Saving Seafood

Fishing interests, New Bedford sue feds over New York wind turbines

December 9, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD – The New Bedford-dominated northeastern scallop industry, aided by fishing interests in four states, is suing the federal government to try to block a 127 square-mile wind turbine development in what they say are crucial fishing grounds south of Long Island.

The complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeks an injunction to stop a Dec. 15 auction in which the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is selling a lease on the location. The scallop industry group Fisheries Survival Fund is leading a dozen plaintiffs, including the City of New Bedford, the Town of Narragansett, R.I., the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, and other entities in Rhode Island and New Jersey.

“The people that make their living on the water were the last ones considered, not the first,” said David Frulla, attorney for the plaintiffs.

Important for scalloping, the area is also one of five main locations to fish for squid in the northeast, he said.

The plaintiffs allege that the bureau has not done enough to seek alternate locations to the one sought by an unsolicited proposal from three New York energy companies: New York Power Authority, Long Island Power Authority, and Consolidated Edison. The companies want to put 194 turbines on about 81,000 acres, according to the complaint.

The complaint says that rather than seek alternatives now, the bureau has deferred analyzing the appropriateness of the site until years from now, after the developers have already invested a substantial amount money.

“In effect, (the bureau) has permitted private companies to lay claim to valuable ocean areas without an adequate public process,” the complaint says.

Bureau spokeswoman Tracey Moriarty said when the agency received the proposal, it embarked on a competitive lease process that included public comment, and it deleted 1,780 acres known as Cholera Bank after the National Marine Fisheries Service identified it as a sensitive area.

Read the full story from the New Bedford Standard-Times

Fishermen Hit Feds With Lawsuit Over Wind Lease Sale

December 9th, 2016 — A lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in an effort to delay the anticipated lease sale of the New York Wind Energy Area.

The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), which says it represents the majority of the limited-access Atlantic scallop fleet, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction to delay the lease sale for the development of an offshore wind project located approximately 11 miles off the coast of Long Island, N.Y. The lease sale is scheduled for Dec. 15.

The suit was filed against Sally Jewell, DOI secretary, and Abigail Hopper, BOEM director.

The filing alleges that the leasing process for BOEM did not adequately consider the impact the proposed New York Wind Energy Area would have on the region’s fishermen.

According to the FSF, the site is in the waters of the New York Bight on vital, documented scallop and squid fishing grounds, which serve as essential fish habitat and grounds for other commercially important species, including black sea bass and summer flounder.

The group also claims it is an important foraging area for threatened loggerhead sea turtles and critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The lawsuit argues that fishermen’s concerns regarding the location of the lease area received “virtually no attention or analysis” from government officials ahead of the planned Dec. 15 lease sale – despite repeated feedback from concerned fishing stakeholders.

Read the full story at North American Wind Power

Fishermen Object to New York Wind Farm Lease Sale

December 9th, 2016 — The Fisheries Survival Fund, which represents the majority of the limited access Atlantic scallop fleet, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to delay an anticipated lease sale for the development of offshore wind farms off New York.

A 26-mile long block approximately 11 miles off the coast of Long Island is scheduled for sale on December 15, 2016.

The Fund argues that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) did not adequately consider the impact the proposed New York Wind Energy Area would have on the region’s fishermen. The site chosen is in the waters of the New York Bight on vital, documented scallop and squid fishing grounds, which serves as essential fish habitat and grounds for other commercially important species, including black sea bass and summer flounder. It is also an important foraging area for threatened loggerhead sea turtles and critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The lawsuit argues that fishermen voiced their concerns but received “virtually no attention or analysis” from government officials. It further states that BOEM failed to identify the proposed wind farm’s environmental, economic, social and cultural impacts, and failed to “consider alternative sites in an open, collaborative, public forum.”

However, BOEM says it has given consideration to comments received on the Environmental Assessment. In response to concerns raised by commercial fishing interests, BOEM has included a lease requirement for the lessee to develop a publicly available Fisheries Communications Plan and work with a Fisheries Liaison to facilitate communication with the fishing industry.

Read the full story at the Maritime Executive 

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 

BOEM Announces Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Gulf of Mexico Geological and Geophysical Surveys

October 4th, 2016 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced the availability of a Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) that recommends strong measures to protect marine mammals and coastal environments in the Gulf of Mexico from the potential impacts of geological and geophysical (G&G) surveys for oil, gas and minerals.

Completion of the draft PEIS was a condition of a federal court settlement between BOEM and the National Resource Defense Council and other co-plaintiffs announced earlier this year.

“BOEM’s recommended approach offers the strongest practicable safeguards in an effort to eliminate or reduce impacts to marine mammals and the environment,” said BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper. “We continue to conduct research and monitor the science of this field and work with other agencies and stakeholders to create and maintain the protection of these resources.”

The draft PEIS evaluates the potential environmental impacts of G&G survey activities on marine mammals, fish, corals, and other environmentally sensitive species in the seabed and water column of the Gulf’s Outer Continental Shelf. The surveys will inform oil and gas exploration and sand extraction in Federal and adjacent state waters. G&G surveys use various technologies to determine whether areas have high potential for energy development or extraction of minerals, such as sand used for coastal restoration; and to identify potential hazards and environmental concerns.

Read the full story at Ocean News & Technology 

Confusion after LIPA wind farm meeting postponed

July 25, 2016 — New York State’s decision to postpone LIPA’s consideration of an offshore wind farm that is popular with environmentalists prompted confusion and rancor in its aftermath, as the Cuomo administration works on a wind-energy blueprint that could include other areas directly off Long Island.

A presentation prepared by the Long Island Power Authority this month – before the state stepped in recently and nixed a LIPA trustee vote – included a map of up to six “potential” New York wind-energy areas, including a long, straight swath 12 miles off the coast of the entire South Fork.

Another site comprises more than 100,000 acres in an area beyond an existing wind-energy area that LIPA and Con Edison previously had identified about 12 miles from Long Beach. Fishing groups oppose use of the location for a wind farm.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which has taken over that LIPA-Con Ed project, has been working for months on a comprehensive plan for wind energy for the state. A draft “blueprint” of that plan is due out in coming weeks.

A map similar to LIPA’s that lists the same six potential wind energy areas for New York appears in the state’s April cost analysis for Clean Energy Standard. In it, NYSERDA identified the South Fork coastal area off the Hamptons as having the potential to produce 3,081 megawatts of wind power from about 385 turbines rated 8 megawatts each.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which leases ocean sites, has yet to receive any formal request for the Hamptons-area site or other proposals beyond NYSERDA’s, said spokesman Stephen Boutwell.

If it were to, he said, the agency would work with the New York Renewable Energy Task Force, which includes federal and state agencies, local governments and tribes, to “identify other users of the areas and environmental concerns to assess the suitability of areas for leasing.”

Should the state move forward with any of the additional wind-energy areas listed in the LIPA and NYSERDA maps, they can expect opposition from fishing groups.

“Those [potential] wind-energy areas would destroy multiple fisheries,” said Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., a Rhode Island commercial fishing group. Added Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for the Fisheries Survival Fund, representing commercial scallopers, “All of them [wind-energy areas] are right smack dab in the middle of scallop grounds.”

Read the full story from Newsday at National Wind Watch 

New Jersey fishermen fear loss of huge underwater sand hill

July 25, 2016 — The appearance of the 123-foot offshore supply vessel Scarlett Isabella on the Manasquan Ridge is a bad omen to Capt. Jim Lovgren, a Point Pleasant Beach commercial fishermen.

The Scarlett was in the hire of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is looking for potential sand on the outer continental shelf that could be pumped up onto the Jersey beach. Tampering with these sand beds, which are long-established fishing areas, could reshape the fishing communities at the Shore, fishermen say.

The ridge, which starts to rise off the ocean floor 5 ½ miles southeast of Manasquan Inlet, is one of those potential resources of sand.

“Last year word was that Manasquan Ridge was a last resort for beach replenishment use. The fact that they are paying a survey vessel to crisscross it clearly says something different,” said Lovgren, who sits on the Executive Board of the Garden State Seafood Association.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

BP oil spill cost fishing industry at least $94.7 million in 2010

June 28, 2016 — The BP oil disaster cost the Gulf of Mexico’s commercial fishing industry $94.7 million to $1.6 billion and anywhere from 740 to 9,315 jobs in the first eight months, according to a new study by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The $355,888 study measured the effect of the Macondo well blowout from May through December 2010, the same period of time that is being used to calculate claims being paid to fishers under a 2012 court-approved settlement agreement between private parties and BP.

The authors of the study, conducted by The Vertex Companies of Boston, say the economics of the commercial seafood industry in the Gulf of Mexico are complex, and that a variety of factors contributed to the low and high estimates in their study. In some cases, dramatically reduced catch was partially offset Gulf-wide by price increases driven by both the oil spill and by other factors, such as a disease that limited the availability of foreign farm-raised shrimp.

