Saving Seafood

Biden administration auctions off Gulf of Maine wind energy leases to New England fishers’ dismay

October 29, 2024 — The U.S. Department of the Interior auctioned off the first offshore wind energy leases in the Gulf of Maine on 29 October, despite continued opposition from New England commercial fishers.

The auction included eight areas on the Outer Continental Shelf off the New England coast that winning bidders could develop for wind energy operations. The government claimed that if the leases are developed to their full capacity, the sites could generate 13 gigawatts of energy – enough to power 4.5 million homes.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

The Lobster Industry’s Demise May Be Overstated

October 21, 2024 — Damian Brady spends a lot of his time in lobster boats, scooping up, counting, and measuring baby lobsters in the Gulf of Maine. Along with counts from scuba dives and fishing hauls, Brady’s data goes into the comprehensive Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System that helps managers regulate the fishery. Brady also looks at “lobster settlement” — under what water conditions do these baby lobsters decide to settle in? He has studied decades of lobster booms and busts, refining the models in search of a “crystal ball,” as he calls it, on lobster futures.

Climate change has course-adjusted the Gulf Stream northward, warming the waters of southern New England, and driving a northward movement of lobster populations. It feels like history repeating: Science suggests warming waters caused the Rhode Island lobster industry to collapse earlier, going from 22 million pounds in 1997 to just over 3 million pounds in 2013.

But in Maine, lobsters are still a vital industry. On a good year, 100 million pounds of lobster may cross the state’s docks, bringing in more than $400 million. Maine’s boon from the northward lobster migration was a record-breaking lobster haul in 2016. But then lobster counts began to decline consistently, year after year into 2023. The fishery’s worst fear echoed across the docks: A Rhode Island-style collapse was heading toward Maine.

But Brady, after years of careful study, is not seeing that future. What many announced as the beginning of the end, he calls a “regime shift.”

The shift drove a downsize in the Maine lobster fleet, particularly from southern Maine towns such as Portland.

“The center of lobstering has moved [north], from the center of Maine to Downeast Maine,” Brady said.

Above Portland on a map, “Downeast” is where Maine juts into the Atlantic Ocean by way of many small islands. There, the island fishing town of Stonington brings in the largest lobster catches. Its boats are able to reach the deep, federal-permit waters far offshore where lobsters are now settling.

“There was a particular boom in deep water settlement,” Brady said, reporting the most recent surveys, “places we haven’t really looked before, or looked at much.” To scientists, new habitats call for more data.

Read the full article at Ambrook Research

Gulf of Maine’s rising temperatures bring challenges and opportunities to local fisheries

August 29, 2024 — The Gulf of Maine’s warming waters are profoundly affecting Maine’s working waterfront in more ways than one. Over the past decade, sea surface temperatures have surged, with recent years experiencing record-breaking warmth. This trend, largely attributed to climate change, poses significant challenges to local fisheries, but it also opens doors to new opportunities.

Over the last 10 years, there has been an unprecedented increase in the sea surface temperatures throughout the Gulf of Maine—something many scientists blame on manmade climate change. Out of the last six years, four of our summers have endured the warmest waters for Maine’s Gulf, with 2021 breaking a new record.

Read the full article at WMTW

MAINE: Maine, federal government reach agreement on floating offshore wind research array

August 20, 2024 — An effort to study the impacts of offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine is closer to launch after the state and federal government reached a lease agreement on Monday for a floating research array.

The Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management offered the research area lease to the state in late May for up to 15 square miles in federal waters about 30 miles southeast of Portland, according to a press release from Gov. Janet Mills’ office Monday afternoon. It will include up to 12 floating turbines and help inform how floating offshore wind operates and interacts with ecosystems in the water.

Read the full article at Yahoo! News

US lobster fishery faces delay in gauge-size increase; Canadian harvesters call for government to do more to combat illegal fishing

August 13, 2024 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Lobster Board has initiated the process to delay a gauge size increase for the U.S. lobster fishery until 1 July 2025.

