Saving Seafood

Defining terms: What does ‘sustainable seafood’ mean?

October 10, 2022 — The term “sustainable seafood” gets used a lot with regard to the fishing and aquaculture industries — it’s a phrase that varies in meaning and is used everywhere from policy directives to marketing strategies. But what does it really mean?

Colloquially, the term “sustainable” is often in reference to environmental impact, with regard to overfishing and making sure that meeting human demands doesn’t destroy ocean ecosystems. Commercial fisheries in the United States are regulated against overfishing, but that doesn’t mean it is not a problem — a growing demand for seafood coupled with climate change related pressures put a lot of strain on the ocean’s capacity to keep producing fish for people to consume.

Meanwhile, the world’s population continues to grow. It is currently at 8 billion and estimated to be 11.2 billion by the end of the century. This growth puts additional pressure on the ocean. Paired with limitations faced by land-based farming, researchers have pointed to the ocean as a possible venue for growable food in light of this trend. In 2020, the United Nations released a report saying that aquaculture had already improved food security globally. Still, this conversation is not without an important caveat — farming seafood is not a panacea solution, and there are many forms of aquaculture that can harm both the environment and local communities instead of benefiting them.

Read the full article at CostalReview.org

Seafood industry to play critical role in feeding growing population as climate change hits harder

October 7, 2022 — The world’s human population is expected to surpass 10 billion by 2050. How to feed that many people, especially as the effects of global warming continue to worsen, was the subject of a 5 October panel at the Global Seafood Alliance’s 2022 GOAL conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

University of Washington Professor of Fisheries Science Ray Hilborn, University of Stirling Aquaculture Professor Richard Newton, Environmental Defense Fund Senior Manager of Climate Resilient Food Systems Willow Battista, and Wittaya Aqua CEO Evan Hall reviewed statistical evidence linking changes in climage to global output of fishing and aquaculture production and debated the industry’s impact on the environment.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

VIRGINIA: Offshore wind project “at a crossroads” Dominion argues

October 3, 2022 — Dominion Energy is arguing that it may “be forced” to pull the plug on its proposed offshore wind project if a performance guarantee remains imposed on it by the State Corporation Commission.

On Aug. 5, the SCC approved a rate adjustment clause, or rider, attached to consumers’ power bills so Dominion can recover costs associated with its proposed offshore wind project. The SCC order also included a performance guarantee to protect consumers from potential extra costs if the wind turbines don’t perform as well as expected.

The $9.8 billion wind farm— planned for 27 miles off Virginia Beach— is the largest energy project ever undertaken in the state and would be the largest wind project in the country.

But Dominion challenged the performance guarantee and the SCC agreed to reconsider it — kicking off a window in which both the utility company and other parties have responded.

“It is the regulator’s job to balance monopoly profit motives by adopting common and reasonable standards that will protect Virginians,” Laura Gonzalez, a policy manager with Clean Virginia said in a statement.

Clean Virginia is one of the environmental groups that responded.

But Dominion objected to the guarantee, asserting it could create uncertainty for its investors and hold the company responsible for things outside of its control — citing extreme weather as example.

Read the full article at the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Sustainable Seafood? It’s A Question Of Data

October 3, 2022 — The following was taken from an transcript from NPR:

AARON SCOTT, HOST:

Do you remember as a kid what you wanted to be when you grew up? Maybe an astronaut, soccer star, veterinarian, the president? Well, Alfredo Giron – he remembers.

ALFREDO GIRON: When I was 7, in second grade, my mom got for me a book about marine mammals. And it was about seals, sea lions and walruses. And I just was in love with it. I was like, I’m going to be a marine biologist.

SCOTT: But as he grew up in Mexico City, he grew out of that childhood dream.

GIRON: I started thinking, no, maybe engineering in something. And eventually, I settled down for engineering, bioengineering. I was lucky enough to get into a lab where they allowed me to do all sorts of techniques that bioengineering professionals will do. And it was not my thing.

SCOTT: But the college admissions clock was ticking, and he needed to decide where to apply.

