Saving Seafood

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.

Read the full story at WGBH

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.

Read the full story at MassLive

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.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

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.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

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.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

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.

Read the full story at NH1

MASSACHUSETTS: UMass biologist named Vineyard Wind’s liaison to fishing industry

August 2, 2018 –UMass field biologist and New Bedford resident Crista Bank has been named fisheries liaison for Vineyard Wind.

The company announced the full-time appointment Monday. Bank will represent the company to the fishing industry at public meetings and in one-on-one conversations to address fishermen’s concerns with the offshore wind project.

“We can’t solve the problems without their help,” she said in an interview.

Bank has done collaborative research with fishermen on commercially valuable species, including cod, monkfish and halibut, and she is familiar with scallopers, draggers, gillnetters and longliners.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Vineyard Wind Appoints Crista Bank as Fisheries Liaison

July 30, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The following was released by Vineyard Wind:

Vineyard Wind today announced the appointment of Crista Bank as Fisheries Liaison. In this role, Bank will lead the project’s regional engagement with fishing industry representatives on Cape and Islands, the South Coast, Rhode Island, and along the East Coast.

A fisheries scientist, Bank brings extensive local, regional, national and international experience and deep knowledge of marine science and fisheries issues to her role at Vineyard Wind.

“We’re pleased to have Crista lead our efforts to address the important questions the fishing industry have raised about the impacts of offshore wind development on the marine environment and on sea life,” said Erich Stephens, Chief Development Officer with Vineyard Wind. “Crista will play a key role in ensuring that the first large-scale offshore wind project in the US helps establish a robust body of knowledge that will benefit the American offshore wind industry and the fishing community for decades to come.”

Most recently, Crista served as a fisheries biologist at the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) at UMass Dartmouth, working on collaborative research projects with commercial fishermen studying cod, monkfish, and halibut. Previously, she served on the Schooner Ernestina, the only surviving 19th century Gloucester-built fishing schooner and one of two remaining examples of the Fredonia-style schooners, where she earned her 100-ton United States Coast Guard Captain’s license. Bank also worked on board traditional sailing vessels across the world, including journeys to the Indian and Atlantic oceans. She started her career teaching marine science at outdoor experiential education programs in New England, Southern California, and the Florida Keys. Crista earned a bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology from UMass Dartmouth and a Master’s degree in Fisheries Oceanography from SMAST.

In May, Vineyard Wind was selected to negotiate long-term contracts with Massachusetts’ electric distribution companies (EDCs) for construction of an 800-megawatt (MW) wind farm 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard; the project will provide the amount of clean energy used by over 400,000 homes across Massachusetts Vineyard Wind remains on schedule to begin site construction in 2019 and become operational by 2021.

About Vineyard Wind

Vineyard Wind LLC is an offshore wind development company seeking to build the first large-scale offshore wind energy project in the US, to be located 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Vineyard Wind, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, is 50 percent owned by funds of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and 50 percent by Avangrid Renewables. For more information, visit www.vineyardwind.com.

 

Vineyard Wind, R.I. fishermen still at odds over turbines

July 30, 2018 — NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — Nearly four months into a review of its proposal by Rhode Island coastal regulators, Vineyard Wind has been unable to allay fears that its proposed offshore wind farm of up to 100 turbines would harm the state’s fishing industry.

With a key approval from the Coastal Resources Management Council at stake, the New Bedford-based company has agreed to a two-month extension in an attempt to bridge the divide with agency staff and Rhode Island fishermen over the $2-billion project that would be built in 250 square miles of ocean south of Martha’s Vineyard.

At a recent meeting with the company and fishermen, Coastal Resources Management Council executive director Grover Fugate announced the stay, which pushes back a decision by the agency until Dec. 6.

The delay comes after Fugate sent a letter to Vineyard Wind signaling that the agency is unlikely to award a “consistency certification” to the 800-megawatt wind farm as it’s currently configured. Fugate recommended an alternate layout of the turbines to minimize impacts to fishing grounds for squid, lobster and other species that are critical to Rhode Island fishermen.

During the meeting last Thursday of the Fishermen’s Advisory Board, which advises the council on fishing issues related to offshore wind, Rhode Island fishermen complained that Vineyard Wind never took their needs into account when designing the wind farm. Over three hours of back and forth that at points grew heated, they repeatedly said that the orientation of the wind farm and the spacing of the turbines would make it nearly impossible for them to fish within its boundaries.

“You’re talking about gutting an entire industry, the Rhode Island industry,” said Lanny Dellinger, a lobsterman who heads the board. “If you do this, we’re all out of business.”

After the meeting, Fugate was asked if the council could approve the current design of the project.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

 

Mariners brake for right whales

July 5, 2018 — NOAA Fisheries announced Tuesday that a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone has been established to protect a group of four North Atlantic right whales sighted two nautical miles south of Nantucket on June 30, according to a press release.

Mariners are asked to travel at 10 knots or less inside the area where the whales were spotted, in order to avoid ship collisions with the endangered species. Effective through July 15, either slow to 10 knots or avoid the area of 41 32 N, 40 54 N, 070 29 W, 069 36 W.

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less are also in effect in the Great South Channel through July 31.

In 2017, 17 whales died, plus an additional mortality in January 2018, totaling about 4 percent of the entire right whale population. Also in 2017, two right whale carcasses washed up on Vineyard beaches, and two other carcasses were found on Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands. This sparked an increased local effort by the NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard to protect the whales from further harm. Migratory patterns of right whales trace directly through parts of Nantucket and Vineyard Sound as they travel to seasonal plankton blooms for food. The whales are a critically endangered species, with a population estimated at about 450 animals, according to the release.

Read the full story at the Martha’s Vineyard Times