Saving Seafood

Alternative Energy Collides With Fishermen’s Livelihood Off Long Island

December 15, 2016 — The following is excerpted from an article published in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. It was written by Joseph De Avila:

The federal government on Thursday plans to auction off a parcel of 79,000 acres in the Atlantic Ocean just south of Long Island to build a wind farm over fishing grounds that scallop and squid fishermen say are vital to their trade.

Bidders hope to secure a 25-year lease to operate a wind farm, to sell the electricity to energy-hungry Long Island and the New York City region. Offshore wind is a big part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan for New York to get half of its energy from alternative sources by 2030.

But the commercial fishing industry opposes building wind turbines on this particular stretch of the Atlantic Ocean, which is sandwiched between shipping lanes into and out of the New York harbor. “We are very afraid we are going to lock up an area of the bottom that is definitely favorable for scallop settlement,” said James Gutowski, a scallop fisherman from Barnegat Light, N.J., and chairman of the Fisheries Survival Fund.

Members of the fishing industry say the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management didn’t adequately consider what the impact would have on scallop and squid fishing grounds. The Fisheries Survival Fund and other members of the fishing industry filed a lawsuit last Thursday in a Washington, D.C., federal court seeking an injunction to block the lease from going into effect.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has already removed about 1,780 acres from the lease area after the National Marine Fisheries Service flagged that parcel as a sensitive habitat and a prime commercial fishing spot.

The bureau also has awarded 11 offshore wind leases so far, including sites off Massachusetts, Delaware and Virginia. The developers for each of those projects are currently conducting site assessments, according to the bureau, which declined to comment on the lawsuit. A hearing is set for February. Other plaintiffs include the Garden State Seafood Association and the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.

Offshore-wind developer Deepwater Wind, based in Rhode Island, began operating the first offshore wind farm in the U.S. on Monday off Block Island, R.I., near the tip of Montauk. It also has a site located between Montauk and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., that it plans to build in phases. The first phase could begin construction in 2019 and would provide enough energy for more than 50,000 homes for Long Island’s South Fork.

A 2011 plan for the strip of the Atlantic Ocean, located about 11.5 miles from Jones Beach, called for building 194 turbines that would generate enough electricity to power 245,000 homes. But today’s improved wind technology could generate even more power, according to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is managing the auction. “There is significant market demand” in the region, said Tracey Blythe Moriarty, a bureau spokeswoman.

Some 14 organizations have qualified to bid during Thursday’s auction, including the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA. The authority is the first state entity to participate in a federal offshore wind auction, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal 

Proposed Atlantic wind energy lease auction to proceed

December 13th, 2016 — The federal government’s plan to auction the development rights to a huge offshore windfarm in the Atlantic Ocean between New York and New Jersey will proceed Thursday.

Groups representing the fishing industry in four states sought to delay the auction. But an agreement between the groups and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will allow it to proceed.

A lawyer for the fishing groups says they still will be able to seek a halt to the final sale during a federal court proceeding now scheduled for Feb. 8, 2017.

Andrew Minkiewicz says the delay gives both sides more time to submit documents. A judge in Washington, D.C., agreed to the plan Monday.

The groups, including scallop fishermen, claim the 127-square-mile project would harm their business.

A BOEM spokeswoman declined comment.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald 

Last plea to Obama on offshore drilling limits

November 17, 2016 — WASHINGTON — Oil and gas exploration in the U.S. waters of the Atlantic Ocean may put some legacy economic interests at risk, a consortium of area businesses said.

More than 10,000 business and hundreds of thousands of families tied to commercial fishing sent a letter through an Atlantic Coast business alliance to President Barack Obama urging him to hold off on expanding access to potential drillers.

Energy companies use seismic surveys to get a better understanding of the oil and gas reserve potential and some groups have expressed concern that action could have a detrimental impact on marine ecosystems. Seismic research could interfere with normal communication patterns for some marine species, though contractors said the impacts are temporary.

The consortium said in their letter to the White House that seismic work could disrupt the 1.4 million area jobs and the $95 billion in economic activity tied to regional fishing, tourism and recreation.

Read the full story at UPI

U.S. plans to lease New Jersey seafloor for wind farm

October 28th, 2016 — The federal government will hold an auction in December to lease nearly 80,000 acres of the Atlantic Ocean seafloor for a developer to build a large wind farm about 18 miles southeast of Sandy Hook.

The triangular area, about 12.5 miles south of Long Beach, on Long Island, is slightly smaller than originally intended, to exclude an environmentally sensitive section of seafloor known as the Cholera Bank, which has an irregular bottom that attracts an abundance of sea life. As a result, it has long been a favorite spot for fishermen to gather year round to bottom fish for blues, cod, blackfish and bonito.

The auction, set for Dec. 15, will come just a year after the Obama administration awarded leases to two companies to build wind farms off the southern coast of New Jersey.

“New York is a critical component in building a robust U.S. offshore wind industry,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, director of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees commercial offshore wind leases.

The agency conducted a study to determine the visual impact of a hypothetical wind farm in the area to be leased. The simulation shows how a wind farm would look from Fire Island and Jones Beach on the Long Island coast, as well as from Sandy Hook and Asbury Park along the New Jersey coast.

