Saving Seafood

As Ørsted seeks interconnection site, Skipjack delayed until 2026

March 3, 2021 — Ørsted, the Danish multinational green energy company developing the Skipjack Wind Farm off Delaware’s coast, has delayed plans to bring its wind turbines online until the second quarter of 2026, four years after what it originally proposed.

The delay comes as Ørsted is continuing to search for sites for Skipjack’s transmission cable to make landfall and to build an interconnection site. Ørsted originally planned to do so at Fenwick Island State Park under a memorandum of understanding with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

Those plans were ultimately dropped last July, after it became clear that construction would disturb wetlands at the state park.

“Ørsted is using the additional time created to further investigate, evaluate, and optimize critical components of the project like cable landfall and interconnection,” said Brady Walker, Ørsted’s Mid-Atlantic market manager. “We are committed to a transparent process in making this important decision and will engage stakeholders at all levels before any final decisions are made.”

Read the full story at the Delaware Business Times

Delaware’s estuaries getting help from Congress

February 10, 2021 — Congress recently moved to invest in the nation’s estuaries, including two in the First State.

The Protect and Restore America’s Estuaries Act was signed into law last month – doubling funding for the National Estuary Program.

It can now receive up to $50 million for use across 28 estuary programs nationwide.

“This is great news for Delaware because it means that there will be more support for two of our estuaries – the Delaware River and Bay and the Inland Bays,” said Chris Bason, the executive director for the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays. “The support will be for the National Estuary Program (NEP), which works collaboratively with communities to protect and restore the fish and wildlife habitat and the water quality of our estuaries.”

Bason says the most Congress could send Delaware’s way is $1 million per estuary program in the state.

Bason says that would be a significant increase and bolster work to educate residents and visitors about Delaware’s estuaries.

Read the full story at DPM

KRISTEN MINOGUE: Shark tags reveal an endangered species returning to natural refuge

December 28, 2020 — In the coastal waters of the mid-Atlantic, an endangered shark is making a comeback. Led by former Smithsonian postdoc Chuck Bangley, scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) tagged and tracked nearly two dozen dusky sharks over the course of a year as part of the Smithsonian’s Movement of Life Initiative. They discovered that a protected zone put in place 15 years ago is paying off — but with climate change, it may need some tweaking.

Dusky sharks are what Bangley calls “the archetypal big, gray shark.” Born 3 feet long, as babies, they’re already big enough to prey on some other shark species. But they’re slow-growing. It can take 16 to 29 years for them to mature. If their populations take a hit, recovery can take decades.

An endangered species, duskies aren’t very common in Delaware waters. When they do surface, they’re easily mistaken for sandbar sharks. But in this new study, the Smithsonian tracked dusky sharks swimming past the southern tip of Delaware on their migrations up and down the Atlantic. For conservationists, it’s a sign that protections put in place are slowly starting to pay off.

The sharks’ numbers plummeted in the 1980s and 1990s, when well-intentioned managers offered sharks as an “alternative fishery,” while other stocks, like cod, were collapsing. The overfishing that followed wiped out anywhere from 65% to 90% of the Chesapeake’s duskies, said Bangley, now a postdoc at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Managers banned all intentional dusky shark fishing in 2000. Five years later, they created the Mid-Atlantic Shark Closed Area along the North Carolina coast. The zone prohibits bottom longline fishing, which can ensnare dusky sharks, for seven months of the year.

Read the full story at Delaware State News

Orsted announces Skipjack Wind Farm project may be delayed again

November 10, 2020 — The completion of one of two proposed wind farms off the coast of Ocean City may be delayed for the second time this year, according to the company in charge of the project.

The completion of the Skipjack Wind Farm, which is being built by Ørsted, is facing another delay, according to comments by Ørsted CEO Henrik Poulsen last week.

“Assuming the permitting process starts moving within the first quarter of next year, it appears highly likely that Revolution Wind, Ocean Wind, Skipjack and Sunrise Wind will be delayed beyond the previously expected 2023 and 2024 construction years,” said Poulsen during a call with investors on Oct. 28.

The Skipjack Wind Farm is a proposed offshore wind project currently in the planning and regulatory review process. The project is slated to be more than 19 miles off the coast of Ocean City and the Delaware coast, and was originally expected to be completed in 2022.

Read the full story at Delmarva Now

ASMFC Horseshoe Crab Board Sets 2021 Specifications for Horseshoe Crabs of Delaware Bay Origin

October 21, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Management Board approved the harvest specifications for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. Under the Adaptive Resource Management (ARM) Framework, the Board set a harvest limit of 500,000 Delaware Bay male horseshoe crabs and zero female horseshoe crabs for the 2020 season. Based on the allocation mechanism established in Addendum VII, the following quotas were set for the States of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia, which harvest horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin:

The Board chose a harvest package based on the Delaware Bay Ecosystem Technical Committee’s and ARM Subcommittee’s recommendation. The ARM Framework, established through Addendum VII, incorporates both shorebird and horseshoe crab abundance levels to set optimized harvest levels for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. The horseshoe crab abundance estimate was based on data from the Benthic Trawl Survey conducted by Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech). This survey, which is the primary data source for assessing Delaware Bay horseshoe crab abundance, does not have a consistent funding source. Members of the Delaware and New Jersey U.S. Congressional Delegations, with the support of NOAA Fisheries, have provided annual funding for the survey since 2016.

For more information, please contact Caitlin Starks, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 orcstarks@asmfc.org.

A Delaware port could capture growing wind farm industry

September 11, 2020 — With several states committed to more than 8,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy in the next 15 years, Delaware could have a strong wind at its back for a burgeoning industry if an investor builds a port just north of Delaware City.

An 831-acre site near the Delaware City Refinery was recently endorsed by a University of Delaware study as a prime location to ship, store and assemble parts needed for wind farms as far north as Connecticut and as far south as the Carolinas. Turbines are growing larger – many are already taller than the Statue of Liberty – so there is greater need for large tracts of land within a 365-mile radius.

Right now there is only one East Coast marshalling port for wind turbine shipment in New Bedford, Mass., but three more are planned. Even with those online, it might not be enough for the projected market demand. Four ports could deploy 916 megawatts annually, but the UD report projects an annual deployment of up to 2 gigawatts under current contracts and state energy benchmarks – or more than twice the capacity of the operating and planned ports.

Read the full story at the Delaware Business Times

DELAWARE: DNREC adds ship to growing artificial reef

August 24, 2020 — On Aug. 13, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control sank the menhaden fishing boat Reedville at Reef Site 11. The coordinates of the sinking are N 38 40.423/ W 74 44.295. The ship sits in 87 feet of water and is 16 miles offshore from Indian River Inlet. She is 180 feet long and measures 38 feet from the keel to the top of the stack. With her cavernous hold, she is expected to be very attractive to both black sea bass and tog.

The Reedville was first commissioned as a Navy ship, then as an Army freight and supply vessel. When the ship was recommissioned as a menhaden purse seiner, she was named Reedville after the town in Virginia where the largest fish processing plant is located. The town is named after Capt. Elijah W. Reed, whose process for extracting fish oil from menhaden in the 19th century made him and the town very rich.

There are three other menhaden boats at Site 11 along with 997 New York subway cars, 86 Army tanks, eight tugboats, a fishing trawler and two barges. Last fall, a cruse ship was placed there as well.

Read the full story at the Cape Gazette

DELAWARE: DNREC Sinks Ex-Military Freighter for Artificial Reef

August 17, 2020 — The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has another vessel in its artificial reef.

On Thursday, the agency sunk the Reedville, originally a World War II and Korean Conflict-era coastal freighter. The supply ship is part of DNREC’s artificial reef 16 miles offshore and 87 feet deep. The reef also includes decommissioned ferries and the “Perfect Storm” ship, the Zuni-Tamaroa. DNREC says the artificial reef helps the local fish habitat and has become a popular angling destination.

“We continue to enhance the angling and recreational diving experience in Delaware by expanding our reef system, which includes 14 separate reef sites in the Delaware Bay and along the Atlantic Coast,” said DNREC Secretary Shawn Garvin. “When we sank Twin Capes two years ago as a centerpiece of the system, it was unmatched as an artificial reef for both providing fish habitat and a spectacular dive with its five decks for underwater exploration. Now with the Reedville, we’ve got four reefed vessels of the same class and we are putting it in a place that will be accessible, attract the most fish and where divers will want to explore, too.”

Read the full story at WBOC

Army-Navy freighter added to artificial reef off the Delaware coast.

August 14, 2020 — DNREC continued to bolster Delaware’s artificial reef system today by sinking the Reedville, originally a coastal freighter and supply ship, at a reef site 16 miles offshore.

The Reedville was converted to a commercial fishing vessel after military decommissioning and today found another new life as fish habitat and diving attract through DNREC’s artificial reef program.

The sinking of the 180-foot long Reedville was the reef program’s first deployment of a vessel since a retired Chesapeake Bay cruise ship was sunk late last year.

It came after the nationally-publicized and viral-videoed 2018 sinking of the retired Cape May-Lewes ferry Twin Capes onto the Del-Jersey-Land Reef, second only to Reef Site No. 11 as a popular fishing destination.

Because of the ship’s profile featuring a cavernous hold, the Reedville is expected to be a boon to two fish prominent in Delaware inshore waters, black sea bass and tautog. The area where vessels have been sunk does not have suitable habitat for some species.

Read the full story at Delaware Business Now

Summer flounder: good news on quota, but waiting for restaurants’ return

July 7, 2020 — The $25.2 million East Coast market for summer flounder — although a reliable bread-and-butter fish — has faced ups and downs in quotas over the years.

The 2020 commercial quota is 11.53 million pounds, while the recreational harvest limit is 7.69 million pounds. The highest percent of commercial allocation goes to Virginia (21.32 percent) and North Carolina (27.44 percent) while Delaware, Maine and New Hampshire have the smallest allocations.

Anecdotally, in the last few years, the price per pound for jumbo summer flounder (4 pounds or larger) decreased, with some vessels getting around 50 cents less per pound for jumbos compared to smaller sizes. As market conditions have shifted relative to quotas over the past few years, there is some speculation that markets prefer smaller product that fits better on a plate.

Now 2020 is the first full year with higher quotas for the fishery — but with the covid-19 crisis and its impact on markets globally, it remains to be seen if quotas will be fully utilized.

“It’s going to be very hard to predict summer flounder landings for 2020 at this point. Last year, the quotas were revised upward by about 50 percent, based on the new stock assessment, but that change wasn’t implemented until midyear,” says Kiley Dancy of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council staff.

Read the full story at National Fisherman