Saving Seafood

More Offshore Wind Turbines Could be on the Way to Ocean City

August 4, 2023 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has identified three new Wind Energy Areas or WEAs. They lie off the coasts of Delaware, Virginia and Maryland.

For Ocean City leaders, this new proposal does not seem to be as controversial as US Winds, and it is all about the distance. The new site would be 23.5 nautical miles Southeast of Ocean City’s coastline. Essentially running parallel to Assateague.

“That’s a lot better than 11.9 miles, as is currently being proposed in the lease area for US Wind,” said Rick Meehan, Ocean City’s mayor.

Back in July the town hired an outside firm to look at US Wind’s proposal and deem if it is responsible. The end goal would be getting US Wind to move its turbines back. And now, the town can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Read the full article at WBOC

Wittman leads House members in legislation to protect Chesapeake Bay

July 23, 2023 — The Chesapeake Bay SEEE Act would help protect the watershed, improve ecosystem management and increase environmental stewardship opportunities.

Congressman Rob Wittman of Virginia, U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes of Maryland, Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott of Virginia and Rep. Jen Kiggans of Virginia reintroduced the Chesapeake Bay Science, Education and Ecosystem Enhancement (SEEE) Act today.

“The Chesapeake Bay is integral to our way of life in Virginia’s 1st District and conserving our coastal and marine ecosystems has remained one of my top priorities,” Wittman, co-chair of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Task Force, said. “I am proud to join my colleagues in this effort to expand environmental education opportunities, boost state and local restoration efforts and provide NOAA with the resources it needs to protect this national treasure.”

Read the full article at Augusta Free Press

MARYLAND: Maryland congressional delegation announces USD 3.8 million for meat and blue catfish processors

July 5, 2023 — U.S. federal lawmakers from the state of Maryland have revealed that USD 3.8 million (EUR 3.5 million) in loan funding has been made available to local meat and catfish processors.

Although Chesapeake Bay fishermen harvest more than 5 million pounds of invasive blue catfish annually, there are only 18 USDA-approved inspection facilities, resulting in a processing bottleneck. The funding announced last week will help local producers expand or establish operations to help cut those processing times.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Seafood Watch draft report hits Chespeake Bay oysters with “avoid” rating

June 1, 2023 — A Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program draft assessment downgrades the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) caught in the Chesapeake Bay “avoid,” drawing criticism from scientists, officials, conservationists, and fishers.

The draft report  rated wild-caught oysters in the U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia harvested both with hand implements and towed dredges as seafood to avoid, citing a “high concern” for the status of the stock and of the management of the fishery.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MARYLAND: Maryland set to adopt one of the biggest offshore wind goals in US

April 13, 2023 — Maryland is poised to set policies that could quadruple the amount of offshore wind planned along the state’s Atlantic coastline.

On Monday, Maryland’s General Assembly passed the Promoting Offshore Wind Energy Resources Act, or POWER ACT. The comprehensive legislation sets a nonbinding goal of 8.5 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2031, up from the 2 gigawatts of projects now in various stages of development.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D) has promised to sign the bill as part of the state’s broader effort to get 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2035. The 8.5-gigawatt ambition would give Maryland the second largest offshore wind goal in the country, after New York — and help keep the Biden administration on track for its target of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030

Read the full article at Canary Media

Boaters, watermen worried about expanded zone for weapons testing on Potomac River

March 30, 2023 — For more than a century, the U.S. Navy has been using the lower Potomac River as a firing range to test its guns and munitions. In recent decades, it’s tried out new weapons over the water, like lasers and electromagnetic railguns.

Since the first booming artillery round soared 14 miles downriver in 1918, residents on both sides of the Potomac have learned to live with the intermittent blasts from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, in King George County, VA. Pleasure boaters and watermen alike also learned to work around the open water testing, when a stretch of river south of the U.S. 301 bridge is closed to river traffic.

That unquestioning acceptance has changed lately, though. It began with a bureaucratic notice in the Federal Register in December seeking public comment on a proposed expansion of the middle “danger zone” that extends about 20 miles downriver from Dahlgren. The notice said the expansion was for “ongoing infrared sensor testing for detection of airborne chemical or biological agent simulants, directed energy testing, and for operating manned or unmanned watercraft.”