GIRON: And suddenly this ray of light illuminated that old book in the bookshelf. I opened it, and I was like, you know what? I wanted to be a marine biologist. And I remember I loved it. So I looked up online, where can I study this in Mexico, and when is the deadline to do it? The deadline was, like, one week away.

GIRON: So I just jumped for it.

SCOTT: Alfredo went on to get a Ph.D. at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Since then, he’s focused on using data and science to make fishing more sustainable. He’s co-founded a science-based conservation initiative called dataMares and an early career oceans professionals program at the U.N.

And he now works at the World Economic Forum, an organization that cultivates leaders to influence political objectives. There, he leads the Ocean Action Agenda, with the goal of making sure the world’s fish populations thrive for years to come. It’s a huge task considering the state of the ocean and its fisheries.

GIRON: When we think about the ocean, there’s two big things to highlight. The first one is there’s a lot of degradation that has happened over the last several decades. We can see that in fisheries in some populations literally collapsing, some species shrinking over time.

SCOTT: So not just shrinking in population, but literally, the fish are getting smaller over time?

GIRON: Yes. Yes because you select for the larger ones, and they are basically removed from the population, and you keep the smaller ones but also because as you run out of big ones, you start fishing them before they can grow that big. We have also seen a lot of plastic pollution. We have seen a lot of impacts from climate change in many different ways – increased storms, coral bleaching…

SCOTT: But Alfredo sees hope, too.

GIRON: But let me stop there with the doom and gloom. Some countries have been very successful in replenishing their fish populations. We have seen an increase in the number of countries that are pledging to protect their oceans and actually, also an increase in action. We have seen a lot of companies making commitments to make sure that their supply chains are actually free of illegal activities, free of forced labor, which, surprisingly, is still an issue in this century.

SCOTT: So today on the show, finding hope in the ocean despite all of the challenges. We track Alfredo and his collaborators’ ongoing efforts to conserve the global fish population in a tale of ingenuity on the high seas. I’m Aaron Scott, and you’re listening to SHORT WAVE, the daily science podcast from NPR.

SCOTT: Alfredo, I want to start with a basic question. What makes a fishery sustainable? How do you determine the right level of fishing so that the population will continue to thrive?

GIRON: There’s a concept known as the maximum sustainable yield. Basically, how much can you extract of a population without reducing it for future catch? And this concept is based on the idea that when you have a number of fish, you expect them to reproduce at a certain level.

It’s very difficult to implement in reality because, of course, environmental variability plays a big role in how many of those newborns are successful and can join the population. Different countries, different agencies use different exact methods to estimate these things. But in the end, this is about extracting without decreasing the total number of the population.

SCOTT: Which is complicated almost beyond comprehension. I mean, we’re talking the entire ocean here, which means all the countries and the companies and the individual boats have to basically work together to make sure they’re not fishing beyond that maximum sustainable yield you mentioned. And so one of your main focuses right now is on illegal, unregulated and unreported catch, which is a whole basket of things from boats fishing in protected areas to fishing without authorization to taking more fish than they report – things that potentially mean they’re catching beyond the sustainable limits. Would you give us a sense of what sort of problem this is globally?

Read the full article at NPR

Eating seafood can be more sustainable and healthy than red meat

September 27, 2022 — Humans have consumed meat all throughout history, but more recently, meat consumption has exploded. Global meat production reached about 375 million tons in 2018, more than triple the amount that the world produced fifty years ago.

Given its impact on climate change, many argue that it’s time to reduce red meat consumption and explore viable alternatives. For some meat lovers, seafood may be the ideal swap.

Seafood is a relatively low climate impact source of highly nutritious food. The authors of a new Nature study analyzed the GHG emissions associated with the production of various seafood like whitefish and crustaceans as well as their respective nutrient densities. They found that reducing the consumption of red meat and replacing it with certain seafood species may improve nutrition and reduce GHG emissions at the same time.

