Saving Seafood

BOEM advancement of New York offshore wind raising fishing industry concerns

August 18, 2021 — Two major offshore wind projects off the coast of the U.S. state of New York have taken steps forward over the past week, according to announcements made by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and those developments have raised some significant concerns from the fishing industry in the U.S. Northeast.

On Monday 16 August, the agency issued its final environmental impact statement on South Fork Wind, a development that could generate 130 megawatts of power to the eastern end of Long Island.

However, according to letters from the Fisheries Survival Fund and the Port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, that’s not the case – at least in terms of the scallops fishery, one of the country’s most-lucrative fisheries.

Fishermen and port officials sent letters on Friday, 13 August, continuing to raise concerns about the largest planned development area, the so-called “Hudson South” area, which is located about 30 miles east of the central New Jersey coast and 60 miles south of western Long Island.

“The need for such precautionary measures is especially vital given that a sizeable body of research is shedding light on the extent of potential consequences to local fisheries from offshore wind-farm construction and operation,” wrote David Frulla, Andrew Minkiewicz, and Bret Spark – lawyers representing the FSF – in a letter.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford fishermen, officials question New York offshore wind areas as auction nears

August 17, 2021 — As sections of ocean off the coast of New York near auction to offshore wind developers, local fishermen have called on the federal government to do a better job not only engaging with the fishing industry, but also heeding its concerns and implementing its recommendations.

At stake for fishermen, wind developers and the Biden administration is the New York Bight — an area of shallow waters between Long Island, New York, and the New Jersey coast. Within the bight, commercial fishermen fish for scallops, summer flounder and surf clams, among other species.

In June, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced a proposed sale of more than 600,000 acres of the bight for offshore wind development. Before the public comment period for the proposed sale closed on Aug. 13, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management held virtual meetings with fishermen, during which many shared their frustration and concern.

During a meeting on Aug. 6 with BOEM officials, city officials and fishermen from along the East Coast shared concerns about engagement, accountability, transparency and safety. The top BOEM official, Director Amanda Lefton, appeared virtually and spoke directly to local representatives. The meeting took a hybrid format with more than 100 people via Zoom and about 20 people at the city’s Fairfield Inn.

David Frulla, an attorney who works with industry group Fisheries Survival Fund, told the Standard-Times it was “notable” Lefton was present at the meeting and directly responding to attendees. He said in his recollection, there hasn’t been communication at this level between the BOEM director and fishermen — including during the Obama and Trump administrations.

In a letter sent April 28 to Lefton, Mayor Jon Mitchell wrote the wind energy areas, particularly the Central Bight and Hudson South, were established on “significant” scallop fishing grounds. He proposed the removal of a five-milestrip along the eastern boundary of Hudson South to minimize fishery impacts.

Blair Bailey, general counsel for the Port of New Bedford, told BOEM officials that it appears to the fishing industry that fishermen have a greater burden to prove something than other stakeholders.

He said when they requested a buffer, the “immediate” response from BOEM was a request for the city to provide scientific support. He said the city can and will provide it, but that BOEM’s response “doesn’t seem to apply” to others who provide input.

“When somebody doesn’t want to see a turbine from their house that’s on shore, that wind energy area disappears,” he said. “But when the fishermen say, ‘We need this area, therefore we need you to move things or change things,’ the response doesn’t appear, again from the outside, to be as quick and as accepted as the input from other people.”

Eric Hansen, a retired New Bedford scallop fishermen who owns and operates a few commercial vessels, told the Standard-Times that wind development in the bight is “very concerning.” He said every scallop fisherman on the East Coast uses the bight because they have allocations to catch a certain amount of scallops from an access area there.

For the 20th consecutive year, New Bedford was the nation’s top-earning fishing port. Scallops account for 84% of the port’s value of landings, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The trip from New Bedford to the bight can take 12 to 20 hours and last one to two weeks, Hansen said. The amount of scallops caught in the bight annually can vary, but he said it makes up a “significant” portion of a scallop fisherman’s catch.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Offshore Wind Fight Shifts to New York Bight as Scallop Industry Calls for Changes

July 28, 2021 — Saying the proposed offshore wind lease areas in the New York Bight need to be reconsidered to reduce the impact to scallops and scallop fishermen, industry advocates and scallop fishermen called for change during an online call with federal officials July 20.

