November 19, 2018 — Bay State Wind will host an open house on Wednesday, Dec. 5, to hear from the public about the development of an offshore wind project off the southern Massachusetts coast, according to a press release. The open house will run from 4 to 6 pm at the Loft Restaurant, with a brief presentation about the project at 4:30 pm. Guests will hear about the status of the project and offshore wind in the region from Orsted staff and have a chance to discuss the environmental, economic, and technical issues, and to visit an offshore wind farm through a virtual reality experience, as well as to voice their opinion about Bay State Wind’s project.
Fishermen ask for more time to study wind impact
November 12, 2018 — Fishermen, fish processors and others warned on Thursday that fishing grounds will be lost with the construction of Vineyard Wind, and some expressed doubt that planned UMass Dartmouth research can happen fast enough to document the loss.
“We have this huge area we’re going to develop, and obviously we’ve got a pretty close timeline,” said Ed Barrett, a commercial fisherman from the South Shore. “How are you ever going to even come close to figuring out an impact? … I have zero faith in that.”
UMD’s School for Marine Science and Technology held the meeting to collect fishing industry comments as researchers begin to design monitoring studies that would occur before, during and after construction. Vineyard Wind has hired SMAST to help write a monitoring plan to submit to federal regulators, Professor Steve Cadrin said in an interview prior to the meeting.
Three similar meetings are planned for Rhode Island, Chatham and Martha’s Vineyard.
Katie Almeida, fishery policy analyst for The Town Dock, a squid dealer and processor in Rhode Island, said that for two years, her company has been asking for at least five years of pre-construction fishery monitoring, and the conversation has not gone any further.
“And now we’re down to what, a year?” she said. “How can we get any meaningful science and study done that’s going to actually hold up to any kind of scrutiny for baseline studies?”
People have been asking for a delay, she said.
Cadrin and Professor Kevin Stokesbury hosted the meeting. One of the problems they will face in designing a study, Stokesbury said, is that whatever survey methods they use before construction, they have to be able to use during and after construction, to eliminate variables.
Fisheries Researchers Map Habitats Ahead of Offshore Wind Development
November 9, 2018 — HYANNIS, Mass. – NOAA Fisheries researchers are helping to inform federal managers and developers on the impacts that construction and operation of offshore wind facilities will have on ocean bottom habitats and fisheries.
The Northeast Fisheries Science Center conducted four years of research to build a database of information, including water temperatures, topography, sediments, currents and marine life in the eight Wind Energy Areas authorized by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management along the East Coast.
The designated WEAs encompass just over 4,000 square nautical miles of seafloor from Massachusetts to North Carolina. About 40 percent of the area has actually been leased to date, including the Vineyard Wind project development south of Martha’s Vineyard.
Ocean Shock: Fish Flee for Cooler Waters, Upending Lives in US South
November 7, 2018 — This is part of “Ocean Shock,” a Reuters series exploring climate change’s impact on sea creatures and the people who depend on them.
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” drifts from Karroll Tillett’s workshop, a wooden shed about half a mile from where he was born.
Tillett, known as “Frog” to everyone here, has lived most of his 75 years on the water, much of it chasing summer flounder. But the chasing got harder and harder, and now he spends his time making nets for other fishermen at his workshop, at the end of a dirt path next to his ex-wife’s house.
The house is on CB Daniels Sr. Road, one of several named after two of the fishing clans that have held sway for decades in this small coastal town. Besides CB Daniels Sr. Road, there’s ER Daniels Road and just plain Daniels Road. In Frog’s family, there’s Tink Tillett Road and Rondal Tillett Road.
Once upon a time, these fishing families were pioneers. In the 1970s and 1980s, they built summer flounder into a major catch for the region. The 15 brothers and sisters of the Daniels clan parlayed the business into a multinational fishing company, and three years ago they sold it to a Canadian outfit for tens of millions of dollars.
But for Frog Tillett and almost everyone else in these parts, there’s not much money to be made fishing offshore here anymore.
