Saving Seafood

New York’s offshore wind plan faces commercial fishing opposition

September 13, 2018 — The plan to turn ocean wind into energy calls for anchoring 15 wind turbines, each one a little taller than the Washington Monument, into the sea floor more than 30 miles off the coast of Montauk, Long Island.

They’ll be far enough out in the Atlantic that they won’t be seen from Long Island’s beaches, so far in fact, that it will require miles and miles of cable to deliver their 90 megawatts of energy – enough to power 50,000 homes – from ocean to land.

And that’s right smack in the middle of where Chris Scola makes his living.

Several days a week, Scola motors his rusting trawler – the Rock-n-Roll III — into the waters off Montauk’s coast, drops a dredging net onto the ocean floor and scoops up hundreds of pounds of scallops.

Once those cables go in, Scola fears his nets will get entangled, making dredging so difficult he’ll need to find a place to fish further offshore with a larger boat, sending himself deeper into debt.

“This isn’t just about fishermen,” said Bonnie Brady, the executive director of the Montauk-based Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. “This is about the environment. You’re industrializing the ocean floor.”

Brady said developers have failed to properly account for the impact that two processes essential to the Montauk wind farm project will have on fishing habitats. One is the pile driving required to anchor 590-foot tall turbines in the ocean floor and the other is jet plowing, which liquidizes sediment so cable can be dug four to six feet into the ocean floor.

The project’s developer, Deepwater Wind, says the processes might have an initial impact on fishing habitats but over time things will return to normal.

Read the full story at the Poughkeepsie Journal

Deepwater Will File Wind Farm Application With The State Without Waiting For East Hampton Trustees’ Approval

September 12, 2018 — Deepwater Wind says it will file its massive application for the South Fork Wind Farm with the New York State Public Service Commission this month—without waiting for the East Hampton Town Trustees to vote on whether they will grant a lease to the company.

A spokesperson for the wind farm company confirmed that the application, already months behind when the company originally hoped to file, is expected to be submitted to the state this week or next.

The Trustees have not voted on a resolution to allow Deepwater to run the wind farm power cable beneath Trustees-owned beach at Beach Lane in Wainscott, or to vote on one “memorializing” their intention to do so, as the Town Board did in July for allowing the cable to run under town roads.

But Deepwater spokesperson Meaghan Whims cited the recent unanimous support of the Trustees for hiring a municipal contract attorney to represent the board in the negotiations of the lease, and said the company has taken it as a sign that the Trustees ultimately expect to hammer out an agreement with Deepwater—though she acknowledged that the application with the state also will account for the possibility that one or both of the town entities will balk when it comes to signing actual contracts.

Read the full story at 27 East

 

NEW YORK: LI farmers and fishermen outline problems for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

August 20, 2018 — Long Island farmers and fishermen on Saturday outlined many complicated and pressing problems to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Their to-do list included: cleansing polluted bays by reconnecting them to the sea, obtaining an emergency permit to use a banned pesticide, policing counterfeit seafood, and securing seasonal workers despite an immigration crackdown.

Gillibrand, who stands for election in the fall and who might have presidential aspirations, vowed to “elevate” many concerns aired at a panel she convened that was hosted by the Ammerman campus of Suffolk County Community College in Selden.

To Bob Nolan, a New York Farm Bureau director, who described the labor shortage, she pledged to “take a good look” at the temporary worker program.

Read the full story at Newsday

New York clammer gets deferred-prosecution deal in fisheries case

August 16, 2018 — A Northport clammer who was the first Long Islander to challenge at trial charges growing out of the federal government’s ongoing fisheries probe has accepted a deferred-prosecution agreement that could see his case dismissed in a year.

Thomas Kokell, a former commercial trawler-boat captain, was indicted in 2016 on four counts of mail fraud, conspiracy and filing false fishing reports in connection with an alleged scheme to illegally harvest nearly 200,000 pounds of fluke in 2011 and 2012. The fish were valued at nearly $400,000.

Kokell was released Tuesday on his own recognizance after a court appearance in which the deal was approved by a federal judge, according to federal court documents and Kokell’s attorney. He will not enter a plea and the charges will be dismissed, avoiding prison time and fines, if he “avoids future misconduct” over the next year, according to his attorney Peter Smith and court documents.

The company affiliated with his fishing operation, however, will pay a fine of $5,000, according to Smith and the documents. Other fishermen caught up in the federal probe have seen several years of prison time and fines over $900,000.

Read the full story at Newsday

NEW YORK: NYPA to lead offshore wind study; LIPA will also have role

August 9, 2018 — A memorandum of understanding has been signed by New York power agencies and partners to conduct a study of successful offshore wind transmission models, with a specific focus on large-scale European projects, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Aug. 8.

The New York Power Authority will lead the study and a number of parties including the Long Island Power Authority will collaborate with NYPA on the initial phase of the research.

Input gained from the study will help determine the optimal infrastructure required to support offshore wind targets set by the governor.

Earlier this year, Cuomo announced the New York State Offshore Wind Master Plan, which will guide the state in the development of 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind by 2030. The plan describes the conditions needed for the state to achieve its offshore wind target and indicates the need for future technical studies and analyses to advance the most cost-effective and responsible development.

Cuomo’s office said the findings of the study will be timely as the state looks at transmission costs which the master plan estimates could comprise 30 percent of total costs of an offshore wind development.

Particular attention will be given in the study to the physical design, including radial and network connections and interconnections between the projects and to the respective onshore transmission systems as well as development and rate structures.

It will also focus on the ownership structures, business models and financing approaches used in each jurisdiction, as well as the regulatory approaches governing transmission development and cost recovery.

