Saving Seafood

2020 SPW Registration Now Available

October 9, 2020 — The following was released by Oregon State University:

Agenda

  • Welcome
  • Oregon Regulatory Updates
    • Tiffany Yelton-Bram, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Tim McFetridge, Water Quality Engineer, Ranei Nomura, Western Region Department of Environmental Quality
  • Alaska Regulatory Updates
    • Jackie Ebert, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation
  •  EPA
    • Sally Goodman, Environmental Protection Agency
  • Washington and BC Regulatory Updates
    • Alan Ismond, P. Eng, Aqua Terra Consultants
    • Steven Hammer, P. Eng, SLR Consulting
  • Closing remarks

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Offshore aquaculture project hoping to make history gains critical EPA permit

October 2, 2020 — There are currently no commercial finfish operations in US federal waters, which is defined as ocean water spanning between 12 and 200 miles offshore.

This week, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the Velella Epsilon aquaculture project, another big step in making American offshore aquaculture a reality.

The Velella Epsilon offshore demonstration farm is a netpen aquaculture facility set to be located approximately 45 miles southwest of Sarasota, Florida, slated to raise a single batch, or cohort, of 20,000 kampachi (Seriola rivoliana).

Read the full story at IntraFish

Study: Mercury contained in fish from Alaska’s Yukon River could exceed EPA human health standard by 2050

September 29, 2020 — The amount of mercury contained in fish from Alaska’s Yukon River could exceed the standards for human health set by the Environmental Protection Agency by 2050 if greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed, according to new research financed in part by NASA.

Under a high emissions scenario, the mercury content in the Yukon River could double by 2100.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA taps David Legates, professor who questions the seriousness and severity of global warming, for top role

September 14, 2020 — The Trump administration has tapped David Legates, an academic who has long questioned the scientific consensus that human activity is causing global warming, to help run the agency that produces much of the climate research funded by the U.S. government.

Legates, a University of Delaware professor who was forced out of his role as that state’s climatologist because of his controversial views, has taken a senior leadership role at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The agency, which oversees weather forecasting, climate research and fisheries, has until now continued its climate research and communications activities unfettered by political influence. For that, NOAA stands in stark contrast to the Environmental Protection Agency and science agencies at the Interior Department, where the Trump administration has dismissed and sidelined climate scientists or altered their work before publication.

The move to install Legates as the new deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for environmental observation and prediction, a position that would report directly to acting NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs, is raising concerns in the science community that this could be a White House-orchestrated move to influence the agency’s scientific reports.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Lobstermen catch break on diesel engine standards

August 20, 2020 — Lobster fishermen are getting a temporary reprieve from federal diesel engine emissions standards because the cleaner running engines needed to power today’s bigger, faster fishing vessels farther and farther offshore have yet to hit the commercial market.

During a visit to Maine on Thursday, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is expected to announce that lobster and pilot boat builders will have another two to four years to meet low particulate, low nitrogen oxide emissions standards written into the national marine diesel program in 2008. The cleanest engines were to be used in all new large lobster boats by 2017.

“This relief gives boat builders and operators flexibility to meet EPA standards during the next several years,” Wheeler said in a prepared statement. “The larger market for diesel engines can’t build new models quickly enough for marine users – putting these operators in potential violation of pollution rules through no fault of their own.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Biden Vows to Block Alaska Mine Project if Elected

August 10, 2020 — Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Sunday that if he’s elected, his administration would stop a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

“It is no place for a mine,” the former vice president said in a statement to news media. “The Obama-Biden Administration reached that conclusion when we ran a rigorous, science-based process in 2014, and it is still true today.”

The Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration proposed restricting development in the Bristol Bay region but never finalized the restrictions. The agency retains the option to invoke that so-called veto process again if it decides to do so.

The mine would be built near headwaters of the Bristol Bay salmon fishery about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. Conservation and local tribal groups say they fear the mine will devastate the fishery.

Biden said the salmon fishery is an economic powerhouse that should be protected for Alaska Natives and fishermen, according to The Anchorage Daily News.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times

Trump Says He’ll Listen to Both Sides on Alaska Mine Project

August 6, 2020 — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would “listen to both sides” after his eldest son and a campaign adviser urged him to intervene to block a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

Donald Trump Jr. on Tuesday agreed with a tweet from Nick Ayers, a former aide to Vice President Mike Pence and a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, expressing hope the president would direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to block the proposed Pebble Mine.

Trump Jr., in response, wrote: “As a sportsman who has spent plenty of time in the area I agree 100%. The headwaters of Bristol Bay and the surrounding fishery are too unique and fragile to take any chances with.”

The EPA has said the Bristol Bay watershed supports the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world and contains significant mineral resources. An environmental review released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month — and assailed by critics as deficient — stated that under normal operations, the alternatives it looked at “would not be expected to have a measurable effect on fish numbers and result in long-term changes to the health of the commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay.”

The corps has yet to make a permitting decision. When it does, it could issue a permit, approve a permit with conditions or issue a denial. The project, should it advance, also would face a state permitting process.

Read the full story at U.S. News

Eating Fish May Protect the Brain From Pollutants

July 15, 2020 — Eating fish could help protect the brain against the detrimental effects of air pollution, a new study suggests.

Previous studies have shown that exposure to the smallest particles of air pollution, called PM 2.5, is associated with decreases in brain volume, which may increase the risk of memory and thinking problems as we age. This new study, published in Neurology, included 1,315 women ages 65 to 80 who underwent brain M.R.I. imaging to determine brain volume.

The participants filled out questionnaires on their fish consumption and had blood tests to determine their levels of omega-3s, the healthy unsaturated fatty acids found in fish. Using data from the Environmental Protection Agency, the researchers tracked three-year levels of air pollution at the women’s addresses.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Trump allows commercial fishing in marine conservation area

June 6, 2020 — President Donald Trump rolled back protections Friday at a marine conservation area off the New England coast, signing an order to allow commercial fishing in a stretch of water environmentalists say is critical for endangered right whales and other fragile marine life.

“We are reopening the Northeast Canyons to commercial fishing,” Trump told a roundtable meeting with fishing industry representatives and Maine officials. “We’re opening it today.”

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the New England coast, created by former President Barack Obama, was the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean, and one of just five marine monuments nationwide.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

EPA opts not to delay controversial Alaska mine for now

June 1, 2020 — A top official at the Environmental Protection Agency informed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Alaska late Thursday that the EPA would not formally object at this point to the proposed Pebble Mine, a massive gold and copper deposit where mining could damage the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

Christopher Hladick, the EPA’s regional administrator for Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, wrote to the Alaska district engineer, Col. David Hibner, that the agency still has serious concerns about the plan, including that dredging for the open-pit mine “may well contribute to the permanent loss of 2,292 acres of wetlands and … 105.4 miles of streams.”

But Hladick said the EPA would not elevate the matter to the leadership of the two agencies, which could delay necessary approvals for the project to advance. The EPA “appreciates the Corps’ recent commitment to continue this coordination into the future,” he wrote.

Read the full story at The Washington Post