Forty years ago, Tillett fished for summer flounder in December and January in waters near Wanchese, then followed the fish north as the weather warmed. In recent years, however, fewer summer flounder have traveled as far south in the winter, and the most productive area has shifted north, closer to Martha’s Vineyard and the southern shore of Long Island.
Reuters has spent more than a year scouring decades of maritime temperature readings, fishery records and other little-used data to create a portrait of the planet’s hidden climate disruption — in the rarely explored depths of the seas that cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface. The reporting has come to a disturbing conclusion: Marine life is facing an epic dislocation.
MASSACHUSETTS: The Country’s Most Valuable Fishing Port Gears Up For Wind Energy
October 29, 2018 — The city of New Bedford first prospered as a whaling capital. Now, a thriving scallop industry makes this the country’s most valuable fishing port.
“Last year we landed over $300 million worth of fish and that’s only a small portion of what’s processed here,” said New Bedford Port Director Ed Anthes-Washburn. “We’re now at a point where more vessels unload from North Carolina in New Bedford than unload in North Carolina.”
On board a port authority boat, Anthes-Washburn points to the infrastructure that has made New Bedford a fishing destination: fuel barges, ice houses and the warehouses where fishermen drop their catch daily for auction.
Massive fishing vessels painted in bright orange, red and blue line the port, but these days not all the boats are for fishing.
Anthes-Washburn pointed to a pair of research vessels outfitted to explore the depths of ocean. New Bedford — a community with expertise in catching fish — is gearing up to capture wind. The city is poised to be the launching point for the country’s first full-scale off shore wind farm.
The centerpiece of this effort is the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, a 29-acre tract of land along the port. It will serve as a staging area for construction of the off-shore wind turbines. More than one hundred are planned in federal waters 14 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Think windmills in the ocean, but far bigger than the type used on land, each one the size of a sky-scraper.
“It’s a $2 billion construction project,” said Anthes-Washburn. “It’s my job to make sure to see that as much of that happens in New Bedford as it can.”
Construction of the off-shore wind farm is expected to bring thousands of jobs to New Bedford. Long term, the city is positioning itself to serve as an offshore wind operations and maintenance center.
MASSACHUSETTS: Cape Cod landing for offshore wind cable approved by Barnstable
October 23, 2018 — If all goes as planned, an underwater transmission cable for the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind plant will land at a Cape Cod beach.
Barnstable officials on Thursday agreed to grant Vineyard Wind a power cable easement at Covell Beach in the village of Centerville. The vote followed negotiation of a host community agreement that will pay the town up to $32 million over the next 25 years.
Vineyard Wind, based in New Bedford, says it’s on schedule to build its wind power station 34 miles off Cape Cod and 14 miles from Martha’s Vineyard. The company plans 106 turbines in a $2 billion project, and hopes to be operational in 2021.
The state’s Energy Facilities siting Board will have final say over the cable route, and environmental and fisheries considerations are part of the discussion. Other state and federal permits are still needed.
Vineyard Wind is a 50-50 partnership between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables, and was selected in May by state officials and utility representatives to supply 800 megawatts of renewable power to Massachusetts.
The project will reduce the state’s carbon emissions by over 1.6 million tons per year, the equivalent of removing 325,000 cars, and power 400,000 homes, the company stated.
Massachusetts DMF: Covell Beach better spot for Vineyard Wind cable
October 11, 2018 — An underwater cable proposed by offshore energy company Vineyard Wind will pose less of a threat to marine resources if it makes landfall at a Centerville beach instead of traveling through Lewis Bay, according to state fisheries officials.
“To avoid and minimize marine resource impacts, Covell’s Beach is a better choice,” Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries Director David Pierce wrote in a letter last week to Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton.
The Oct. 3 letter reviews new information contained in a 1,111-page supplemental draft environmental impact report that Vineyard Wind filed in August with the Energy and Environmental Affairs. The supplemental report follows up on an earlier draft issued in April, and includes more detailed information about two possible landing sites for the 800-megawatt cable that will connect the company’s turbines southwest of Martha’s Vineyard with the electrical grid: New Hampshire Avenue in West Yarmouth and at Covell Beach in Centerville.