Boaters who spotted the notice reacted with dismay. They complained that the proposed danger zone expansion would force vessels trying to get up or down river into such shallow water along the Maryland shore that they would risk running aground.

“I have been boating on the Eastern seaboard for over 40 years,” wrote James Khoury, vice commodore of the Prince William Yacht Club. “I have never come across a mandate that deliberately puts the safety of boaters in both the recreational and commercial boating industry in jeopardy.”

The notice also stirred concerns among oyster farmers and watermen, especially after Potomac Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks began raising questions about how the Navy’s gunnery exercises and chemical/biological tests may affect fish and shellfish.

In late January, the Potomac Riverkeeper Network and Natural Resources Defense Council sent the secretary of the Navy two letters accusing the service of violating federal environmental laws and threatening to sue.

Read the full article at Bay Journal

$1M to help with ‘vital’ Chesapeake Bay improvement

March 27, 2023 — The Chesapeake Bay Trust nonprofit based in Annapolis, Maryland, will receive over $1 million in funding from the federal government to strengthen tidal wetland restoration, public education and bolster green infrastructure projects.

In a news release Friday, U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin and Congressman John Sarbanes announced that $1,129,063 in federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will go toward local projects to restore, preserve and protect the Chesapeake Bay.

“The health of the Chesapeake Bay is vital to the health of our communities and our regional economy,” said Van Hollen.

“We fought to pass the infrastructure modernization law — and within it to boost resources for our efforts to protect the Bay — in order to invest in projects like this that will help restore our wetlands and habitats that serve as essential filters to prevent pollutants from poisoning the Bay.”

Read the full article at WTOP

MARYLAND: Gov. Moore requesting federal assistance in protecting the Chesapeake Bay from invasive fish species

March 19, 2023 — Governor Wes Moore is federal assistance for the Chesapeake Bay, amid concerns of an increase in invasive fish species, the Governor’s office said Thursday.

According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the population and value of Maryland’s most important commercial fish has decreased since 2012, which hurts the state economy.

Although a direct connection to invasive species is not confirmed, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is concerned about the high density of invasive fish like blue catfish, which may negatively affect native species by competing for space and food.

“You’ll never eradicate them, but you gotta get them down under control. They’re here to stay,” Maryland Watermen’s Association President Robert T. Brown said. “Mother Nature is always going to give you some type of balance. We do not like the balance we’re getting. It’s going the wrong way.”

In the past decade, harvest and value of native species in the Chesapeake Bay all declined. During the same time, numbers of invasive blue catfish and snakehead soared.

Read the full article at CBS News

House committee kills bill banning menhaden reduction fishery in Chesapeake Bay

January 19, 2023 — Legislative attempts to put a two-year moratorium on the menhaden reduction fishery in the Chesapeake Bay and expand the time period during which state officials can change the fishery regulations died Wednesday in committee.

The House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee unanimously voted to kill a bill from Del. Tim Anderson, R-Virginia Beach, that would have shut down the menhaden reduction fishery in the Chesapeake Bay for two years while the Virginia Marine Resources Commission conducted a study on its impacts.

Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, was absent from the meeting.

Read the full article at Virginia Mercury

The heat is on: Warming water threatens aquatic life in Chesapeake Bay region

January 19, 2023 — Warming water is threatening to undo decades of efforts aimed at improving aquatic habitat in the Chesapeake region, from headwater streams to the open water of the Bay itself.

The increasing water temperatures, which threaten species like brook trout and striped bass, are already offsetting some of the habitat benefits of the multibillion-dollar Bay restoration effort, a new report warns. Worse, some actions taken to reduce pollution are actually contributing to warmer, more stressful, stream conditions for fish.

“We’re behind the eight ball right now in considering this in our major policies,” said Rich Batiuk, a former senior science official with the state-federal Bay Program partnership, who helped organize a 2022 workshop focused on the region’s rising water temperatures.

Read the full article at the Bay Journal