“The Atlantic sea scallop fishery is the most valuable federally managed fishery in the United States, worth more than $570 million in ex vessel value and $746 million in total processed value in 2019,” according to the Fisheries Survival Fund.

Barnegat Light and Long Beach, N.Y. combined for a total of $19.4 million in the value of scallops landed, according to data from New England Fishery Management Council’s scallop framework adjustment between 2010 and 2017. For 2021, the NEFMC’s scallop update found Atlantic scallops make up the vast majority of landed value in eight of the largest East Coast fishing ports and over 40 percent in four other areas.

During the July 20 call with officials from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, industry representatives highlighted the need for a buffer zone to protect the “most valuable scallop area in the Mid-Atlantic and expressed concern over the environmental and fisheries impacts of offshore wind development,” according to a Fisheries Survival Fund press release issued July 26.

“Damage to the scallop industry will have far reaching consequences for working families in ports through the Atlantic Coast. The harm will extend beyond fishermen and processing plant employees – many of whom are recent immigrants – to fuel docks, marine equipment suppliers, restaurants and markets,” the Fisheries Survival Fund statement reads, noting throughout the entire coast, scallops were valued over $500 million, or half a billion dollars, in processed value in 2019. “This does not include the additional economic value added by the remainder of the supply chain until the product ultimately reaches consumers in markets and restaurants.”

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

Fishermen Push BOEM for Changes to New York Bight Wind Lease Areas

July 27, 2021 — Last week, scallop fishermen and industry advocates urged the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to adjust the proposed New York Bight offshore wind lease areas.

The Fisheries Survival Fund, a group representing the Atlantic sea scallop fishery, explained that the industry officials asked BOEM officials on an online call to create a buffer zone to protect the valuable scallop fishery in the region.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Fishermen Call on BOEM to Change New York Bight Wind Leases to Protect Valuable Scallop Fishery

July 26, 2021 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

On Tuesday, July 20, scallop fishermen and industry advocates called for changes to proposed offshore wind leases in the New York Bight. In an online call with Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) officials, industry representatives highlighted the need for a buffer zone to protect the most valuable scallop area in the Mid-Atlantic and expressed concern over environmental and fisheries impacts of offshore wind development generally. Proposed lease areas need to be thoroughly re-evaluated to reduce impacts to scallops and scallop fishermen, who operate in the most valuable federally managed fishery.

The Port of New Bedford often comes to mind when thinking about the scallop industry, and rightfully so since it is America’s highest-value fishing port. But the fact is that coastal communities from Massachusetts to Virginia depend on scallops. According to the New England Fishery Management Council’s 2021 Scallop Fishery Management Plan update, Atlantic scallops comprise the majority of landed value in eight of the largest East Coast fishing ports, and over 40 percent in four others.

Data Courtesy of the NEFMC’s Scallop Framework Adjustment 33 (2010-2017)

Damage to the scallop industry will have far reaching consequences for working families in ports throughout the Atlantic coast. The harm will extend beyond fishermen and processing plant employees – many of whom are recent immigrants – to fuel docks, marine equipment suppliers, restaurants, and markets. Coastwide, scallops were worth well over half a billion dollars to coastal economies in 2019 and nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars when taking into account their processed value. And this does not include the additional economic value added by the remainder of the supply chain until the product ultimately reaches consumers in markets and restaurants.

One of the most consequential concerns expressed by fishermen on the call was the need for a buffer zone between the southeastern edge of the Hudson South Lease Area and the Hudson Canyon Access Area (HCAA). Stakeholders argued in favor of a five-mile buffer zone, which would help protect the HCAA from the negative environmental effects of offshore wind development. According to estimates in a published scientific paper lead-authored by the lead federal scallop scientist, the HCAA has added well over a billion dollars in revenues to coastal communities in the last two decades.

