Other News

September 16, 2013 — Please be advised that from September 16-18 and 23-26, 2013, the U.S. Navy will be testing torpedoes in the North Atlantic Ocean approximately 45 miles east of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

These exercises will include launching torpedoes within the area bounded by:

Primary test site, approximately 45 miles east of Nantucket, Massachusetts:
Latitudes 41° 28.5’N to 41° 28.5’N
Longitudes 069° 14.660’W to 068° 56.640’W
and
Latitudes 41° 18’N to 41° 18’N
Longitudes 068° 56.660’W to 069° 14.630’W

Mariners are requested to remain clear of these areas during Navy exercises and cooperate with patrolling U.S. Navy (and Navy-contracted) vessels and aircraft.

For further information contact Mr. David Sanders at Naval Undersea Warfare Center, 401-832-3611, david.sanders2@navy.mil

View an image of the test area

September 11, 2013 — WASHINGTON (AP) — Wind energy facilities have killed at least 67 golden and bald eagles in the last five years, but the figure could be much higher, according to a new scientific study by government biologists.

The research represents one of the first tallies of eagle deaths attributed to the nation's growing wind energy industry, which has been a pillar of President Barack Obama's plans to reduce the pollution blamed for global warming. Wind power releases no air pollution.

But at a minimum, the scientists wrote, wind farms in 10 states have killed at least 85 eagles since 1997, with most deaths occurring between 2008 and 2012, as the industry was greatly expanding. Most deaths — 79 — were golden eagles that struck wind turbines. One of the eagles counted in the study was electrocuted by a power line.

The vice president of the American Bird Conservancy, Mike Parr, said the tally was "an alarming and concerning finding."

A trade group, the American Wind Energy Association, said in a statement that the figure was much lower than other causes of eagle deaths. The group said it was working with the government and conservation groups to find ways to reduce eagle casualties.

Still, the scientists said their figure is likely to be "substantially" underestimated, since companies report eagle deaths voluntarily and only a fraction of those included in their total were discovered during searches for dead birds by wind-energy companies. The study also excluded the deadliest place in the country for eagles, a cluster of wind farms in a northern California area known as Altamont Pass. Wind farms built there decades ago kill more than 60 per year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Yahoo News

September 10, 2013 — The mystery of Castle Island was solved Tuesday night.

The tale unfolded early in the day when Pam Teehan was taking a run around Pleasure Bay and saw a mysterious dorsal fin carving a line through the water. Other people saw it, too, she said, and she heard them exclaiming, “There’s a shark in the water!”

Cue the “Jaws” theme.

“This was a friendly, clumsy fin,” Teehan said. “The more I looked at it, I thought it was a shark,” said the Dorchester resident.

She said the fish was smooth and shiny and that schools of small, silver fish were jumping up from the water around it at Castle Island in South Boston.

Avi Levy, who was kite surfing in the area, asked Teehan if the fish could be poisonous. She told him it probably was not and watched him enter the water and surf close to the fin.

After reports of the sighting came in, staff from the New England Aquarium thought the fish might have been a shark, too. Images of the fish were examined by experts and nonexperts, and its identity left many scratching their heads — was it a mola mola, a type of ocean sunfish sometimes seen in these waters, or a blue shark?

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

September 9, 2013 — The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is pleased to announce on behalf of Fishing for Energy partners Covanta Energy Corporation and NOAA’s Marine Debris Program (NOAA), the availability of grant funding to support public outreach and prevention strategies to reduce the impacts of derelict fishing gear to marine and coastal environments.

Fishing for Energy launched in 2008 through a partnership with Covanta, NFWF, NOAA and Schnitzer Steel Industries. Its goals were to provide a cost-free solution to fishermen to dispose of old, derelict, or unusable fishing gear and to reduce the amount of derelict fishing gear in and around our coastal waterways.  The Fishing for Energy partners recognize that while derelict gear removal is a critical effort to reduce the threat of entanglement, entrapment and habitat scarring from marine debris, the real conservation gains are to be made in prevention of the threat, which is the focus of this Request for Proposals.

See www.nfwf.org/fishingforenergy for a full version of the RFP, which includes specific priorities, eligibility requirements and application instructions. An informational webinar will be provided for interested applicants on September 17, 2013 at 2:00 pm ET. To reserve a spot, click this link. Online applications must be submitted by Tuesday, October 15th.

For more information, please contact Erin Hofmann: erin.hofmann@nfwf.org.

Read the release here

NEW BEDFORD, Mass., — September 4, 2013 — Contractors on the South Terminal project have an interesting strategy for keeping winter flounder out of the blast range for the controlled underwater explosions scheduled to begin later this month.

The solution is "fish tickling," a system meant to "gently push" the flounder out of the way by dragging chains just above the harbor floor. The chains don't hurt the flounder, but are meant to let them know to move out of the way.

Typically, contractors use a combination of flashing lights and low-frequency sound to scare fish away from blasting sites, Jay Borkland, an engineer with APEX, a harbor consultant, said.

But winter flounder, which are known to spawn at the South Terminal site, are "pretty much deaf and blind," Borkland said, so South Terminal contractors needed a different strategy to warn them of the impending blasts.

"Fish-tickling," said Bill White of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which will own the terminal. "You can't make this stuff up."

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times 

 

September 4, 2013 — The following was released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, in cooperation with the NOAA Restoration Center, has opened a fiscal year 2014 federal funding opportunity for marine debris removal.  This opportunity paves the way for communities to implement marine debris removal projects that create long-term ecological improvements for coastal habitat, waterways and wildlife, including migratory fish. Past projects have removed various types of debris from all over the country, including tires from Osborne Reef in Florida, wood pilings at Point Molate in California, and derelict lobster traps in Maine.  Projects have restored critical habitat, such as coral reefs, raised community awareness about the debris problem, and even helped open up public beach access to previously closed areas.

