Saving Seafood

Developers cancel offshore wind power contract off Long Island due to costs

January 7, 2024 — Developers behind a proposed offshore wind farm off the coast of Long Island have terminated their contract on the project. Energy firms Equinor and BP said it is no longer financially feasible.

The project was expected to generate more than one gigawatt of electricity, or enough to power at least 800,000 homes. The state is now expected to reopen the bidding process for the project at the end of the month.

Pete Sikora, the climate campaigns director for the advocacy group, New York Communities for Change joined Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” to talk about the project and more. “Offshore wind is not moving forward as fast as it should…These offshore wind projects are absolutely necessary, they need to be put into place and they need to be done fast under the governor,” Sikora said.

Read the full article at Spectrum News

NEW YORK: NY tentatively approves 3 offshore wind farms, including Ravenswood project

October 25, 2023 — Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration gave a tentative green light Tuesday to three new wind farms off New York City’s shores, including one project that would shift the hulking Ravenswood Generating Station in Long Island City to 100% renewable energy.

The long-awaited announcement marks a major step in New York state’s continuing shift to clean energy, as it works to meet its legally mandated goal of generatng 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. But it also comes after Hochul vetoed a bill last week that would have fast-tracked a similar wind farm off of Long Island, and took another action in recent weeks that drew condemnation from wind-power advocates.

Once they come online in 2030, the new wind farms are expected to generate about 4 gigawatts of power, according to the state. That number jumps to 6.4 gigawatts when combined with 22 additional land-based projects also approved on Tuesday, which the Hochul administration says is enough to account for about 12% of the state’s energy needs.

“This industry continues to just blossom, and we’re continuing to make sure that we make the investments now,” Hochul told reporters after making the announcement in Long Island City.

Read the full article at the Gothamist

NEW YORK: Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoes bill that would expedite planned wind farm off Long Island

October 24, 2023 — A major renewable energy project off Long Island suffered a big blow on Friday when Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a controversial bill that would’ve expedited a planned wind farm off Long Beach.

Residents concerned about electromagnetic fields and construction won a victory against landing an offshore wind transmission line there.

“They’ve never done this on a community like this. We were the first one, and we were essentially gonna be the guinea pig of this process going forward and we weren’t having it,” said Tim Kramer, a member of Protect Our Coast LINY.

Read the full article at CBS

Federal Jury Convicts Montauk Fisherman

October 5, 2023 — A federal jury convicted a Montauk fisherman on Wednesday of falsifying records in order to sell fluke and black sea bass in quantities that vastly exceeded legal limits.

Christopher Winkler, captain of the trawler New Age, was found guilty in federal court in Central Islip on five counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice for filing false reports to federal regulators.

Bryan and Asa Gosman, both of Montauk, were also initially charged, but the cousins, who are among the owners of Gosman’s Dock in Montauk, cooperated with the prosecution and testified against Mr. Winkler. Each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and were fined.

Richard Levitt, an attorney representing Mr. Winkler, said in an email on Wednesday that Mr. Winkler will appeal the conviction. A sentencing date has not been set, he said, nor have sentencing guidelines been determined.

Read the full article at The East Hampton Star

The Government Takes On a Fisherman Over 200,000 Pounds of Fluke

September 14, 2023 — It was just before dawn when Chris Winkler, a fisherman in Montauk, N.Y., set off on his trawler, the New Age.

A longhaired surfer who looks far younger than his 63 years, Mr. Winkler was in flip-flops and shorts, trailed by Murphy, a good-natured Irish water spaniel who is usually his only company.

But on that July day, he had others aboard: members of his legal team and a reporter. He was gearing up for a federal trial that began this week in Central Islip, N.Y., before Judge Joan M. Azrack on charges of taking more fish from the sea than the law allows.

Prosecutors say that in past years Mr. Winkler exceeded the limit on fluke, a spotted flat fish also known as summer flounder, by at least 200,000 pounds, and caught more black sea bass than was allowed.

He is accused of making hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit deals with of one of Montauk’s most venerable seafood institutions, Gosman’s. The two men originally charged with him, Bryan and Asa Gosman, cut deals with the government and are expected to testify against him.

Gosman’s Dock boasts sprawling restaurants and retail stores in addition to its wholesale business. For decades, it has been one of Long Island’s largest suppliers of fresh fish, and has been a mainstay in Montauk, even as the fishing-village soul of the town has been overshadowed by big-spending tourists in something of a Hamptonification. That could change soon: Gosman’s Dock is up for sale, priced at $45 million.

Read the full article at The New York Times

NEW YORK: Foundations of South Fork wind farm off of Long Island now complete

August 10, 2023 — Installation of 13 foundations for the nation’s first major offshore wind farm is now complete off the coast of Long Island.

It’s named South Fork. It will be the first of five wind farms in the works. The project site is located roughly 35 miles east of Montauk.

Twelve wind turbines and a wind substation will be constructed at the site. Installation of the turbines is expected to begin later this summer and into the fall. Meanwhile, work continues at the site, including the installation of cables to connect the wind turbines to the offshore substation.

Read the full article at CBS News

NEW YORK: Trying to explain the whys of Long Island wind farms

June 5, 2023 — A group of experts attempted to explain to a large crowd at Long Beach’s City Hall last Wednesday the need for a plan by New York State to construct a wind farm off Long Island’s South Shore.

The plan has generated considerable controversy in Long Beach and Oceanside, over health issues generated by cables stretching from the wind turbines to the E.F. Barrett Power Plant in Island Park.

But the experts were not always successful.

The presentation was organized by the Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE) led by its executive director, Adrienne Esposito.

Topics included the basics of the Offshore Wind project, the dangers of electromagnetic fields (EMFs), how the project will affect marine life and the benefit for local labor and jobs.

Read the full article at LIHerald.com

NEW YORK: Recuiting underway on Long Island as work on offshore wind farm begins

April 26, 2023 –The nation’s first large offshore wind farms are being built off of New York.

It’s a fast-growing industry looking to hire thousands of people.

CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff went to a forum on Long Island that is matching local companies and job seekers with opportunities.

New York is leading the nation in offshore wind projects planned, and here come the jobs.

The first of 10,000 were previewed Tuesday at a Brentwood forum for local companies and a future workforce.

Read the full article at CBS

Scallops dying off in Long Island are ‘a cautionary tale’ for New England

January 24, 2023 — Once one of the largest fisheries on the East Coast, Peconic Bay scallops have faced near complete die-offs on Long Island since 2019.

A study by Stony Brook University shows this could be a cautionary tale for New England.

Christopher Gobler, a co-author and endowed chair of coastal ecology and conservation in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, used satellite thermal imaging and recorded scallop heartbeats to measure how less oxygen and warming waters put stress on shellfish populations.

Data shows over the past two decades, the Peconic Bay estuary — and the entire Northeast — are warming at rates during summer that far exceed global average; Gobler said, “about threefold higher.”

Read the full article at wbur

Wind Farm Update From Orsted on a Blustery Beach

December 10, 2022 — Is that Poseidon’s triton reaching from the littoral shallows, or are you just trying to build a 132-megawatt wind farm?

The South Fork Wind project site at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott certainly gives pause, if not a shudder of megalophobia. Three intimidatingly large steel pilings jut into the sky just off the beach, while nearby, drills continue with the jarringly loud work of drilling a horizontal tunnel from a cable tie-in near the Long Island Rail Road line to the north to the workers’ barge just offshore, temporarily anchored by the pilings.

Troy Patton, head of program execution, Americas, for Orsted, which is building the wind project via a 50-50 partnership with Eversource, was on the scene last week to give an update on the project, which will see the installation, 35 miles to the east off Montauk, of a dozen 11-megawatt wind turbines. The turbines will tie in by an undersea cable, to the land-ho connection point in Wainscott.

It’s a windy Thursday afternoon, but not as windy as the day before. “We like the wind,” Mr. Patton said as he updated reporters on what has happened to date.

Read the full article at the East Hampton Star