Offshore wind presents many potential environmental threats to marine ecosystems. The assembly of turbines displaces large amounts of sediment on the seafloor, creating scour and sediment plumes that can interfere with scallop growth and filter-feeding processes. The turbine arrays themselves can disrupt ocean currents and thus scallop larval flow and settlement. Wind farms create habitats for other filter feeding species like mussels, which compete for available phytoplankton, change the biological makeup of the surrounding area, and interfere with the sustainability of the resource. Young scallops also face increased predation from marine life known to proliferate in wind energy installations such as starfish and moon snails. Seismic activity involved in wind farm site assessment activities has also been shown to damage scallops.

During the meeting, representatives from both the scallop industry and the Port of New Bedford argued that BOEM has been more responsive to concerns of wind developers and other ocean user groups like the military and commercial shipping interests than to those of fishermen. They called for in-person meetings with fishermen to discuss impacts from the proposed wind lease areas. By conducting meetings strictly online, BOEM is excluding many fishermen who are not accustomed to and well-equipped for Zoom and other online platforms. Meaningful personal engagement is necessary to ensure equity and reduce negative impacts of offshore development in the New York Bight area.

While the Fisheries Survival Fund appreciates that new jobs in coastal communities and economic growth could accompany offshore wind development, the benefits should not come at the expense of those who have historically relied on the scallop fishery to provide for their families. The Fisheries Survival Fund hopes to engage in meaningful, honest discussion with both developers and BOEM to mitigate impacts, preserve access, and protect the livelihoods of fishermen throughout the East Coast.

NEW YORK: Video Simulation Shows What Empire Wind Project, Off Long Island And N.J., Will Look Like From Shore

June 23, 2021 — Offshore wind power is coming to New York for the first time, and it would be the largest wind farm in the nation to date.

As CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff reports, a video simulation of what’s called the Empire Wind Project, off Long Island and New Jersey, shows what it will look like from shore.

Winds of change off Long Island, where offshore wind turbines will one day bring clean energy. To visualize the nation’s first large scale offshore wind farm, with its 174 turbines, the developer created a simulation from Jones Beach, which has some relieved they’re further offshore than first proposed.

The scallop industry objects to its placement.

“Fishermen can’t fish in a wind farm, and so building a wind farm on fishing grounds takes those fishing grounds out of play for the fishermen,” said David Frulla, an attorney for the scallop industry. “You are looking at people losing their livelihoods.”

“Frankly, the biggest threat to our fishing industry is climate change,” Esposito said.

The Bureau of Energy Management invites comment before impact studies are launched.

The Empire Wind Farm would be some 19 miles off Long Branch, New Jersey.

Read the full story at WLNY

U.S. to auction leases for 8 wind power sites off New York and New Jersey

June 14, 2021 — The United States plans to auction leases for eight wind power sites in the shallow stretch of the Atlantic between New York’s Long Island and New Jersey.

The proposed sites offer the potential for as much as 7 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 2.6 million homes, the Interior Department said in a statement Friday.

President Biden has laid out an ambitious plan for the development of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, and these would be the first competitive offshore leases under his administration. Biden’s proposed infrastructure initiatives have stressed that shifting to clean energy will curb planet-warming greenhouse gases while creating jobs to boost the economy.

An organization that represents the scallop industry criticized the auction plans and called on the federal government to change the lease boundaries to better protect fishing grounds.

Shifting one lease area’s borders by five miles would “better ensure that critical scallop populations will be unaffected, while not diminishing the potential for wind power in the area,” the Fisheries Survival Fund said in an emailed statement.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

BOEM to offer New York Bight wind leases; scallop fishermen urge delay

June 14, 2021 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will offer eight new offshore wind lease areas in the New York Bight, potentially opening up to 627,000 acres for energy development between New Jersey and Long Island.

With a potential for more than 7 gigawatts of generation, the lease areas are touted by the Biden administration as a new economic engine for the region ¬– with and explicit promise by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to put “a priority on creating and sustaining good-paying union jobs as we build a clean energy economy.”

Northeast state governors and lawmakers have pushed offshore wind development as a new industry that will benefit their political allies in organized labor, and that theme is front and center in the administration’s new “all-of-government” push.

