Saving Seafood

MARYLAND: Override of Hogan veto sets new course for MD oyster management

February 3, 2020 — Overriding a veto by Gov. Larry Hogan, Maryland lawmakers enacted legislation Thursday requiring a more consensus-based approach to managing the state’s beleaguered oyster population.

The new law is the latest round in a years-long tug of war between the Hogan administration and legislators over oyster management. It directs the Department of Natural Resources to work with scientists, mediators and an expanded roster of stakeholders to seek agreement where little has existed to date on how to increase the abundance and sustainability of the Chesapeake Bay’s keystone species.

The bill cleared the House by a vote of 95 to 43. That was a few votes less than it got when originally passed last year but still more than the three-fifths majority needed for a veto override. The Senate quickly followed suit, voting 31-15 to make it law despite the governor’s objections.

Supporters of the measure said it was needed to direct the DNR to revamp the oyster management plan it had adopted last year. Environmentalists and their allies in the General Assembly have complained that the administration has favored watermen’s interests in seeking to open oyster sanctuaries to harvest and is not moving forcefully enough to end the overfishing found in a 2018 scientific assessment.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

MARYLAND: Wind turbines off Ocean City would be 200 feet taller than planned, prompting regulators to reopen debate

November 15, 2019 — Developers of two wind farms off Maryland’s Atlantic coast say they will build turbines more than 200 feet taller than those initially proposed, intensifying fears of spoiled views from Ocean City and prompting state regulators to reopen discussion about the projects two years after blessing them.

The Maryland Public Service Commission is seeking new input on the potential impact of the windmills, roughly 20 miles from shore but several hundred feet higher than Baltimore’s tallest buildings. Potential impacts could include harm to birds or commercial fishing, though the strongest opposition has focused on an expectation that wind farms visible from shore would send tourists fleeing to beaches with pristine views in other states.

The state regulatory panel, which in 2017 authorized millions of dollars in ratepayer subsidies for the wind farms, issued its call days after Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration urged the five members to consider “additional review” of the projects. The Maryland Energy Administration, which leads state efforts to reduce reliance on foreign fuel and improve the environment, said a closer look is needed given concerns from Ocean City that offshore wind plans “have drastically changed since they were first approved.”

Officials declined to speculate on what action the commission could take once it reviews public comments, which are due Friday. But a spokeswoman said the panel has the authority to rescind or amend its order granting the wind farms ratepayer subsidies — money that is key to financing projects that together will cost more than $2 billion.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

Gov. Hogan calls on Pennsylvania to step up Chesapeake cleanup; Pa. would ‘gladly accept’ Md. funds to do that

August 30, 2019 — Ahead of a September meeting of the Chesapeake Bay states, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan again called on Pennsylvania to step up efforts to clean up the estuary and urged the EPA to hold the commonwealth accountable. From Pennsylvania, he got a quick response.

A Pennsylvania official told The Baltimore Sun the state has made “great strides” at reducing water pollution but would “gladly accept” money from “any entity in Maryland” to do more.

“Unlike Maryland, Pennsylvania doesn’t generate millions of dollars from tourism on the Chesapeake Bay and can’t use those resources, at the moment, to improve water quality,” said J.J. Abbott, a spokesman for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat. “Pennsylvania is committed to having projects and practices in place by 2025 to attain our goals and meet our requirements in full.”

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

Chesapeake Bay blue crabs are booming this year — so why are they still so expensive?

July 29, 2019 — Chesapeake Bay crabs have been so plentiful this year — a 60 percent increase over last year, according to an annual population survey — that locals such as Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) have cheered the bumper crop as a sign of good stewardship for the bay and its fisheries.

And yet market prices for blue crabs seemed barely to move at all.

Around the Fourth of July — when crabpicking reaches its peak — prices for premium male crabs known as jimmies were about as high or higher than they were last year, at $325 and up for a bushel.

Jimmy’s Famous Seafood in Baltimore — a restaurant that has been in a running feud with PETA over whether to eat crabs at all — was advertising Friday a price of $79 for a dozen crabs, dining in only.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Maryland legislators increase protection for oyster sanctuaries in 5 Bay tributaries

April 1, 2019 — Oyster sanctuaries in five Chesapeake Bay tributaries selected by Maryland for large-scale restoration projects will get an extra level of protection from commercial harvest under legislation approved in Annapolis this week.

Maryland lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to a bill that requires legislative approval to alter the sanctuaries where major reef restoration work is either completed, under way or planned. It now goes to Gov. Larry Hogan.

The bill, backed by the General Assembly’s leadership and by environmental groups, passed the Senate by a vote of 32 to 14. The House had approved it nearly two weeks earlier, 98 to 40.