The deadline to apply is November 1, 2013. For more information on how to apply, visit this website: http://go.usa.gov/jJDB.

For more information about NOAA's Marine Debris Program, visit www.marinedebris.noaa.gov.

 

August 29, 2013 — PORTLAND, Maine — The lobstermen of Owls Head have seen some strangely colored crustaceans in recent years, but one pulled out of the ocean earlier this month was still a first.

“We’ve caught a couple of calico ones, with orange and black spots, and we’ve seen some blue ones,” said Anna Mason of Ship to Shore Lobster Co., “but I’d never seen one that was half-red like that, split right down the middle.”

Mason said the lobsterman who caught the chromatically bisected crustacean about two weeks ago first brought it home to show his family, then agreed to let Ship to Shore donate it to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, where it will live out its days alongside a blue lobster that Mason’s company passed along two years ago.

The institute reported this week when it accepted its new guest that split-colored lobsters are estimated to occur only once out of every 50 million or more. The rarest colored lobsters are believed to be white ones, which reportedly pop up once in every 100 million of the creatures, while blue ones and calico ones are comparatively more frequent — 1-in-2 million and 1-in-30 million, respectively, according to previously published reports.

“It certainly is a rare thing [to find a discolored lobster], and when they catch them on a lobster boat, everybody stops what they’re doing and takes a look,” said Carl Wilson, state lobster biologist with the Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

August 30, 2013 — Whale watching is an important industry for many coastal communities from Maine through Virginia. Five new whale watching companies have joined a growing list of companies participating in Whale SENSE. This program, which was initiated by NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Region, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, and Whale and Dolphin Conservation in 2009 recognizes companies committed to responsible whale watching practices.

Since its launch, Whale SENSE has reached over 1 million whale watching passengers, showing that whale watching can be conducted responsibly, respecting the whales’ natural behaviors, while also maximizing passenger enjoyment and educational experience. Currently, 13 whale watching companies, representing one-third of the entire industry in this region, participate in this free, voluntary program.

The Whale SENSE program is proud to welcome its newest members for the 2013 season: American Princess Cruises (Queens, NY), Boston’s Best Cruises (Boston, MA), Cape May Whale Watcher (Cape May, NJ), Plymouth Whale Watch (Plymouth, MA), and Spirit of Cape May (Cape May, NJ).

“As the first whale watching operation out of the metropolitan New York area, the crew of the American Princess believes that educating the public about protecting our environment is crucial for the survival of the ocean animals we view,” Frank DeSantis, American Princess Cruises. “By participating in programs such as Whale SENSE, we are helping to ensure that generations to come will be able to enjoy this spectacular wildlife.”

According to Jeff Stewart, Cape May Whale Watch Watcher and and Spirit of Cape May, participating in Whale SENSE makes good business sense. “Passengers want to know that the tours they choose aren’t harming the animals they are seeing. Our Whale SENSE participation reassures our passengers that protecting these animals is a priority for our operations.”

Continuing Whale SENSE participants include: Starlight Fleet in Wildwood Crest, N.J., Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center in Cape May, N.J., Dolphin Fleet in Provincetown, Mass., Hyannis Whale Watcher Cruises in Barnstable, Mass., Captain John Boats in Plymouth, Mass., Provincetown Whale Watch in Provincetown, Mass., Bar Harbor Whale Watch in Bar Harbor, Maine, and Sea Salt Charters in Provincetown, Mass.

To learn more about the Whale SENSE program, please visit the website at www.whalesense.org or call 978-282-8462.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us at http://www.noaa.gov or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/noaa.

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary encompasses 842 square miles of ocean, stretching between Cape Ann and Cape Cod offshore of Massachusetts. Renowned for its biological diversity and remarkable productivity, the sanctuary is famous as a whale watching destination and supports a rich assortment of marine life, including marine mammals, seabirds, fishes and marine invertebrates. The sanctuary’s position astride the historic shipping routes and fishing grounds for Massachusetts’ oldest ports also makes it a repository for shipwrecks representing several hundred years of maritime transportation.

WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, (formerly WDCS) is the leading global charity dedicated to the conservation and protection of whales and dolphins. We defend these remarkable creatures against the many threats they face through campaigns, advising governments, conservation projects, field research and rescue. WDC’s North American office is based in Plymouth, MA. WDC staff, volunteers and interns conduct research and work to protect whales from the threats they face. Visit www.whales.org to learn more about how you can help as a volunteer, advocate, or donor.

On the Web:

http://www.whalesense.org

http://www.whales.org – Whale and Dolphin Conservation

http://www.nero.noaa.gov – NOAA Fisheries/Northeast Regional Office

http://stellwagen.noaa.gov – NOAA Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

NEW YORK — August 29, 2103 — A bid to extend the South Street Seaport Historic District to include the New Market Building has been denied. In an Aug. 21 letter from the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s (LPC) Director of Research, Mary Beth Betts stated the property “does not appear to meet the criteria for designation.”

The letter also states that the property will not be recommended to the LPC’s full commission for any additional consideration as a New York City landmark. The New Market Building was opened in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration.

The LPC decision comes against a backdrop of concerns over plans that the building’s landlord, The Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC), will tear the building down and replace it with a high-rise structure. HHC is about to begin construction of a new building on Pier 17, which abuts the New Market Building.

The New Market Building, also known as one of the old Fulton Fish Market buildings, falls just outside of the border of the South Street Seaport’s historic district. Without the designation, the building is subject to development without public review.

The Historic Districts Council (HDC), an organization that advocates for historic neighborhoods in New York City and filed the request for the designation consideration, plans to keep pushing to protect the building

Read the full story at the Epoch Times