The announcement Friday brought immediate pushback from commercial fishermen in the scallop industry, one of the nation’s richest and most successful fleets, urging BOEM to delay leasing and adjust the proposed areas to preserve important shellfish habitat.

The agency should “shift the boundaries of the Hudson South area just five miles, so BOEM can better ensure that critical scallop populations will be unaffected, while not diminishing the potential for wind power in the area,” according to the Fisheries Survival Fund, an advocacy group for the East Coast scallop industry.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Biden administration proposes offshore wind leases off LI, NJ

June 14, 2021 — The Biden administration on Friday took another major step toward powering local electric grids with offshore wind power, releasing a proposed sale notice for hundreds of thousands of acres off the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey.

An auction for the lease areas could take place later this year or early next, pending a 60-day comment period, an environmental assessment and other steps, officials have previously said, with development of the wind areas potentially taking place in mid- to late 2020s and beyond.

The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management earlier this year had released maps of the proposed sites and, after briefly including areas off the entire East End of Long Island, ultimately eliminated two sections located 15 miles south of the Hamptons. BOEM said they’re not being included “at this time” due to maritime traffic concerns, commercial fisheries, commercial viability and “state preferences.”

On Friday, the Fisheries Survival Fund, representing scallop fishermen and others in the industry, urged the Biden administration to “incrementally change” the proposed lease areas, noting that two are “located in particularly sensitive areas for scallops,” and would have a “serious negative impact” on the scallop fishery.

BOEM, in a statement, said the lease process will include a list of stipulations that would require developers to, among other things, issue a summary of existing users of their area and a “description of efforts to minimize any conflict between existing users” and the developer.

Read the full story at Newsday

Fisheries Survival Fund: Change Wind Energy Areas to Protect Scallops

June 11, 2021 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), representing the vast majority of the limited access Atlantic scallop fishery, is calling for the federal government to change its proposed lease sale boundaries for wind farms off the coast of New York to better protect the region’s fisheries from harmful development. These changes are necessary because the government’s current proposed lease sales, announced today, fail to incorporate any of the recommendations made by FSF or the city of New Bedford, the nation’s most valuable fishing port.

The sea scallop fishery is one of the most valuable in the country: in 2019, commercial landings totaled more than 60.6 million pounds, valued at approximately $570 million. In the New York Call Areas alone, there were $268 million worth of scallops landed over a five year period, from 2012-2016. Atlantic sea scallops are, in fact, the nation’s most valuable federally managed fishery.

FSF is requesting that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which is responsible for leasing areas for offshore development, incrementally change its lease plans for the New York Bight. Currently, two BOEM Wind Energy Areas (WEAs), Hudson South and Central Bight, are located in particularly sensitive areas for scallops. In their current form, these areas, including hundreds of thousands of acres of ocean, will have a serious negative impact on the fishery.

BOEM’s proposed eastern-most lease areas in Hudson South are directly adjacent to the Hudson Canyon Scallop Access Area (“Hudson Canyon SAA”). The Hudson Canyon SAA is one of the most important scallop grounds in the Northeast. From 2001-2018, over 60 million pounds of scallops, valued at well over $600 million, were harvested directly from the area. Further, a recently published paper principally authored by the lead federal scallop scientist concluded that successful management of the Hudson Canyon SAA resulted in a sevenfold increase in scallops in the nearby Elephant Trunk Scallop Access Area, and benefited scallops in the Delmarva Scallop Access Area.

Altogether, the Hudson Canyon SAA has been worth well over a billion dollars directly to the scallop fishery in the past two decades, not to mention the multiplied indirect community economic benefits of these fishery landings. The Hudson Canyon SAA’s ecological and economic benefits explain why FSF has requested that BOEM operate under the well-recognized “precautionary principle” to create a buffer between wind farms in the Hudson South and this critical scallop area.

The Central Bight is in the middle of prime, historic scallop habitat, and represents tens of millions of dollars of scallop catches over the past decade. Leasing of the Central Bight should be delayed, just as BOEM delayed, for view-shed reasons, leasing of the two Fairways lease areas in the northern New York Bight.

Read the full release here