Alison Prost, Maryland executive director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, issued a statement hailing its passage.

“This legislation is crucial to the recovery of Maryland’s oyster population,” she said, adding that the bivalves are the foundation of the Bay ecosystem. They filter the water, and the reefs they build with their shells provide habitat for fish, crabs and other aquatic creatures.

As part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, Maryland pledged nearly five years ago to restore oyster populations in five of its Bay tributaries by 2025. Restoration is essentially complete in Harris Creek and in various stages of construction or planning in the other four — the Tred Avon, Little Choptank, St. Mary’s and Manokin rivers.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

MARYLAND: Larry Hogan presses Trump administration for visas for crab pickers

March 14, 2019 — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday pressed Trump administration officials to grant more work visas to immigrants, arguing seasonal laborers are a pillar of the Chesapeake Bay’s seafood industry.

Hogan, a moderate Republican weighing a 2020 primary challenge to President Trump, wrote to Cabinet secretaries that continuing to cap the seasonal visas that have been used by hundreds of migrant crab pickers for decades “could permanently damage Maryland’s seafood industry, causing . . . iconic family businesses to close and having a devastating impact on jobs in our state.”

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Hogan argued that each of the roughly 500 seasonal crab pickers who used to migrate to Maryland’s Eastern Shore generates 2.5 jobs for U.S. citizens. He cited a University of Maryland study and said the loss of those jobs, in turn, “threaten the livelihoods of commercial crabbers and waterman.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Administration looks offshore for wind energy boom

June 14, 2018 — The Trump administration is “bullish” about offshore wind, working with governors in the Northeast to transform what was once a fringe and costly investment into America’s newest energy-producing industry.

“When the president said energy dominance, it was made without reference to a type of energy,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “It was making sure as a country we are American energy first and that includes offshore wind. There is enormous opportunity, especially off the East Coast, for wind. I am very bullish.”

On a recent tour of coastal states, Zinke found “magnitudes” more interest in offshore wind than oil and natural gas drilling.

Facing widespread opposition from politicians in states fearful of oil spills along their tourist-drawing coasts, Zinke is likely to scale back a draft plan to open nearly all federal waters for drilling, which he says has attracted “modest interest at best.”

But the Atlantic Ocean is open for business for offshore wind, and developers are paying up, with the support of governors such as Republicans Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Larry Hogan of Maryland, and Democrats Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island.

Read the full story at the Washington Examiner

Maryland requires owner of Conowingo Dam to keep more pollution out of Chesapeake

April 30, 2018 — Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration is requiring the owner of Conowingo Dam to find a way to trap pollution that flows down the Susquehanna River and into the Chesapeake, threatening progress in cleaning up the bay.

For decades, pollution has built up behind the Conowingo. But the dam is now at its capacity and no longer traps sediment and nutrient runoff from across Pennsylvania.

Maryland Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles said a set of “stringent environmental conditions” imposed Friday is part of a broader strategy to speed bay cleanup “and hold our partners accountable for doing their part to create a healthier watershed.”

Dam owner Exelon Corp. needs a water quality permit from Maryland to get a federal license to continue operating. The state issued the new permit with a requirement that Exelon develop a plan to continue trapping the same amount of pollution the Conowingo always has — millions of pounds of nitrogen and hundreds of thousands of pounds of phosphorus every year.

Sediment and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus degrade the Chesapeake ecosystem by clouding waters and blocking sunlight, and by fertilizing algae blooms that strip the water of oyxgen.

The permit also requires Exelon to more frequently collect floating trash and debris that builds up at the dam’s edge, potentially through a solar-powered trash wheel like one that has helped clean up Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in recent years.

Read the full story at the Baltimore Sun

 

Coastal governors oppose Trump’s offshore drilling plan

January 5, 2018 — Governors along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts are opposing the Trump administration’s proposal to open almost all U.S. waters to oil and natural gas drilling.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced Thursday a draft proposal that would allow offshore drilling for crude oil and natural gas on the Atlantic Coast and in the Arctic, reversing the Obama’s administration’s block in those areas. It also permits drilling along the Pacific Coast as well as more possibilities in the Gulf of Mexico. Under the plan, spanning the years 2019 to 2024, more than 90 percent of the total acres on the Outer Continental Shelf would be made available for leasing.

Zinke said the Interior Department has identified 47 potential lease sales, including seven in the Pacific and nine off the Atlantic coast. That would mark a dramatic shift in policy, not just from the Obama era. The last offshore lease sale for the East Coast was in 1983 and for the West Coast in 1984.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican and ally of President Trump, quickly said no thanks to Zinke’s plan, citing drilling as a threat to the state’s tourism industry.

Read the full story at the Washington Examiner