Read the full story at the American Public Power Association

NY ratepayers will pay for $2.1B offshore wind plan, but won’t get the energy

August 8, 2018 — New York state ratepayers will pick up the tab for the Cuomo Administration’s multi-billion dollar plan to jump-start the offshore wind industry, but most won’t benefit from the energy produced.

Only consumers in Long Island and New York City will be able to access the wind-powered energy that’s going to be generated in the waters off the state’s Atlantic coast in the years to come.

As soon as 2020, typical residential ratepayers could see an increase of up to 76 cents a month in their electric bills as the state goes all-in on offshore wind as a critical piece of the state’s renewable energy future, The Journal News/Poughkeepsie Journal has learned.

That’s in addition to the average $2 per month charge state ratepayers are already paying for the bailout of three struggling upstate nuclear power plants for the next ten years.

The New York State Public Service Commission announced last week that it had agreed to procure some 800 megawatts of offshore wind energy over the next two years, the first phase in an effort to develop 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, enough to power 1.2 million households in New York City and Long Island.

“Robust offshore wind development is not only critical to meeting our clean energy and carbon reduction goals, this investment has the potential to create thousands of jobs and fuel a $6 billion industry for New York as it combats climate change,” Cuomo said.

The Long Island Commercial Fishing Association (LICFA), based in Montauk, have joined a lawsuit challenging the decision by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to allow thousands of acres off the Atlantic coast of Long Island to be leased to offshore wind companies.

The six areas available for lease could hold up to 200 wind turbines.

“The historical, traditional commercial fishing communities of Long Island, which include hundreds of small business owners, the very tax and rate-payers whose businesses help to support other small businesses throughout Long Island, are ground zero for having their very livelihoods and businesses destroyed,” Bonnie Brady, the executive director of LICFA wrote in April.

Read the full story from the Poughkeepsie Journal at the Ithaca Journal

Fishermen up in arms over plan to build windmills off Long Island coast

August 1, 2018 — It’s before dawn on a recent July morning at Lazy Point in Napeague Bay, LI, and there is a slight chill in the air as the fishermen unload their boats into the water.

Dan Lester, a 12th-generation bayman, and his son Daniel, 14, are among those heading to sea to check their traps.

“This is the most sustainable fishing you’ll ever see,” Dan says as they begin hand-sorting the fish trapped in their nets, tossing whatever they can’t sell, including small spider crabs and stingrays, back into the ocean.

On a certain level, not much has changed for these New York baymen since the 1600s, when their ancestors came from places such as Kent, England, and were taught to fish by native Algonquin tribe members. But these East End fishermen fear it soon will.

They are up in arms over an agreement to build 15 massive windmills — each more than 650 feet tall, the height of Manhattan skyscrapers — off the coast of Montauk.

Read the full story at the New York Post

 

New York Halts Commercial Fluke Fishery for About 2 Weeks, Sets Harvest Limit

July 13, 2018 — New York State will close its commercial fishing grounds, a staple of the Long Island fishing fleet, for about two weeks effective Sunday.

The closure, which applies to fishing in state waters up to 3 miles from shore, will last until the month’s end, when it reopens with a harvest limit of 50 pounds per day.

Local commercial fishermen, who dealt last month with a similar closure of another plentiful staple in New York waters of black sea bass, say the new closure is another blow to their livelihood at a time of pricing stresses and amid state pressure to ease federal restrictions.

“It really hurts us,” said Phil Karlin, a commercial fisherman from Riverhead. “It really makes it difficult for the fishermen and the retailers and dealers involved who need a supply of fluke.”

Read the full story at Newsday

NEW YORK: ‘Choose Long Island’ Campaign Promotes Buying Local Produce, Seafood

July 13, 2018 — There’s a push to stimulate the economy while stimulating your taste buds in Suffolk County.

CBS2’s Vanessa Murdock visited Lenny Bruno Farms in Manorville, where she and fourth-generation farmer Dominick Bruno discussed buying local.

“For some people, local is 250 miles away. Here, local means it’s coming from this field and it’s being sold at our farm stand,” he said.

Bruno said he’s thrilled to be part of a new initiative launched by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, called Choose LI.

“Buying locally grown and harvested food is better for overall health and it is better for our region,” said Bellone.

The goal is to get Long Island families to take the pledge to spend 10 percent of their weekly grocery budget on buying local produce and fish.

New Yorkers spend an average of $176 a week on food, Murdock reported. If each Suffolk County household pledges 10 percent to buying local, $19 million would be fed into the county’s economy each year and, in turn, help create 1,000 jobs.

Julieann Hughes, a mother of four, said she makes an effort to buy local.

Read the full story at WLNY

AP report claims Sea To Table lied to customers about seafood origins

June 14, 2018 — An investigative report by the Associated Press claims it has found evidence that the company Sea To Table has been misleading customers about origins of its seafood.

Sea To Table, founded more than two decades ago, offers fresh wild-caught seafood sourced from small-scale American fishermen. The company guarantees that its products are wild-caught and directly traceable to docks, and often specific boats, in the U.S. The purchase of the seafood often comes with informational packages detailing the origins and the people behind the product.

According to the AP report, published on 13 June, those claims may be suspect as investigations found that the company was sourcing “fresh” seafood from boats that hadn’t been to sea for two years, species that weren’t allowed to be fished in locations Sea To Table was claiming they were from, and tuna from southeast Asian companies with checkered histories of labor abuse.

“Preliminary DNA tests suggested some of its yellowfin tuna likely came from the other side of the world, and reporters traced the company’s supply chain to migrant fishermen in foreign waters who described labor abuses, poaching and the slaughter of sharks, whales and dolphins,” the AP report said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source