Seafood contains nutrients that other foods don’t have, or only in very low levels, such as iodine, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids, says Friederike Ziegler, study author and senior scientist at the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. In terms of nutrition and greenhouse gas emissions, those that performed best or had the lowest emissions per nutrient density were small pelagic species (like anchovies, mackerels, and herrings), bivalves like mussels and oysters, and salmonids, she adds.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEW JERSEY: Lawmakers advance bill to study energy from waves and tides

September 26, 2022 — When it comes to renewable energy, solar power and wind turbines hog all the headlines. But with 130 miles of coastline in New Jersey, one lawmaker wants the state to explore how waves and tides could reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

Thursday, legislators advanced Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak’s bill that would require the state to study ocean energy potential and set goals in wave and tidal energy generation.

“Wind and solar is not going to be the savior, period. There has to be other energy sources that will fill some of these gaps,” said Karabinchak (D-Middlesex). “If it’s nighttime, that solar farm isn’t doing a thing. If the wind slows down on these farms, there has to be something else, some other energy source, that will fill that gap.”

The Assembly’s infrastructure and natural resources committee, which Karabinchak chairs, unanimously agreed to advance the bill, which would also require the state to add wave and tidal energy to its energy master plan and authorize pilot projects to test their efficacy.

Read the full article at the New Jersey Monitor

Wind turbine lawsuit ruling could mean delays for wind farms

September 23, 2022 — Representatives from the two companies looking to build wind farms off the coast of Delaware and Maryland say it’s too early to tell if a recent ruling by a federal court judge saying General Electric cannot make or sell its Haliade-X turbine in the United States will lead to delays in getting the wind farms built.

U.S. District Court of Massachusetts Judge William Young ruled Sept. 7 that General Electric Co. is not allowed to produce its 850-foot-tall Haliade-X wind turbines in the United States. In June, a jury found the turbines infringed on patent owned by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy A/S.

Ørsted spokesman Brady Walker said Skipjack Wind does not anticipate this decision will impact its timing.

“The project continues to develop its construction and operations plan in order to deliver clean energy to nearly 300,000 homes in the Delmarva region,” said Walker in an email Sept. 13.

In August 2020, Ørsted asked for, and then received, permission from the Maryland Public Service Commission to change the turbines it wanted to use from a smaller model to the Haliade-X.

Ørsted will follow any processes that are required by regulators, including the Maryland Public Service Commission and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said Brady.

Read the full article at the Cape Gazette

N.J. sets East Coast’s largest offshore wind target

September 22, 2022 — New Jersey plans to build more offshore wind than any other East Coast state, with a new target of developing 11 gigawatts by 2040.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy established the new goal in an executive order Wednesday. It’s nearly a 50 percent increase over the state’s previous target of developing 7.5 GW — to power about 3.2 million homes — by 2035.

The new goal also leapfrogs over New York’s target of 9 GW. Only California has declared it will develop more offshore wind, with a goal of 25 GW by 2045.

Read the full article at E&E

VIRGINIA: Businesses, environmental groups back guarantee for Dominion wind project

September 22, 2022 — Last month, Dominion Energy asked the State Corporation Commission to reconsider a performance guarantee it attached to the utility’s proposed offshore wind project. The SCC agreed to revisit the matter and opened a response period — which garnered 13 responses from various groups.

Environmental nonprofit Clean Virginia is among the groups arguing that consumer protection is reasonable.

“It is the regulator’s job to balance monopoly profit motives by adopting common and reasonable standards that will protect Virginians,” Laura Gonzalez, Clean Virginia’s Energy Policy Manager said in a statement.

The organization’s filed response noted that projected profit from the wind project is more than enough to cover potential costs. The performance guarantee — which Dominion is asking regulators to reconsider — is meant to protect consumers from potentially absorbing additional costs if the turbines fail to perform as expected.

Read the full article at the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Environmental groups tell BOEM to slow Gulf of Maine wind plan

September 21, 2022 — Several New England and national environmental groups say the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is making a mistake by moving forward to designate wind energy areas in the Gulf of Maine.

The Conservation Law Foundation and other groups asked BOEM in May to do “a comprehensive environmental review” before proceeding with outlining potential areas for wind projects. Activists are criticizing the agency, which on Aug. 19 published a “request for interest” from wind development companies.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman