Saving Seafood

Adjudicator shoots down objections to MSC certification of Atlantic menhaden

August 1, 2019 — An independent adjudicator has dismissed nearly all of the objections raised against granting the Atlantic menhaden fishery certification by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

Omega Protein, the Houston, Texas-based division of Canada’s Cooke filed for the MSC label for both Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico menhaden fisheries in June 2017 and received a positive recommendation from SAI Global for the Atlantic fishery in March 2019.

But the request also received two objections, one from the Nature Conservancy and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the other by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TCRP), the Coastal Conservation Association and the American Sportfishing Association.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Report: Pennsylvania must do more to help Chesapeake Bay

May 29, 2019 — A nonprofit that tracks pollution in the Chesapeake Bay lambasted Pennsylvania on Tuesday, saying that the state is failing to protect the nation’s largest estuary from farm manure and dirty stormwater.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation released a report saying Pennsylvania’s plan to reduce pollution from farms and cities is “woefully inadequate” and underfunded by about $250 million a year.

The foundation also warned that the Environmental Protection Agency has failed to keep Pennsylvania on track. It’s one of six states, along with the District of Columbia, federally required to significantly reduce bay pollution by 2025.

“If EPA does not hold Pennsylvania accountable, CBF and others must consider legal action,” foundation President William C. Baker warned in a news release.

Pennsylvania officials said the foundation’s assessment is inaccurate and failed to account for all of the state’s efforts. The EPA said in its own statement that Pennsylvania has made “significant” progress.

The foundation’s report is the latest note of caution about the Chesapeake Bay’s health, which appears to be improving after decades of unbridled pollution.

In recent years, the story of the 200-mile-long (325-kilometer-long) bay has mostly been about signs of recovery. Underwater grasses are spreading. Oxygen dead zones are shrinking. The latest survey of blue crabs showed the highest estimates in seven years.

But environmentalists say more work is needed and threats like climate change still loom. Last year, a punishing cycle of downpours led to increased pollution in the bay, according to a recent report from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Fisheries Commission Looks to Manage Dropping Rockfish Population

May 6, 2019 — The goal is to save the striped bass population on the east coast.

But many watermen fear that further restrictions could affect their livelihoods.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Eastern Shore Director Alan Girard says the dropping rockfish population are in need of some regrowth.  The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is looking to manage that population through these regulations.

Read the full story at WBOC

Maryland legislators increase protection for oyster sanctuaries in 5 Bay tributaries

April 1, 2019 — Oyster sanctuaries in five Chesapeake Bay tributaries selected by Maryland for large-scale restoration projects will get an extra level of protection from commercial harvest under legislation approved in Annapolis this week.

Maryland lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to a bill that requires legislative approval to alter the sanctuaries where major reef restoration work is either completed, under way or planned. It now goes to Gov. Larry Hogan.

The bill, backed by the General Assembly’s leadership and by environmental groups, passed the Senate by a vote of 32 to 14. The House had approved it nearly two weeks earlier, 98 to 40.

Alison Prost, Maryland executive director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, issued a statement hailing its passage.

“This legislation is crucial to the recovery of Maryland’s oyster population,” she said, adding that the bivalves are the foundation of the Bay ecosystem. They filter the water, and the reefs they build with their shells provide habitat for fish, crabs and other aquatic creatures.

As part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, Maryland pledged nearly five years ago to restore oyster populations in five of its Bay tributaries by 2025. Restoration is essentially complete in Harris Creek and in various stages of construction or planning in the other four — the Tred Avon, Little Choptank, St. Mary’s and Manokin rivers.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

Chesapeake Bay health worsened in 2018 for the first time in a decade, report says

January 9, 2019 — For the first time in a decade, the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay declined, dropping from a C- to a D+ in an annual State of the Bay report issued Monday.

Culprits in the decline include increased runoff from rainstorms in 2018 that were rendered more intense by a changing climate and continued failure in some jurisdictions to curb nutrient and sediment loads.

This is especially true in Pennsylvania, which consistently fails to meet most of its bay cleanup commitments, and where the chronically polluted Susquehanna River delivers half the bay’s freshwater.

“Simply put, the bay suffered a massive assault in 2018,” Will Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, told reporters. “The bay’s sustained improvement was reversed in 2018, exposing just how fragile the recovery is.”

Adding to the assault, Baker said, are plans by the Trump administration to roll back clean water and clean air regulations that will directly impact the watershed.

Trump plans to overturn an Obama-era rule and reduce federal oversight for vast sections of the nation’s waterways and wetlands, and also ease federal restrictions for coal-fired power plant emissions. About a third of the nitrogen that reaches the bay comes from airborne sources, said Baker, some from as far away as the Midwest.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

Virginia conservationists blast approval of seismic testing for oil, gas in Atlantic

December 4, 2018 — Virginia conservationists are blasting the Trump administration’s decision to reverse course and approve seismic air gun surveys along the Atlantic coast to search for buried oil and gas reserves.

The groups cite widespread public opposition to seismic blasting and offshore drilling, as well as the harm posed to marine life and coastal economies that rely on healthy waters and wetlands.

“This action flies in the face of massive opposition to offshore drilling and exploration from over 90 percent of coastal municipalities in the proposed blast zone,” said Diane Hoskins, campaign director at the D.C.-based advocacy group Oceana. “President (Donald) Trump is essentially giving these companies permission to harass, harm and possibly even kill marine life.”

“Offshore drilling in our region would pose far too many risks to the health of coastal waters and the Chesapeake Bay, fishing, aquaculture, tourism and all jobs that depend on clean water,” said Lisa Feldt, vice president for environmental protection and restoration at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “We need to run away from offshore drilling, not move towards it.”