Louisiana’s commercial fishing industry bore the brunt of the costs of the spill, compared to  the four other Gulf states, said the report, released Wednesday (June 22). The highest costs affected the catch of shrimp, oysters, crabs and menhaden.

For instance, the study found that in May 2010, 65 percent less shrimp was landed in Louisiana than in the previous year. Louisiana also saw a 54 percent decline in oyster landings in 2010, compared to 2009, the report said. And the state’s oyster revenue also dropped dramatically, by 51 percent over the previous year.

The report linked the significant oyster decline in Louisiana, in part, to the state’s decision to open freshwater diversions along the Mississippi River. The freshwater killed oysters, even though many oyster beds were in no-harvest zones set by state officials after the spill.

Read the full story at the New Orleans The Times-Picayune

Public Meetings on New York Offshore Wind

June 16, 2016 — The following was released by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management:

On June 2, 2016, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Ross Hopper announced the proposed lease sale and Environmental Assessment (EA) for commercial wind energy leasing on 81,130 acres offshore New York.

BOEM will hold five public meetings in June to provide an overview of the EA findings regarding potential site assessment (e.g., placement of meteorological and oceanographic survey equipment), and site characterization surveys (e.g., cultural and natural resource surveys), and offer additional opportunities for public comments. The meetings will begin at 6:00 p.m. in an open house format with a brief presentation starting around 6:30 p.m. The meetings will be held at the following locations:

Monday June 20, 2016

Long Branch Middle School (Auditorium)
404 Indiana Avenue

Long Branch, New Jersey 07740
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday June 21, 2016

Hofstra University (MPR Room)

900 Fulton Avenue

Hempstead, New York 11549
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Westhampton Beach Elementary School

379 Mill Road

Westhampton Beach, New York 11978
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

University of Rhode Island, Narragansett Bay Campus

Coastal Institute Building (Hazard Rooms A & B)

215 S Ferry Road

Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Waypoint Event Center at Fairfield Inn & Suites

Sea Loft Room

185 MacArthur Drive

New Bedford, Massachusetts 02740

6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

In addition to the EA meetings, BOEM will host an auction seminar in New York City to describe the auction format, explain the auction rules and demonstrate the auction process through meaningful examples. It will be followed by a public meeting on BOEM’s planning and leasing efforts regarding New York offshore wind energy activities. The public seminar and public meeting will be held at the following location:

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

TKP New York Conference Center, Empire A Room

109 W 39th St.

New York, NY 10018

Auction Seminar:12:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Public Meeting:    5:00 – 8:00 p.m. (with an overview presentation at 5:30 p.m.)

Auxiliary aids and services will be provided upon request. Please email your request to me as soon as possible via the address below (please request by June 22 for the June 29 auction seminar and public meeting). For more information about offshore wind planning efforts for New York go to http://www.boem.gov/New-York/.

NEW YORK: Feds identify offshore wind farm site

March 24, 2016 — Nearly a decade after plans for an offshore wind farm several miles off Jones Beach were scuttled, federal officials announced last week that an area off the coast of Long Beach has been identified for potential wind energy development — and called it a major step toward creating clean energy for the region.

The announcement by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management — naming an 81,000-acre site in federal waters 11 miles south of the barrier island that would be suitable for wind turbines — was welcome news to environmental groups that have been calling for renewable energy sources and ways to reduce the region’s dependence on fossil fuels.

“This wind farm will be at least 11 miles offshore, if not more, and that’s important, because a decade ago, the first proposal was for 3.6 miles offshore,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “This will now be very far offshore and not be a visual concern. It’s important because we are in critical need of making the transition from dirty fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.”

But the proposal has sparked the ire of those who claim that wind turbines in that area, known as the New York Bite, would negatively impact the commercial fishing industry. “The problem … is that it was an unsolicited bid — the power companies are coming out and saying we want this area without having talked to anyone prior to the selection,” said Drew Minkiewicz, a spokesman for the Fisheries Survival Fund, which opposes the construction of turbines in that area. “It’s a highly productive fishing area, including scallops. … We harvest over $5 million [worth] every year, on average.”

The announcement by the BOEM comes after Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed plans for a liquefied natural gas terminal roughly 16 nautical miles off Jones Beach in December, citing environmental concerns and saying that the terminal would conflict with the potential site of a wind farm. Officials said that an offshore wind power source is in keeping with Cuomo’s goal of generating 50 percent of New York’s energy from renewable sources by 2030.

Read the full story at the Long Island Herald