Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Wind Farm Off Martha’s Vineyard Near Approval

March 10, 2021 — The following is an excerpt from a segment that ran on NBC Boston:

On Monday, the U.S. Department of the Interior completed Vineyard Wind’s environmental impact assessment. With the completion of this assessment, Vineyard Wind has edged closer to completion. Groups representing the seafood industry from across the Atlantic coast have expressed concern that it may lead to restrictions on large portions of valuable fishing grounds.

“There’s proposals all up and down the East Coast to occupy massive acreage of ocean bottom. So, that’s going to be a problem for fishermen,” said Eric Hansen, a local scallop fisherman from New Bedford.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell expressed that “it will take a lot of communication over the next several months to make sure that the wind farm and the fishermen can safely co-exist.”

Watch the full video here

As Vineyard Wind moves toward approval, a wave builds behind it

March 9, 2021 — A huge wind farm off the Massachusetts coast is edging closer to federal approval, setting up what the Biden administration hopes will be a model for a sharp increase in offshore wind energy development along the East Coast.

The Vineyard Wind project, south of Martha’s Vineyard, would create 800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 400,000 homes in New England. If approved, the $2 billion project would be the first utility-scale wind power development in federal waters. A smaller offshore wind farm — the nation’s first — operates near Block Island in waters controlled by the State of Rhode Island.

Andrew Minkiewicz, an attorney for the Fisheries Survival Fund, which advocates for the sea scallop fishing industry, said the group has concerns about the abrupt shift in attitude from the Trump administration to Biden.

The project appeared dead — or at least on indefinite pause — as recently as last year, “and the new administration comes in and says no, we’re going to go ahead,” Minkiewicz said. “If this were not a clean-energy project, I think there would be an absolute uproar.”

Fishing groups from Maine to Florida have expressed fear that large offshore wind projects could render huge swaths of the ocean off-limits to their catch. While Vineyard Wind is not located in an area critical to the scallop fishery, other potential sites along the Atlantic coast could pose a major threat to scallopers, Minkiewicz said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Providence Journal

Biden administration backs nation’s biggest wind farm off Martha’s Vineyard

March 8, 2021 — The Biden administration took a crucial step Monday toward approving the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm about 12 nautical miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., a project that officials say will launch a massive clean-power expansion in the fight against climate change.

In completing a final environmental review of Vineyard Wind, the Interior Department endorsed an idea that had been conceived two decades ago but had run into a well-funded and organized opposition from waterfront property owners near the tony island, including then-Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D), who died in 2009, and the billionaire industrialist William I. Koch.

The $2.8 billion project is set to be built several miles south of the original plan fought by the Kennedy family and will be out of sight from the family’s Hyannis compound.

The Biden administration framed Monday’s decision as a way to increase the nation’s renewable energy capacity while creating well-paying construction jobs building turbines and other clean-energy equipment.

“The demand for offshore wind energy has never been greater,” Laura Daniel Davis, principal deputy assistant secretary of land and minerals at Interior, told reporters in a news call. “The technological advances, falling costs, increased interest and the tremendous economic potential make offshore wind a really promising avenue.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

New Slow Zone (Martha’s Vineyard) and Extended Slow Zone (Nantucket) to Protect Right Whales

March 8, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On March 7, 2021, the New England Aquarium survey team observed two aggregations of right whales. The new aggregation was observed south of Martha’s Vineyard, MA. The resighted whale aggregation was observed south of Nantucket, Island, MA. Both the Martha’s Vineyard, MA and Nantucket Island, MA Slow Zones are in effect through March 22, 2021.

Mariners are requested to route around these areas or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

South of Martha’s Vineyard, MA, March 7-22, 2021

41 21 N
40 41 N
070 15 W
071 06 W

South of Nantucket, MA, March 7-22, 2021

41 23 N
40 40 N
069 39 W
070 35 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: Community Foundation Announces Grants

February 1, 2021 — The Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation, formerly known as the Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard, has announced two new grants to Island organizations.

The MV Fishermen’s Preservation Trust received $25,000 to re-establish a commercially viable wholesale fish market in Menemsha, and the Community Ambassador Partnership was awarded $13,367 to provide medical interpretation training to better serve the Portuguese-speaking community with medical needs or questions, particularly in light of the pandemic and upcoming vaccinations for Covid-19.

