Saving Seafood

Kevin Rosa wants to build a one-stop shop ‘weather forecast’ for the ocean

November 11, 2024 — Kevin Rosa was researching models to simulate the ocean as part of his PhD program at the University of Rhode Island when a professional sailing team reached out to him. The sailors were looking for information that could give them a better sense of how ocean currents were moving to help them race faster. Their inquiry made him think there could be a commercial opportunity to compute such data for a variety of clients.

“This could be valuable for other scientists. This could be valuable for the [Environmental Protection Agency], the Navy, sailing teams, aquaculture, fisheries, search and rescue. It seemed like the applications were sort of endless,” he said.

Rosa founded Current Lab soon after. In 2022, he received $50,000 seed funding from SeaAhead and the New England Aquarium’s BlueSwell incubator program for early startups.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

Too much cyanide in Puget Sound? EPA to review state regulations

October 16, 2024 — Federal officials have agreed to take another look at how Washington state regulates a deadly poison — cyanide.

The lethal substance is often used to make metals, plastics, dyes, and pesticides and to extract gold and silver from mineral ores.

The concern is that legal levels of cyanide winding up in Washington waters may be harming wildlife, including orcas and other endangered species.

In 2010, National Marine Fisheries Service biologists concluded that concentrations of cyanide allowed under existing regulations were enough to kill salmon and sturgeon in large numbers and would reduce the prey base for endangered killer whales.

Read the full article at KUOW

EPA challenged over veto of Pebble mine

July 3, 2024 — A public interest law firm in Sacramento, California has filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on behalf of two Alaska Native corporations over the agency’s veto of permits needed for the proposed Pebble mine in Southwest Alaska.

Litigation was filed on June 25 by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of Iliamna Natives Limited and the Alaska Peninsula Corporation, which represent Native shareholders in South Naknek, Port Heiden, Ugashik, Kokhanok, and Newhalen.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, contends that the EPA exceeded its authority by vetoing the copper, gold and molybdenum mine proposed for construction in land in Southwest Alaska abutting the Bristol Bay watershed, home of the world’s largest run of wild Alaska sockeye salmon. The Bristol Bay fishery, now underway for the 2024 season, is a multi-million dollar commercial and sport fishery that provides thousands of jobs for harvesters, processors, the transportation industry and other businesses engaged in contractual relations with the fishing industry. It also provides sustenance for subsistence harvests and extensive wildlife, including bears, eagles and more.

Read the full article at the The Cordova Times

Supreme Court Set to Decide Case That Could Curb Power of Government Agencies

June 27, 2024 — The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision this week that could have broad implications for the authority of federal regulatory agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission and Environmental Protection Agency.

At issue is a four-decade-old precedent known as Chevron deference, which gives agencies wide latitude in crafting regulations. During oral arguments in January, some conservative justices expressed skepticism about it, suggesting the court could overturn or curtail it.

The precedent directs courts to defer to federal agencies’ reasonable interpretations of federal law when statutes are deemed ambiguous. Conservatives and business groups say that it has handed too much power to unelected government regulators.

Chevron deference lies at the heart of two cases the court heard this term: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce. Both cases involve fishing boat operators who challenged the constitutionality of federal government regulations intended to protect Atlantic herring fisheries. The plaintiffs took issue with a 2020 National Marine Fisheries Service rule requiring boat operators to pay for federal monitors on their ships. This can cost as much as $710 a day, according to the plaintiffs.

Chevron has been a “disaster,” lawyers for one of the fishing companies, Loper Bright Enterprises, wrote in a November court filing. “Lower courts see ambiguity everywhere and have abdicated the core judicial responsibility of statutory construction to executive-branch agencies,” they wrote. “The exponential growth of the Code of Federal Regulations and overregulation by unaccountable agencies has been the direct result.”

Read the full article at Market Watch

Alaska Native corporations challenge EPA veto authority

June 27, 2024 — Two Alaska Native Village corporations are suing the Biden administration and calling on a district court there to halt EPA’s Clean Water Act authority to stymie projects like the Pebble copper and gold mine in the pristine Bristol Bay.

Iliamna Natives Ltd. and Alaska Peninsula Corp. on Monday sued EPA in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, arguing the agency overstepped its authority when it issued a rare veto under the Clean Water Act last year to block the Pebble mine from being built in a watershed that supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

The Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit known for arguing a precedent-setting Clean Water Act case before the Supreme Court last year that is representing the groups, asked the court to find Section 404 of the Clean Water Act to be unconstitutional.

Read the full article at E&E News

Alaska sues EPA over Pebble copper and gold mine prohibitions

April 14, 2024 — Alaska sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday seeking to overturn an agency decision that it said effectively blocked development of one of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits.

The complaint filed in an Anchorage federal court challenges the EPA’s 2023 final determination that prohibited the discharge of mining waste from the so-called Pebble deposit into the state’s Bristol Bay.

Read the full article at Reuters

Controversial mine project sues over EPA veto

March 18, 2024 — In a statement Friday, the Pebble Partnership alleged the EPA’s veto was issued before the completion of the permitting process.

Rather than waiting for the Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) permitting process to conclude, the EPA made its decision under a provision of the Clean Water Act that allows it to restrict mining activity in the Bristol Bay watershed.

The bay contains the world’s single largest sockeye salmon fishery.

Read the full article at The Hill

Tire makers say lawsuit over fish-killing chemical sidesteps EPA

March 12, 2024 — Michelin (MICP.PA), and 12 other tire manufacturers have asked a U.S. court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by California-based commercial fishing groups that allege a chemical used in their tires is poisoning West Coast watersheds and killing rare trout and salmon.

The tire manufactures, which also include Bridgestone (5108.T), and Goodyear Tire & Rubber (GT.O),  told a federal court in San Francisco on Friday that the lawsuit attempts to “step around” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is the country’s primary regulator of chemicals and is already considering rules targeting 6PPD, a rubber stabilizer.

The Institute for Fisheries Resources and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations had said in their November lawsuit that the chemical, which becomes toxic when it degrades, is released from tires as vehicles drive around and park. The degraded chemical can be flushed into waterways during storms, where it kills protected salmon and trout.

The groups said that violates a provision of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that prohibits parties from incidentally harming or killing protected animals or plants without first obtaining federal approvals.

Read the full article at Reuters

NEW YORK: EPA Air Permit Advances New York Offshore Wind Farm Project

February 22, 2024 — The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Clean Air Act permit for Empire Offshore Wind LLC. The offshore wind farm will be in federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf about 12 nautical miles (13.8 miles) south of Long Island, NY and 17 nautical miles (19.6 miles) east of Long Branch, NJ. To ensure transparency, EPA sought and received public comment before the permit was finalized.

“EPA is happy to partner with New York state in leading the way to a clean energy future. When built, this project is expected to generate more than 2,000 megawatts of electrical power for New York State—enough to power as many as a million homes,” said Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “This project is part of a larger effort by the Biden Administration to invest in America and generate 30 gigawatts of clean, abundant energy from offshore wind by 2030.”

Read the full article at ECO Magazine

Supreme Court denies Alaska’s bid to revive the copper and gold Pebble Mine proposal blocked by EPA

January 9, 2024 — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Alaska’s bid to revive a proposed copper and gold mine that was blocked by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The justices did not comment in turning away the state’s attempt to sue the Biden administration directly in the high court over its desire to revive the proposed Pebble Mine in the state’s Bristol Bay region.

Read the full article at the Associated Press