Although the company’s initial filings — including the supplemental report — listed New Hampshire Avenue as its preferred landing site, a host community agreement signed by Vineyard Wind and the town of Barnstable last week stipulates that Covell Beach is now the preferred site.
Beaton is chairman of the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board, which will decide where the cable comes onshore after considering reliability, environmental impacts and costs, according to its website. The board began a monthlong hearing on the issue last week, and is expected to announce its decision in April.
Because the decision on where to site the cable rests with the board, Vineyard Wind is still pursuing both locations.
Bringing the cable onshore at New Hampshire Avenue could pose a threat to numerous marine resources, according to Pierce’s letter.
“New Hampshire Avenue, within Lewis Bay, will potentially impact shellfish beds, a depuration area, bay scallop habitat, and a mooring field,” the letter says. A depuration area is a location used to cleanse or purify seafood.
Right whale protections could force change for lobster industry
October 3, 2018 — In the second week of October, the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team will meet in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. to discuss what efforts are necessary to stop the deaths of right whales, one of the most endangered species on the planet.
Those efforts will likely include some restrictions on various North Atlantic fisheries that use roped gear, such as the New England lobster fishery. A string of recent whale deaths has been linked to entanglement in fishing gear, such as one whale found floating near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, on 27 August.
Those entanglement deaths have already pushed regulators towards requiring any roped lobster gear to be removed from areas that right whales are known to be present, with month-long fishery bans proposed for certain areas. The threat has also led to some companies trying to innovate ropeless lobster gear in order to keep the lobster fishery working while roped gear is banned.
The need for action is dire, according to a recent report by NOAA. While the right whale had been in recovery, the series of recent deaths has put that recovery in question.
“At the current rate of decline, all recovery achieved in the population over the past three decades will be lost by 2029,” the NOAA report said.
In Maine, the lobster industry was recently awarded a grant to gather data on the affect of lobster gear on right whales. Finding out what impact Maine’s lobster industry has would be of vital importance to the states economy. In 2017, the state took in USD 434 million (EUR 376 million) in 2017, and generated another USD 1 billion (EUR 867 million) in post-dock revenue.
The lobster industry in Maine has been confident that the entanglements haven’t been caused by their gear. None of the whale deaths in 2017 could be directly attributed to lobster gear.
According to the Portland Press Herald, the state has proposed putting a mark unique to Maine on all gear used by lobstermen from the state so that regulators can rule out Maine fishermen from entanglements.
One mariner killed, another injured in attack aboard a fishing vessel
September 25, 2018 — One fisherman is dead and another was injured when another person aboard the Captain Billy Haver trawler allegedly attacked crew members.
“We just responded to a report of an attack on the 82-foot fishing vessel,” said Andrew Barresi, a petty officer with the U.S. Coast Guard.
The attack occurred Sunday and radio calls from the fishing vessel said the suspect allegedly used a knife or a hammer, according to the Martha’s Vineyard Times. The Coast Guard did not confirm this detail with the newspaper, and Barresi also couldn’t give a timeline for when things happened.
The Mein Schiff 6, a German cruise ship, responded to the fishing vessel, according to the Times. It took the two injured mariners aboard; a doctor pronounced one of them dead.
Coast Guard officials met the trawler, which was about 60 miles east of Nantucket, according to the Times, with the Legare, a 270-foot Coast Guard cutter. The suspect was taken into custody.
Another Whale Carcass Spotted in Massachusetts Has Scientists Alarmed for Population
August 30, 2018 — The second right whale death of 2018 has been recorded near Martha’s Vineyard.
North Atlantic right whales are one of the most endangered marine mammals with an estimated population of 450.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the young whale was first reported floating off Tom’s Neck Point, Martha’s Vineyard, on Sunday. The carcass of the 30-foot whale again was spotted Monday and the agency began planning to tow it to shore to perform a necropsy.
On Tuesday, however, the U.S. Coast Guard and two staff members of the NOAA Fisheries Woods Hole Laboratory sailed to the carcass and determined it was too decomposed to bring to shore. The crew attached a satellite tag and took tissue samples. If the whale carcass does make it to land, they will collect more samples.
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