“This year has highlighted the need to be flexible and nimble in responding to emerging needs,” community foundation board chair Anne Williamson said in a statement. “If we want to maintain a robust fishing industry based out of our harbors, then it’s critical to support a wholesale outlet for their catch.”

Executive director Emily Bramhall said the foundation has supported the Community Ambassador Partnership since it was formed at the beginning of the pandemic.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

New Slow Speed Zone West of Martha’s Vineyard to Protect Right Whales

January 4, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In Effect through January 15

NOAA Fisheries announces a new Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction zone) south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

On December 31, 2020, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Cox Ledge Slocum glider acoustically detected the presence of right whales 32nm west of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Mariners, please go around this area or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

The West of Martha’s Vineyard Slow Zone is in effect through January 15 for waters bounded by:

41 34 N
40 54 N
070 50 W
071 43 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

New Slow Speed Zone South of Martha’s Vineyard to Protect Right Whales

December 31, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In Effect through January 14

NOAA Fisheries announces a new Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction zone) south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

On December 30, 2020, Protected Species Observers aboard wind farm survey vessel Ventus noted the presence of right whales 21nm South of Martha’s Vineyard.

Mariners, please go around this area or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

The South of Martha’s Vinyeard Slow Zone is in effect through January 14 for waters bounded by:

41 25 N
40 44 N
069 59 W
070 55 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: Seasonal Ban on Lobstering Aims to Protect Right Whales

December 21, 2020 — With the North Atlantic right whale population at a dangerously low ebb, the state Division of Marine Fisheries is proposing a statewide seasonal ban on lobstering in a last-chance effort to save the critically endangered species from extinction.

Floated by the DMF during public hearings on Dec. 8 and 9, the proposed regulations come in the wake of a report that estimated right whale populations at only 366 marine mammals — down from the 481 estimated in 2011 — and a continued “unusual mortality event” that has seen more than 30 right whale deaths in the past three years.

The dramatic rule changes propose extending the state’s existing Feb. 1 through April 30 lobster trap closure in Cape Cod Bay to all waters under the jurisdiction of the commonwealth, including the Vineyard and Nantucket Sound. Buoyed recreational lobster and crab trap fishing would also be closed. The recreational closure would run from the Tuesday after Columbus Day through the Friday preceding Memorial Day.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

Dutch Group Expands Support of U.S. Offshore Wind

December 17, 2020 — A European company considered a leader in the offshore wind sector has signed on to help develop a major project off the Massachusetts coast. Ventolines, a Dutch company that worked on the first commercial U.S. offshore wind project, on Dec. 16 announced it has opened a U.S. office and will support construction of the Mayflower Wind installation.

Mayflower Wind is a planned 804-MW offshore wind project about 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, and 23 miles south of Nantucket. The project, expected to come online in 2025, already has power purchase agreements with Massachusetts utilities. The installation is a joint venture of Shell New Energies and Ocean Winds, which is the global offshore wind collaboration between ENGIE and EDP Renewables.

“We are proud to be part of the team bringing more wind farms and sustainable energy to the U.S.,” said Thibaut de Groen, Ventolines’ Director of Contracting and Construction, on Wednesday. Ventolines supervised the installation of wind turbines and advised on asset management for the 30-MW Block Island wind farm (Figure 1) off the Rhode Island coast, which came online in 2017 and was the first U.S. offshore wind project.

Read the full story at Power Magazine

MASSACHUSETTS: Lobster Stocks Found in Steep Decline, With Future in Doubt

October 30, 2020 — Southern New England lobster stocks, once robust, have declined to record lows in recent years according to scientists and regulators, jeopardizing the future of a storied fishery even as Vineyard lobstermen continue to report strong seasons on the water.

In a benchmark assessment released late last week, an interstate regulatory agency found that lobster populations in southern New England are “significantly depleted,” reaching their lowest levels on record and threatening the lobster industry from the southern Cape through Long Island Sound.

But some Vineyard lobstermen said that despite the decreasing abundance in the entire southern New England region — which stretches from south of New York to Monomoy and Nantucket — their catch around the Island remains healthy.

And interestingly, just as lobster populations have declined in more southern waters in recent years, scientists have seen a historic boom in the Gulf of Maine, where lobster abundance and fishery performance have reached record highs, according to the report. The Vineyard sits just south of the halfway point between the two American lobster stock units, which are divided by geography and small differences in the biology of the crustaceans.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette