Saving Seafood

Can Offshore Wind Power Revive U.S. Ports?

June 19, 2017 — This salt-caked fishing port has been flush with wind prospectors ever since Massachusetts legislators passed a law for massive wind development in the shallow waters south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Ed Anthes-Washburn, a local port official, estimates he gives five harbor tours a month to wind industry representatives. Planning for the industry’s arrival now occupies much of his time, alongside proposals to redevelop several old industrial sites and a Seattle-style fish pier.

“It started Aug. 8, the day the governor signed the bill,” Anthes-Washburn said, gazing out over the harbor here, where a mass of fishing trawlers, scallopers and clam boats formed a rocking forest of rigging and nets. “It’s been pretty consistent since then.”

States up and down the Atlantic coast are rushing to become the capital of America’s burgeoning offshore wind industry, hoping the massive turbines will breathe new life into ports mired by a shrinking fishing industry and a flagging industrial base.

Maryland officials last month approved renewable energy credits for two developments totaling 368 megawatts off their shores in a bid to transform Baltimore and Ocean City into the industry’s manufacturing and maintenance hub in the Mid-Atlantic (Climatewire, May 12).

Lawmakers in New Jersey are counting down the days until Gov. Chris Christie (R) leaves office early next year, when they plan to restore their own credits for offshore wind developments (Energywire, June 9).

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) wants to bring 2,400 megawatts of wind power online by 2030 (Energywire, Jan. 11).

But few places are betting on offshore wind quite like New Bedford.

Read the full story at the Scientific American

PRESIDENT: “FISHERMEN FOR TRUMP, I LIKE THAT”

June 12, 2017 — Regardless of your political persuasion, when’s the last time you remember the President of the United States talking about recreational fishing?

More specifically, as a New Jersey angler, do you recall if there was ever a moment that the Commander in Chief spoke directly to a group of New Jersey fishermen and boat builders from the Garden State? How about a personal “shout out” to Viking Yachts on the Bass River or the New Jersey based Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA)?

President Donald J. Trump came to New Jersey on Sunday to headline a fundraiser for the re-election of Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ 3rd District) at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.

While the event was closed to the media, cellphone video posted from the event shows the President speaking to assembled guests – who sources say helped raise more than $800,000 for the MacArthur campaign – and asking where his fishermen were seated as he reaches into his suit pocket and fishes out a Fishermen for Trump bumper sticker created during the 2016 election by the RFA.

“Fishermen for Trump, I like that,” the President said on Sunday at Bedminster while holding up the bumper sticker in front of the audience, flanked by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Rep. MacArthur. “My brother loved fishing, loved fishing, and he loved Viking by the way too,” President Trump said while tucking the bumper sticker back into his jacket pocket.

For Jim Donofrio, executive director of the RFA, the president’s personal interaction with saltwater anglers and fishing industry representatives should give plenty of reason for optimism.

“I’ve had such an extraordinary response from this White House, it’s just amazing,” Donofrio said on Sunday after leaving the Bedminster event. “Just two weeks ago we were down in Washington meeting with Earl Comstock, director of policy and strategic planning at the Commerce Department, and I feel we finally have an administration that’s focused on the socioeconomic impact of recreational fishing, from fluke and sea bass all the way out to offshore tuna and billfish.”

Read the full story at The Fisherman

Fluke fight finally finished – for 2017

May 24, 2017 — Local fishermen have finally learned what the regulations will be for the summer flounder season in New Jersey. After a very long period of bickering, a compromise has been reached.

For all coastal waters there will be a 3-fish daily limit with an 18-inch minimum size limit. The minimum size in Delaware Bay will be 17-inches while anglers fishing on the beach at IBSP will have a daily limit of two fish at 16-inches. The season will begin on Thursday, May 25, and run until Tuesday, September 5.

In 2016 the summer flounder season ran from May 21 through September 25 with a five fish per day limit and a minimum size of 18-inches. The original proposed restrictions for 2017 called for a 19-inch minimum size and a daily limit of 3 fish.

The NJ Marine Fisheries Council recommended the new rules at a meeting last week, and DEP Commissioner Bob Martin has approved them with a season running from May 25 through September 5.

The regulations adopted by DEP are final but the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council did not accept them, and appear to be moving toward New Jersey being in non-compliance.

Although few anglers are pleased at these regulations, it is a compromise from prior statements and a reflection of the work put forth by NJ state officials at the federal level.

The federal government had mandated rules to reduce the total catch by New Jersey recreational anglers. This determination was reached when NOAA announced the stocks of summer flounder had been reduced to unacceptable levels.

The state of New Jersey decided to fight the federal mandate with Governor Chris Christie and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection coming out strongly against it. State officials including DEP head Bob Martin met with senior officials from the Department of Commerce and NOAA Fisheries to express their opposition.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

NEW JERSEY: Fluke situation looking better

March 6, 2017 — The new Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, has been confirmed — and the path to a fluke season during which the public will have a reasonable chance at catching a legal fish seems a little clearer.

The following release from the governor’s office emphasizes the Christie administration’s commitment to maintaining status quo regulations rather then the 19-inch minimum which the ASMFC has imposed:

“The Christie Administration has formally requested the new U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, to put a hold on severe restrictions on recreational summer flounder fishing adopted recently by a regional fisheries commission, a move that would effectively cripple the state’s fishing industry and have far-reaching impacts on the shore tourism economy, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin announced today.

Read the full story at NJ.com

NEW JERSEY: Gov. Christie’s administration preserves Delaware Bay Wetlands

February 10, 2017 — The Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Acres Program has completed the $620,000 purchase of a wetlands area along Delaware Bay in Cumberland County that will protect habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife.

The DEP used $462,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program and $158,000 from the Green Acres Program to purchase 204 acres of bay wetlands and upland buffers in Maurice River Township. The land will be added to the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Heislerville Wildlife Management Area.

“We are very happy to preserve this land for use by a wide variety of wildlife species, including various types of waterfowl, shorebirds, bird of prey, and wading birds,” said DEP Commissioner Bob Martin in a press release. “The Delaware Bay region is truly a special place, remarkable for its beauty and opportunities for diverse wildlife-related activities, including hiking, fishing, hunting and bird watching.”

Ecotourism is a growing industry in New Jersey, especially in places such as the Delaware Bay region, where nature lovers converge to watch migrations of shorebirds, birds of prey such as eagles, osprey and hawks, and even butterflies and dragonflies. The Delaware Bay region is home to the state’s largest concentration of bald eagles, and is a critical stopover for migrating shorebirds.

Read the full story at the New Jersey Herald

DAVID F. LIPTON: Christie should advocate for N.J. fishing industry

January 31, 2017 — President Donald Trump is going to reverse (“undo”) job-killing, industry-destroying regulations in dozens of huge federal administrative agencies like the EPA, the FCC and the National Labor Relations Board.

Trump campaigned on the promise to help us all take our country back by eliminating these business-stifling rules put in place by Barack Obama and his minions.

We need help in New Jersey right now since the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the managed fisheries, is getting ready to cripple the New Jersey fishing industry when it receives a recommendation from the Atlantic States Fisheries Commission and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council that will vote Thursday to reduce the flounder quotas in New Jersey, crippling the fishing business on “bad facts” presented to the agency.

Read more at the Asbury Park Press

New Jersey sinks more vessels for offshore reefs

October 18th, 2016 — New Jersey continues to sink large vessels at recreational fishing reef miles off the coast. 

According to a release from the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, crews deployed the Austin, a 68-foot former trawler, at the Axel Carlson Reef, located about 4.4 nautical miles southeast of the Manasquan Inlet last month.

Crews also sank Lisa Kim, a 115-foot surf clam vessel, Lisa Kim at Wildwood Reef, situated 8.3 miles northeast of Cape May Inlet.

The sinking is part of the state’s offshore artificial reef deployment program that resumed this summer after the restoration of federal funding.

According to a release from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the state expects to sink up to 10 vessels throughout its artificial reef network following a compromise between the Christie administration and recreational and commercial anglers after a dispute over access to popular reefs. 

“Artificial reefs create important habitat for many types of marine life, and attract fish that are popular with recreational anglers,” said Commissioner Bob Martin. “Our artificial reefs are an important part of the economy of the Jersey Shore because they are so popular with anglers as well as sport divers. We are grateful to all our partners in the recreational and commercial fishing industries for working with us to get this program back on track.”

