Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: Thousands of pogies washed up in Everett, but it’s due to natural causes

July 27, 2018 — Thousands of dead fish washed up in the Mystic River in Everett and Somerville this week, blanketing the muddy shorelines and emanating a stench that customers and employees at a nearby Costco store said could be whiffed from the parking lot.

But city and state officials, as well as local environmentalists, said Thursday that while the sight was alarming, the fish had died due to natural causes.

Patrick Herron, executive director of the Mystic River Watershed Association, said the Department of Environmental Protection and state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife were investigating what he called a “die-off” that left tens of thousands of menhaden — or, as they’re more commonly known, “pogies” — in the area.

Herron said the likely explanation is that the fish were driven into the shallow, warmer waters by a predator. Once in that area of the river, the fish depleted the oxygen supply and ultimately perished, he said.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

New Jersey: Murphy Signs Bipartisan Legislation to Protect NJ’s Coast from Perils of Offshore Drilling

April 26, 2018 — TRENTON, N.J. — Taking swift action to ensure the environmental health and safety of the state’s coast and shoreline, Gov. Phil Murphy signed bipartisan legislation that bans offshore oil and gas exploration and its production in New Jersey’s ocean waters. The bill also prohibits the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from issuing any permits and approvals for the development of any facility or infrastructure related to offshore drilling within or outside of New Jersey waters.

“Offshore drilling would be a disaster for our environment, our economy, and our coastal communities,” stated Murphy in a release. “The bipartisan legislation I am signing into law, on the eighth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon Spill, will block oil companies from drilling in state waters. We simply cannot allow the danger of drilling off our coast. The societal, economic and environmental costs would be detrimental to the overall quality of life for our residents.”

In addition, the bill requires DEP to review any proposed oil or natural gas development in the Atlantic region of the U.S. exclusive economic zone to determine if the proposal can reasonably be expected to affect New Jersey waters.

Read the full story at the Cape May County Herald

 

New Jersey Blocks Offshore Drilling

April 24, 2018 — New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has signed bipartisan legislation that bans offshore oil and gas exploration and its production in the state’s waters last Friday. The bill, A-839, also prohibits the Department of Environmental Protection from issuing any permits and approvals for the development of any facility or infrastructure related to offshore drilling within or outside of New Jersey waters.

In addition, the bill requires the Department of Environmental Protection to review any proposed oil or natural gas development in the Atlantic region of the U.S. exclusive economic zone to determine if the proposal can reasonably be expected to affect New Jersey waters.

New Jersey does not technically have any control over drilling in federal waters, but the state does have jurisdiction over three nautical miles extending off the coast. By banning drilling in those waters, the state has effectively blocked the construction of any supporting infrastructure such as pipelines or terminals.

Read the full story at the Maritime Executive

 

Delaware Bay gets first artificial reef on New Jersey side

November 28, 2017 — ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey — The state’s first artificial reef in the Delaware Bay will be centrally located for recreational fishermen from Fortescue to Cape May.

“Fishermen had been requesting one for quite some time,” said Peter Clarke, fisheries biologist and artificial reef coordinator for the Department of Environmental Protection. “We were finally able to do it.”

Construction is due to start in early December, he said.

Party boat captain Mike Rothman, of the 65-foot Bonanza II in Fortescue, said the reef will be beneficial for his business and for the bay’s recreational fishery.

“This give us more of an option,” said Rothman, who operates out of the Fortescue State Marina and is a Downe Township committeeman.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

New Jersey to create two new reefs off coast

April 27, 2017 — The state will create two new reefs aimed at helping recreational anglers off South Jersey.

One reef will be built 1.7 nautical miles southeast of Manasquan Inlet, just north of Ocean County’s Point Pleasant Beach. The second reef will be built 9.2 nautical miles southwest of the mouth of Cumberland County’s Maurice River and will occupy a little more than a square mile of bay floor, at depths ranging from 23 feet to 35 feet.

The state secured the necessary U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits for both reefs, state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said Thursday.

Recreational fishing generates $1.5 billion in economic benefits in New Jersey each year, and directly employs about 20,000 people, according to a news release from the DEP.

“We are very excited to move forward with this expansion of the state’s network of artificial reefs, which create important habitat for many types of marine life,” Martin said. “By enhancing recreational fishing and diving opportunities, these reefs help boost the state’s tourism economy. We are particularly pleased with the opportunity to develop Delaware Bay’s first reef site, which will help bolster tourism in that region.”

The artificial reefs are typically built from rocks, concrete, steel, old ships and barges.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

New Jersey rallies against flounder harvest cuts

January 27, 2017 — POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ – The state’s fishing industry could  be crippled unless proposed federal regulations that would cut the harvest of summer flounder — the state’s No. 1  fish — by almost half are stopped, advocates warned at a protest rally held at the commercial fishing docks.