The ASMFC first delayed an increase in the lobster gauge size in October 2023, after lobster trawl surveys indicated a decline in the population of sub-legal lobsters. The gauge size increase was first initiated in 2017 as a proactive measure to improve the resiliency of the lobster stock in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, but that process was paused to focus on issues related to entanglement of  North Atlantic right whales.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

As Maine looks to harness Gulf of Maine winds, a big question looms: How much will utility customers pay?

August 1, 2024 — Maine’s offshore wind research project in the Gulf of Maine is the subject of negotiations that are picking up speed among state regulators, the project’s developers and the Public Advocate, who are trying to determine how much the zero-carbon energy will ultimately cost utility customers.

The PUC on July 11 ordered that the price — or how it’s structured for the project in a contract between the developer, Pine Tree Offshore Wind, and CMP or Versant — should be “sufficiently defined and certain” to allow regulators to determine whether the cost to ratepayers is the lowest reasonable amount to finance, build and operate the project. The low-cost provision is required by state law, which mandated that the PUC execute a long-term offshore wind contract between a utility of no less than 20 years.

The project is “intended to be a ‘kick-starter’ for an offshore wind industry in the Gulf of Maine,” regulators said. But it’s still years away from going online.

Jack Shapiro, climate and clean energy director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, called the research project the “tip of the spear,” helping developers of future commercial wind power determine pricing and other factors.

Read the full story at Yahoo! News

Feds taking public input on environmental impacts of offshore wind proposed in Gulf of Maine

July 8, 2024 — The Block Island wind farm off of Rhode Island is one of only two offshore wind projects currently operating in the U.S., but the Biden administration has a goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, and several states also have aggressive goals. Those targets, however, are threatened by surging costs and supply chain issues. (Scott Eisen | Getty Images)

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold public meetings and take comments this month on its draft environmental assessment for proposed offshore wind leases in the Gulf of Maine.

BOEM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, announced in April its proposal for an offshore wind energy auction. It would include eight leasing areas off the coasts of Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, with the potential to generate up to 15 megawatts of energy to power up to 5 million homes, according to BOEM.

Read the full article at Yahoo News!

MASSACHUSETTS: A million acres of ocean for offshore wind: ‘Wow, that’s awfully close to Cape Cod.’

July 1, 2024 — As a July 1 deadline approached for comments to be submitted to the federal government regarding a proposal to auction offshore wind leases in the Gulf of Maine — including off the outermost Cape towns — the region’s leaders wanted more time to weigh in.

The Cape & Islands Municipal Leaders Association, an organization of 105 elected officials representing all 22 towns on the Cape, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, has sent a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management requesting to extend the deadline to July 22.

BOEM opened the public comment period on the proposed sale notice for leases on May 1, a day after announcing its plan for first-time ever offering of nearly a million ocean acres in the Gulf of Maine for offshore wind production.

“This comment period extension will allow for additional public meetings to address comments and concerns and provide for a more streamlined permitting, construction and operation of what is likely the most significant investment in energy facilities ever to be made,” the association’s June 25 letter reads.

Read the full article at Yahoo News!

 

8 Gulf of Maine sites picked for possible commercial offshore wind leases

May 2, 2024 — The federal government is proposing eight areas in the Gulf of Maine as possible sites for commercial offshore wind farms.

The proposed lease areas cover about 1 million acres and have the potential to generate 15 gigawatts of energy, enough to power five million homes, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said Tuesday.

Two of the sites, encompassing nearly 254,000 acres, are off the Maine coast. The remaining six are located off Massachusetts.

In choosing the lease sites, BOEM said it wanted to avoid offshore fishing grounds and transit routes for ships. The eight proposed sites represent about half of the 2 million acres that BOEM chose as its “final wind energy area” for the Gulf of Maine, which the agency announced last month.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Gulf of Maine Research Institute initiative improves access to seafood for students

February 3, 2024 — About 45,000 New England students have been offered locally sourced seafood as part of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s initiative to serve more fish in school lunches.

Using money from federal and local grants, GMRI partnered with nine districts throughout the region, helping them introduce seafood to their students through fun recipes and education.

Their goal is to improve access to seafood and to see fish offered in schools more than just once a month.

Program leaders say 70% – 80% of the students surveyed after a taste test said they do like eating fish.

This initiative is intended to benefit the local economy as well.

Read the full article at WABI