Read the full story at Newsworks.com

NEW JERSEY: Money and Sand: Will There Be Enough for New Jersey’s Beaches?

September 29, 2016 — Beach replenishment is costly and exacts a heavy toll on the environment, depleting underwater ridges that are home to a broad variety of sea life

Even before hurricane Hermine threatened to strip New Jersey’s beaches yet again late last summer, 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.

“This project is another important component of the Christie administration’s plan to bring engineered beaches and dunes to the entire coast,” state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said September 2, as he announced work would start soon on a new project, pumping another 3.8 million cubic yards of sand from the sea floor onto eight miles of beach from Atlantic City to Longport.

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.

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.

Read the full story at NJ Spotlight

JEFF TITTEL: Fish kills result of Christie failed policies

September 2, 2016 — The millions of fish kills happening along the Jersey Shore are like a canary in a coal mine. These fish are dying because they are unable to survive due to low dissolved oxygen levels in the water. When stormwater and pollution enter our waterways, the level of nutrients increases and oxygen levels drop. The warmer water temperatures we have seen also accelerate algae blooms and bacteria growth that come from nutrient runoff. Instead of protecting our bays, the Christie administration has promoted overdevelopment, increased nonpoint source pollution, and failed to address climate change.

While our bays are dying, Gov. Christie is rolling back water quality protections. The DEP is overhauling and weakening rules to protect Category 1 waters, eliminating stream buffers, and increasing development in environmentally sensitive areas, which will all increase pollution. Most of the stormwater control systems we have are broken or do not work, but our governor has weakened stormwater rules. This would have required recharging and detention of stormwater as well as buffers to help clean up our waterways. There is even more potential for fish kills to start occurring on the Barnegat Bay beaches because the DEP’s failure to require Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant to install cooling towers has resulted in millions of gallons of thermal pollution in the Bay.

Read the full letter at the Asbury Park Press

NEW JERSEY: Fishermen’s Energy Ocean Wind Project Tries Again for Governor’s Approval

March 24, 2016 — Fishermen’s Energy, a consortium of South Jersey commercial fisheries that formed a wind power company in order to influence where such farms on the ocean can locate – away from important fishing and ocean scalloping grounds – has sought for six years to set up a demonstration wind farm 2.8 nautical miles off Atlantic City. Its plan for six wind turbines, producing 24 megawatts of electricity, has the backing of the New Jersey Legislature, environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the federal Department of Energy, and it obtained permits from state and local entities.

The only roadblock has been the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. The BPU must issue a wind renewable energy certificate, a funding mechanism for the proposed project, before the small wind farm can move forward. The BPU has said in the past that the project would be too costly for ratepayers to support. Fishermen’s Energy has always denied that claim, stating the BPU had come to a faulty conclusion through faulty mathematics.

After a 2015 bill that would have given Fishermen’s Energy Wind Project an expedited pass through the BPU was pocket-vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie, the Legislature recently passed a revised bill that now awaits the governor’s signature.

The revised Senate bill, S-988, passed the Senate, 23-11, in February. The concurrent bill A-3093 was passed by the Assembly on March 14.

The Senate bill was sponsored by Sen. Jim Whelan, with the concurrent bill sponsored by Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, both of Atlantic County. The revised bill eliminated language that directed the BPU to grant the required permit, and it deleted some language in the previous Assembly bill that would have eliminated a cost-benefit analysis. The cost-benefit analysis has been the bone of contention between the BPU and Fishermen’s Energy for the past two years.

Paul Gallagher, Fishermen’s Energy’s chief operating officer and general counsel, said he has no fears of such an analysis by the BPU now that certain qualifications have changed.

A company from China was originally going to supply the turbines, but now Fishermen’s Energy has decided to purchase turbines from Siemens, the world’s leader in wind turbine technology, with ocean turbines built in Germany and Denmark. On Tuesday, Gallagher said, “In December, Congress passed a five-year extension of the tax benefit project that makes it easier to attract investors. So we have a newly configured project, using Siemens turbines made in Germany and Denmark, traditional Western financing, plus tax incentives to make it even a more cost-effective project then what was rejected before” by the BPU.

“The bill is a relatively benign bill. It tells the BPU to let us come in and submit again. It’s on the governor’s desk, and we hope he signs it.”

Read the full story at The Sand Paper