 28, 2022 — There’s a culinary revolution happening in the United States. More than ever before, Americans expect their meals to not only be delicious, but sustainable and local too. They’re increasingly turning to seafood options as a nutritious and more environmentally friendly source of protein. While restaurants and markets that can meet this demand are reaping the benefits, more supply is needed.

Currently, up to 85% of American seafood is imported, and it is estimated that half of that is farmed — often in ways that may not live up to our health or environmental standards. Meanwhile, a 2021 poll showed that 70% of American seafood consumers are concerned about where their seafood comes from and nearly 90% of U.S. voters prioritize increasing regulations and setting high standards to ensure seafood is truly sustainable. Notably, this includes 92% of Democrats and 86% of Republicans. Leaders looking for bipartisan priorities need look no further than their next meal.

Read the full article at The Press of Atlantic City