Read the full story at Asbury Park Press 

Eel migration study tells ‘romantic’ tale

October 6, 2016 — Scientists are a step closer to solving the mystery of one of the great animal migrations.

Each autumn, eels leave European rivers to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to breed for a single time, then die.

Tagging studies show that the fish swim more than 3,000 miles (4,800 km) to the Sargasso Sea.

But, rather than one mass spawning in the spring – an idea held for a century – their arrival is staggered, UK researchers say.

“Eel migration is a rather romantic tale,” said lead researcher David Righton, head of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) in Lowestoft.

“Eels only spawn once in their lifetime and then they die, so they’re making this final journey of their life, towards the Sargasso Sea, to meet their life’s goals, if you like.

“And so the fact that we’ve got a little bit of insight into that – but we’ve also got some new questions about how eels tackle that really fundamental problem of meeting that life goal – is really, really fascinating.”

Read the full story at the BBC

NEW JERSEY: Some of the long-term challenges facing New Jersey’s beach replenishment efforts

September 30, 2016 — Even before hurricane Hermine threatened to strip New Jersey’s beaches yet again earlier this month, skeptics questioned how the state and Army Corps of Engineers can commit to spending nearly $2 billion in beach replenishment through the mid 21st century.

Mercifully, Hermine headed farther east over the Atlantic Ocean, sparing New Jersey’s beach replenishment program another price increase.

But the question of whether the program is misguided, due to its high price on both the taxpayers and the environment remains. It will need continual rejuvenation as even the best-engineered beaches lose sand frequently regardless of storms.

Depleting underwater sand piles

As sand becomes increasingly valuable, fisherman expect underwater ridges to be depleted, despite being home to large schools of fish and other sea life. And with an expected sea-level rise, there’s no telling how the ecosystem will adjust or how much sand will be required. The only certainty is that local underwater sand hills will be exhausted before century’s end.

Judging from the experience with building Long Beach Island beaches — where historic ridges called the Harvey Cedar Lumps are nearly mined out — it appears certain that underwater sand hills close to the beaches will be gone within decades.

Read the full story at Newsworks

The Deal to Share the North American Fish and Chips Supply

September 22, 2016 — There’s a looming fish and chips crisis in the United States.

The number of cod, the fish most used in the popular pub dish, is in decline in the waters off New England, and it seems overfishing and warming ocean temperatures as a result of climate change are to blame.

The U.S. and Canada have come to a deal on how to divide what remains of the North American cod supply in parts of the Atlantic Ocean. The Associated Press has the breakdown:

The countries have agreed to set the total allowable catch at 730 metric tons next year. The U.S. will be allowed to take 146 metric tons and Canada will get the rest…

Read the full story at The Atlantic

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester Fresh banks on ocean-to-table appeal

September 12, 2016 — This is a story that starts at 2 o’clock in the morning, when those who work on Gloucester fishing boats rise for the day, ready to hit the water.

“Gloucester Fresh” is the mantra coming from America’s oldest fishing port, intended to tap into the farm-to-table trend while applying it to the Atlantic Ocean. The bid to reinvigorate the city’s historic industry conjures a tradition of hard work, blue water, fresh air, and one of nature’s most beneficial resources.

“This is a very healthy protein,” said Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, whose husband, John, is one of the hardy souls who sets off in the early morning and returns to the dock at 3 p.m. with that day’s catch. “It’s the only natural protein left in the world. You’re talking about the North Atlantic, the cleanest water around the United States. We’ve fought very hard so we can keep a clean ocean for the fish.”

While cod, flounder, and haddock continue to serve as the breadwinners, the ocean-to-table movement is promoting underused species such as whiting and redfish that are often eaten by fishermen’s families but not often found on restaurant menus. Exposing consumers to new species is the reason Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken has been demonstrating how to cook redfish soup at seafood shows.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: Dinner aims to promote Gloucester’s catch

August 18, 2016 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — The seafood bounty that springs from the Atlantic Ocean waters around Gloucester will be the centerpiece of the “Sea to Supper” community dinner to benefit the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association.

The dinner, with a menu created by Relish Catering and Events of Manchester, is scheduled to run from 6 to 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 25 in the waterfront pavilion tent at the Mile Market One restaurant at Cape Ann’s Marina Resort off Essex Avenue. It will highlight some of the underutilized and plentiful seafood species landed in Gloucester, such as whiting, dabs, redfish and butterfish.

The event is designed beyond solely a culinary experience, according to the organizers that include Fishing Partnership Support Services, the city of Gloucester, Mile Marker One and the Gloucester Arts and Culture Initiative. There will be discussions on how to create markets for the underutilized species and methods for reintegrating them into the commercial fishing industry’s local landings.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Now Available: BOEM Provides New Resource for Atlantic Fishing Industry

July 14, 2016 — The following was released by the Bureau of Ocean Managment:

BOEM is pleased to announce that we have recently added a new webpage for the commercial fishing industry to serve as a single point of entry for updates on Atlantic offshore renewable energy planning and leasing efforts.

http://www.boem.gov/Atlantic-Fishing/

The webpage will provide users with status updates, charts and maps, and project-specific developer contact information for fisheries liaisons and fishery representatives.

Please bookmark this link to find the latest information. We encourage and welcome feedback on how we can further enhance this resource. Please send your comments to the email address below.