Saving Seafood

To maintain NY, NJ port traffic, feds seek new ocean site for 50 million cubic yards of dirt

July 1, 2025 — The feds are trying to figure out where to put 50 million cubic yards of ocean floor dirt.

By federal law, the shipping lanes of New York and New Jersey Harbor must be deep enough for large cargo ships. To maintain a depth of around 50 feet, the harbor requires constant dredging from the ocean floor. That dirt is dumped in an 18-square-mile patch of ocean nearly nine miles south of the Rockaways.

But that stretch of submerged landfill is nearly at capacity. And now, the Army Corps of Engineers is looking for a new site to dump the dirt — and it’s a surprisingly complex task.

The EPA produced maps showing where the dredged material could be dropped. The sites had to be within 40 miles of the harbor to be economically feasible. The site also had to be deeper than 75 feet, meaning more than five miles from shore. Navigation channels and anchorage areas were off limits, as well as locations designated for wind farms or submerged cables.

Fishing holes, however, were not off limits. The three proposed dumping areas are places where commercial fishers harvest scallops, herring, clams and squid.

“Obviously more material that goes out and is put on new sites becomes problematic for us because it’s basically fishing ground that historically we’ve been able to fish that we will now lose,” said  Scot Mackey, an official with the Garden State Seafood Association. “We are concerned about all of the structure that is going out there and impacting our fishing grounds.”

Read the full article at The Gothamist 

Sediment diversion project could drastically alter Louisiana shrimp, oyster fisheries

March 18, 2021 — A U.S. Corps of Engineers environmental impact statement for the planned USD 2 billion (EUR 1.67 billion) Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project acknowledges it will drastically alter the south Louisiana shrimp and oyster fisheries.

“Moderate to major, adverse, permanent direct and indirect impacts are anticipated on shrimp fisheries in the project area due to expected negligible to minor, permanent, beneficial impacts on white shrimp, and major, permanent, adverse impacts on brown shrimp abundance,” an executive summary of the report, issued on 5 March, stated.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: Ring of Fire lights up: Earthquakes near proposed Pebble Mine site

January 28, 2020 — This morning, residents in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region reported waking to a magnitude 3.6 earthquake near the proposed Pebble Mine site just before 6 a.m.

Earthquakes in Alaska are nothing new. But the rate of activity has increased. According to the Alaska Earthquake Center, 2018 and 2019 took first and second place for the most earthquakes recorded in the state: “With a total of 50,289 reported earthquakes, 2019 finished as a runner up to the record-breaking 2018. The earthquake depths ranged between zero and 165 miles.”

What does this have to do with mining and fisheries? Stay with me.

As we cannot yet predict seismic activity, we do the next best thing: Build to withstand earthquakes.

The 7.1 quake that hit Anchorage in November 2018, followed by a 5.7 aftershock and hundreds of aftershocks for days and weeks after, caused no fatalities. Why? Because we have engineered our lives and structures to survive earthquakes, especially in the Ring of Fire.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Putting Endangered Species on the Map

December 19, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In November, we launched Version 2.0 of the Section 7 Mapper, a new mapping tool that shows where threatened and endangered species are in New England and Mid-Atlantic waters. This tool helps people planning activities in our waters to understand where endangered marine species are and at what times of year.

Why did we build this tool?

Busy Oceans and Coasts

Coastal areas are humming with action. Ports, docks, piers, moorings, and marinas dot our shores and bays. Bridges span our rivers, barges sail up rivers to inland ports, and undersea cables criss-cross the ocean bottom. Vessels—ranging from enormous container ships and cruise ships to small recreational fishing boats and jet-skis—traverse our coastal and offshore waters daily.

People are constantly building structures, dredging shallow areas, restoring rivers and coastal habitats, replenishing beaches, and researching new sources of energy.

Underneath, around, and in between all these activities swim threatened and endangered fish, sea turtles, and marine mammals that live, feed, and grow there.

Projects Change Habitat

Human activities add noise, sediment, pollutants, and pressure to ocean habitats. They also displace these animals from spaces they use for breeding, egg-laying, nurseries, feeding, and other activities.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires federal agencies, like the Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Highway Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, the Navy, and even other parts of NOAA, to consult with NOAA Fisheries on projects or activities they are planning, funding, or permitting that may affect a threatened or endangered marine species or its critical habitat. This is called a “Section 7 Consultation.”

Read the full release here

Researchers to explore pre-permitting approach to aquaculture in New England

December 2, 2019 — The labyrinthine process of obtaining the proper permits to establish fish farms in federal waters has been frequently cited as a major obstacle to the advancement of the U.S. aquaculture sector.

Currently, an application to start an aquaculture operation in federal waters is reviewed by a plethora of federal agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, NOAA Fisheries, and the Environmental Protection Agency, along with a collection of state agencies if the proposed site is located near state waters. The long review process is often cited as being too complex and costly, according to Hauke Kite-Powell, a research specialist at the Marine Policy Center of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Senate Appropriations Committee Approves Oyster Restoration Funding In Chesapeake Bay

September 17, 2019 — The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved legislation for the Chesapeake Bay’s oyster restoration funding.

“A thriving oyster population is crucial to the health of the Chesapeake Bay, and in turn, to the health of Maryland’s Bay economy,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Appropriations and Budget Committees. “These funds will ultimately support critical efforts to sustain our oyster population and preserve the Bay. I will keep working in Congress to fight for the investments necessary to protect the Bay, its wildlife, and the businesses Marylanders have built around it.”

Officials said the funding will aim toward rebuilding a healthy oyster population in Maryland.

Included within the legislation were provisions to provide $20 million to the Army Corps of Engineers for multistate ecosystem restoration programs for projects involving oysters in the Bay, provide an additional $70 million to the Army Corps Work Plan for project construction.

Read the full story at WJZ

ALASKA: EPA kills proposed Obama-era Pebble mine ‘veto’

July 31, 2019 — The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it will reverse an Obama-era decision to block a controversial Alaska mine project.

“After today’s action EPA will focus on the permit review process for the Pebble Mine project” Region 10 Administrator Chris Hladick said in a statement.

“The agency has worked closely with the Army Corps to engage with stakeholders and the public on this issue, which has resulted in an expansive public record, including specific information about the proposed mining project that did not exist in 2014,” Hladick added.

While the EPA is withdrawing the 2014 determination, which it wrote “was issued preemptively and is now outdated,” the withdrawal does not constitute an approval of the permit application or a determination in the permitting process.

Read the full story at The Hill

Alaska gives federal agency long Pebble Mine to-do list

July 9, 2019 — If you thought the administration of newly elected Alaska governor Mike Dunleavy would use the US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) invitation for comments on its draft environmental impact statement for the proposed Pebble Mine to offer up an unconditional love letter on behalf of the massive copper, gold and molybdenum open pit mine in Bristol Bay, think again.

The state’s Office of Project Management and Permitting (OPMP) instead coordinated with seven state agencies, including the Department of Natural Resources, to submit a tedious 96-page to-do list for the federal agency to satisfy. OPMP’s cover letter offers no opinions about whether the project, which commercial harvesters and others fear will imperil the world’s largest sockeye salmon population, is a positive or negative development.

The letter requests details, for example, about pipeline trenching plans and soil erosion, as well as the contents of drilling muds, the likelihood of turbidity in streams and the potential impact on the lodging industry. It asks for the possible effects on fish from a concentrated spill of metal-laden sediment.

“Although much of the information the state has provided the USACE previously has been incorporated into the DEIS, further work is necessary to ensure potential effects to the human environment from each alternative are adequately evaluated and described in the [final environmental impact statement],” the letter, signed by Kyle Moselle, OPMP’s associate director, wrote.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Study on salmon ear stones cited by EPA in Pebble draft EIS comments

July 9, 2019 — On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency released its formal comment on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Pebble Mine.

The 100-page release pointed to a bevy of environmental studies that highlight potential harm to land, water and animals in the Bristol Bay region — consequences that the EPA claims were not fully considered in the draft EIS from the Army Corps of Engineers.

One of those studies focused on the growth and development of young salmon in a region with the largest wild sockeye run in the world.

One of the study’s co-authors, Daniel Schindler, said his findings show that the waters where young sockeye and Chinook salmon grow and develop can shift from year to year. Essentially, even rivers and streams that don’t serve as homes for young fish now, may do just that in the future.

“Certain parts of the habitat do well in some years,” Schindler said. “And other parts of the habitat do better in other years. So it’s really the intact nature of the whole Nushagak watershed that produces such reliable returns to the fishery.”

Read the full story at KTOO

US House minibus bill includes amendment to stop Pebble Mine

June 24, 2019 — The U.S. House of Representatives has advanced a fiscal 2020 “minibus” appropriations bill that includes an amendment that could hit the brakes again on efforts to mine for copper and other minerals in close proximity to the Bristol Bay, Alaska, wild-caught salmon fishery.

The legislation, which covers the budgets of the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Defense, State-Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development, was passed on Wednesday by a party-line vote of 226-203.

Earlier in the day the House voted, 233-201, to attach an amendment from representative Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, that cuts off funding to the Corps of Engineers to finish the environmental process needed to secure permits for the proposed Pebble Mine. In his argument for the change, Huffman, who is co-chair of the Wild Salmon Caucus, said what Pebble Limited Partnership wants to do near the headwaters of Bristol Bay is unprecedented, Alaska Public Media reported.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News