“It’s an attack on our economy, it’s an attack on our way of life,”  said Bob Martin, head of the state Department of Environmental Protection, who organized the rally to bring attention to the looming regulations that he warned would devastate the state’s fishing industry, particularly the recreational fishing boats that are a mainstay of the summer tourism season. .

“You can barely stay in business as it is. If they shove a 19-inch size limit in our face, then we’re done,” said Captain Will Hammarstrom, owner of the Carolyn Ann III, one of only two party boats left in Barnegat Light.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

Pallone, New Jersey DEP push back against summer flounder cuts

December 16th, 2016 — This was one of the more consequential Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meetings in recent memory.

The council’s decisions that were made this week in Baltimore will have a major impact on fishermen, starting with recommendations for cuts to summer flounder, special management zones for artificial reefs, and final rules for a coral protection on the Continental Shelf.

SUMMER FLOUNDER

Anglers are facing the most restrictive fluke regulations yet as a 40-percent cut in the allowable coastwide harvest is being recommended.

It’s based on models that show summer flounder was overfished this year and its biomass is on the decline. Fishermen and legislatures refute that science.

Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) is asking NOAA to postpone any cuts until a benchmark assessment is complete. He said there continues to be legitimate concerns that the random sampling heavily relied upon by NOAA and the estimates produced are inaccurate.

The state Department of Environmental Protection is also taking a strong position against the reductions, which it said will cripple recreational and commercial fishing in New Jersey and be felt sharply throughout the Shore economy.

On Wednesday the council approved a non-preferred coastwide measure for a 19–inch minimum size limit, a four-fish bag limit and a season from June 1 – Sept. 15.

Read the full story at The Ashbury Park Press

FLORIDA: Fishermen worry proposals to protect South Florida’s reefs could impact fishing

June 2, 2016 — A group called Our Florida Reefs is pushing for changes that would help protect 105 miles of South Florida’s coral reef, but it could come at a cost for the local fishing industry.

State officials and community leaders are meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Coconut Creek to discuss plans to help better manage local reefs.

The state’s Department of Environmental Protection set up the Our Florida Reefs project. For the past two years, group members have been researching ways to help dying reefs.

Members of the group are stakeholders from Martin, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. They include business leaders, dive professionals, fishermen, environmentalists and county leaders.

Read the full story at NBC Palm Beach

N.J. adopts new artificial reef plan to ease tension between commercial, recreational fishers

November 5, 2015 — The Christie administration adopted new rules this week that will give way to a plan to develop an artificial reef just north of Barnegat Inlet, officials announced Wednesday.

The plan developed by the Department of Environmental Protection ends a decade-long rift between commercial and recreational fisherman. Anglers argue their hooks get caught on commercial pot lines.

Under the new rules, commercial and recreational fisherman will be required to use lobster, fish and conch pots only in certain areas. The lobster potters will also have to mark individual pots with a buoy and set them up between the hours of sunrise and sunset. They must also contact Marine Law Enforcement Headquarters two hours prior to setting their pots, officials said.

Read the full story at NJ.com

Maine isn’t doing enough to protect the Gulf from the effects of climate change

October 30, 2015 — When the Maine Legislature’s commission on ocean acidification reported its findings – that the state’s fisheries and aquaculture industries were threatened by this baleful byproduct of global warming – officials here were not exactly spurred to action.

Acidification, driven by increased carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and freshwater runoff from extreme rainfall in river basins, has been implicated in failures at oyster hatcheries and mussel farms, and has been shown to weaken clams and other shell-building animals vital to Maine’s fishing and aquaculture industries. But bills introduced in the last session – one each by a Democratic marine scientist and a Republican lobsterman – to implement many of the panel’s findings were withdrawn, one for lack of resources, the other for lack of support from Gov. Paul LePage’s administration.

“I could see the bill wasn’t going to go anywhere and that the governor was going to veto it,” Rep. Mick Devin, a Democrat from Newcastle, says of legislation he sponsored to allow the commission to continue its work for another three years.

Patricia Aho, who was the commissioner of environmental protection until she resigned in August, opposed Devin’s bill, saying the status quo was sufficient. “Since the issues of climate change and ocean acidification are inextricably linked, we think it will be more efficient to consider this issue in the broader context of climate change and adaptation programs,” she said in written testimony to legislators.

Devin’s bill and another one sponsored by Rep. Wayne Parry, a Republican from Arundel, were carried over to the next legislative session. Parry’s bill would have put a bond issue on the ballot that would borrow $3 million to fund several of the expert committee’s recommendations: collecting data, monitoring waterways, and performing tests in coastal waters to better assess the impact of acidification on wildlife and commercial fish species. It was withdrawn after failing to make it to the top of an informal list of bonding priorities drawn up by legislative leaders.

Read the full story at Portland Press Herald