Read the full story at the Daily Press

NOAA Approves Seismic Blasts off Coast of Md., Va.

December 4, 2018 — The federal government has cleared the way for five companies to do seismic surveys in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Maryland and Virginia, as a first step to possible offshore drilling for gas and oil.

National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, gave final authorization, under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, to “incidentally, but not intentionally, harass marine mammals to companies proposing to conduct geophysical surveys in support of hydrocarbon exploration in the Atlantic Ocean.”

That means NOAA Fisheries will allow seismic blasts even though they may unintentionally disturb marine mammals. The companies will be required to monitor acoustics, and take action to reduce the impact on animals. The required actions include vessels listening and watching for marine life, especially protected species. Companies must increase the seismic activity gradually “to alert animals in the area and reduce potential for exposure to intense noise.” And when certain sensitive species are nearby, they must stop blasting.

The geophysical surveys use airgun arrays to explore for hydrocarbons. A 2017 Presidential Executive Order encourages energy exploration like this. The NOAA Fisheries decision to allow blasting on the Atlantic Coast was met with outrage from conservation groups like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says there is no evidence that seismic surveys harm marine life, but a study it conducted in 2014 shows that nearly three million dolphins and half a million whales could be harassed, or worse, by survey activity.

Read the full story at the Chesapeake Bay Magazine

MARYLAND: Feds give qualified OK to dredge oyster shells from Man O’ War Shoal

June 19, 2018 — After years of scrutiny, federal regulators have given a qualified green light to a controversial Maryland plan to dredge old oyster shells from an ancient reef near Baltimore — a project intended to enhance oyster habitat elsewhere in the Chesapeake Bay, but also to help the sagging commercial fishery.

The Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a provisional permit on May 17 to the state Department of Natural Resources to take up to 5 million bushels of shells from Man O’ War Shoal just outside the mouth of the Patapsco River and use the shell to replenish or rebuild oyster reefs at other Bay locations.

The Corps’ conditional approval comes after nearly three years of effort by the DNR to address questions and concerns raised about the project, which is opposed by environmentalists, recreational anglers and even some watermen.

But now, having won the federal go-ahead, state officials appear in no hurry to act on it. They haven’t even informed those in favor of dredging the shoals about the Corps’ decision.

Man O’ War Shoal harbors up to 100 million bushels of shells in its 446-acre footprint, according to a 1988 survey. Though productive long ago, it has relatively few live oysters now, despite repeated efforts to reseed it.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

Virginia: Menhaden quota bill pulled in Va. House of Delegates

March 7, 2018 — A much-lobbied bill about an oily fish that nobody eats died in the House of Delegates — but with a promise by some proponents and stern opponents to work together to push for permission to catch more.

The bill, backed by the Northam Administration, was an effort to deal with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s sharp, 41.5 percent cut in a Chesapeake Bay quota for menhaden.

But the administration and Omega Protein, the owner of the Reedville plant that processes menhaden from the bay, agreed to stop fighting over the bill and work together to convince the Marine Fisheries Commission to increase the quota.

The regional commission last year approved a more than 36,000-metric-ton cut in bay quota for menhaden caught by drawing huge “seine” nets around schools of the fish and then hauling them up onto so-called “purse seine” fishing vessels.

Currently, the old marine fisheries commission quota of 87,216 metric tons for fish caught is written into state law.

Knight had proposed removing the reference in state law to the 87,216 tons and empowering the head of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to set a new quota after appealing, and hopefully winning, an increased quota from the regional body.

Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Matt Strickler had argued that keeping the old quota in the Code of Virginia risked sanctions that could include an outright ban on menhaden fishing in the bay.

Environmental groups — including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, League of Conservation Voters and Nature Conservancy, as well as sports fishermen — argued that the lower quota was necessary as a precautionary measure. They fear too many young menhaden are caught in the bay, a key nursery area for the migratory fish. This could put the menhaden population at risk, as well other species, including striped bass and ospreys.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

 

Virginia: Time for bill runs out, higher menhaden quota remains

February 13, 2018 — A multi-state body says Virginians must catch fewer menhaden from the bay, but Virginia’s General Assembly didn’t listen — or, to be exact, didn’t really get a chance to hear.

A bill to bring Virginia’s quota in line with a steep cut demanded by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has languished for more than a month in the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee.

The committee won’t meet again before Tuesday’s midnight deadline for the House of Delegates to act on bills sponsored by House members. Without a committee’s vote to recommend a bill, it couldn’t make it to the floor for all the delegates to consider.

And that means that the higher quota applies for the only fishery — Virginia’s biggest — that the General Assembly regulates.

Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, wanted the General Assembly to agree to the cut in Virginia landings of menhaden from 87,216 metric tons to 51,000 tons that was approved in November by the regional fisheries commission.

That 41.5 percent cut came as the commission approved an 8 percent increase in the coastwide quota set by the commission.

The proposed quota cut is meant to protect a major nursery for menhaden and the striped bass that feed on them, said Chris Moore, senior regional ecosystem scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

While menhaden aren’t sold for human food, they are processed for fish oil, in food supplements, and for fishmeal, an important ingredient in livestock feed, as well as in pet food and to nourish farm-grown fish and seafood.

The striped bass that eat menhaden, on the other hand, have become an important food fish, as well as popular catch for recreational fishermen. Menhaden are also a vital food for marine mammals and osprey.

Moore said not enacting the regional commission quota puts Virginia, and the fishing crews and processing plant workers who depend on menhaden, at risk of sanctions.

That’s a big business. Omega Protein, the Texas-based fish oil and fishmeal producer whose Reedville operation, supplied by seven ships, is the fifth-largest U.S. port for fish landings, with 321 million pounds, worth $31 million, in 2016.

Read the full story at the Daily Press