Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Feds share ‘fair amount of guidance’ with state, Vineyard Wind

July 17, 2019 — Days after the Trump administration injected a level of uncertainty into the Vineyard Wind project planned off of Martha’s Vineyard, Gov. Charlie Baker said the federal government has given his administration and the company a “fair amount of guidance” about the decision to delay a key permit.

Baker, who met Tuesday afternoon on the campus of Eastern Connecticut State University with Govs. Ned Lamont of Connecticut and Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, also said he did not think federal regulators were trying to send any broader message about their approach to offshore wind development.

The Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management notified Vineyard Wind last week that the government was “not yet prepared” to issue a final environmental impact statement for the 800 megawatt wind power project, which the the state is trying to advance in connection with its 2016 clean energy law.

The indefinite delay in the decision, which was expected on July 12, threw a wrench in the project’s tight timeline, which has a construction start date this fall and is scheduled to be operational in 2021.

Baker said he thought the federal government treated offshore wind projects as “standalone, fact specific issues,” rather than trying to send a broader message to the industry by holding up the Vineyard Wind permit.

“There’s no question the fact that the Vineyard Wind one is the biggest project of its kind in U.S. history. It means it’s receiving what I would describe as a significant and probably more significant level of scrutiny, probably appropriately from the federal agencies,” Baker said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Climate Change and its Effect on Our Coastal Ecosystem

July 16, 2019 — Climate change and rapidly warming water mean a major impact on our coastal ecosystem.

The North Atlantic shelf, which includes our Connecticut shoreline and extends all the way up to the coastal waters of Canada, is warming faster 99 percent faster than our global oceans. Scientists are concerned for what the future holds.

“There’s a lot of concern about what climate change can do. The Gulf of Maine which is an incredibly productive body of water which includes Cape Cod and parts North is warming at an alarming rate. And it will be interesting to see how that changes the distribution of both the predator and prey,” said Dr. Greg Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

In the case of great white sharks, climate change will likely affect the prey before the predator.

Read the full story at NBC Connecticut

MASSACHUSETTS: Will Magnuson roundtable come to Gloucester?

July 16, 2019 — Congress continues to bumble around in its effort to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which should come as breaking news to no one who understands the complexity of the law and the usual banality that ensues in Washington whenever more than three people gather in a room to discuss anything.

With that in mind, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman of California is taking his act on the road, going coast to-coast to hold a series of roundtable discussions to “engage diverse perspectives, interests and needs of individuals who have a stake in the management of our ocean and fisheries resources.”

Correct us if we’re wrong here, but isn’t that just about everyone in the whole US of A? Just sayin’.

Anyway, Huffman, who is chairman of the House Water, Oceans and Wildlife subcommittee, has not offered a specific agenda or schedule for his personal rolling thunder tour.

But he did say he is committed to holding at least one session in each of the eight regions managed by a federal fishery management council – including New England. So, perhaps Gloucester?

He also said he is committed to introducing a draft Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization bill by next spring. So, keep a sharp orb peeled for that on Amazon. Or just wait for the movie.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Gift from the sea: New Bedford’s bounty starts with scallops

July 16, 2019 — On a recent evening at Cork Wine & Tapas, which occupies a stone warehouse built when New Bedford was king of whaling, four people at the bar made quick work of the pan-seared sea scallops.

It’s a hard dish to eat slowly. I know — I’ve been hooked on Cork’s famous plateful since the harborside restaurant opened in 2007. The scallop meats, firm but tender, are served on ginger-garlic jasmine rice and irresistibly drizzled with roasted macadamia cream sauce. The added bonus, of course, is that the scallops on your fork are nearly fresh off the boat.

“Fresh! Never frozen,” said Cork’s chef, Nick Santerre, who receives two batches of scallops from his suppliers each week. “There’s no need for frozen!” Santerre spoke so fervently about how he sources his scallops, I thought he must be descended from Portuguese fishermen, but it turns out he’s part French and Irish with a whisker of Native American.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Vineyard Wind Dealt Setbacks By Local, U.S. Regulators

July 15, 2019 — The company hoping to build a planned wind farm off Massachusetts is appealing to the state after the project hit snags with local and federal regulators.

The Edgartown Conservation Commission on Martha’s Vineyard voted this week to deny Vineyard Wind’s application to lay transmission cables that would pass about a mile east of Edgartown.

Separately, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has delayed issuing a final environmental impact statement that would help clear the way for construction of the 84-turbine, 800-megawatt wind farm.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WBUR

VINEYARD WIND: Notice to Mariners and Fishermen No. 15

July 15, 2019 — The following was released by Vineyard Wind:

This notice replaces Notice No. 14. We wanted to let you know that Vineyard Wind will begin geological surveys on July 9th. The estimated duration is approximately 10 days, ending on July 19th (weather dependent). Surveys will take place nearshore in Centerville Harbor. Please see the full notice to fishermen and mariners here.

We encourage fishermen who may be working in the survey area to contact the fishery liaison.

This survey will gather data on the subfloor conditions that will assist in characterizing the subsurface conditions along the proposed offshore horizontal directional drilling (HDD) route.

Vineyard Wind is committed to communicating and working with the local fishermen in the region during all stages of development of the proposed offshore wind farm.

If you have any questions, please contact Erik Peckar, Fishery Liaison via email at erik@vineyardpower.com or via cell phone at 703-244-9585.

Feds: Vineyard Wind review window ends in 2020

July 12, 2019 — The federal agency evaluating the environmental impact of Vineyard Wind provided no explanation for its decision to extend the time period for review beyond Friday, but noted it has until March 2020 to complete its work, several months after the offshore wind developer had planned to begin construction.

Stephen Boutwell, a spokesman for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, issued a statement Thursday afternoon saying the agency is continuing to evaluate the environmental impact of the project.

“Proposed offshore wind facilities are major infrastructure projects, and BOEM is still within the two-year review window established under Executive Order 13807 to complete its reviews,” the statement said. “When the work has concluded, BOEM will publish its findings and notify all stakeholders.”

The federal agency published a notice of intent to issue an environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind in the Federal Register on March 30, 2018, which would mean the two-year window would end on the same date in 2020.

The timing is important because Vineyard Wind is operating on a very tight construction schedule calling for work to begin this year and be completed in 2021. A delay of any length could jeopardize that schedule and put the company at risk of missing key milestones in its power-supply contracts with Massachusetts utilities.

Read the full story at The Commonwealth Magazine

Vineyard Wind faces new delay

July 11, 2019 — Offshore wind power developer Vineyard Wind may miss its late 2019 construction start, with a delay in the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s review of the project’s environmental impact statement.

The plan for 84 wind turbines off Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., was poised for a formal start to onshore construction activity in December 2019. But on Tuesday the company announced BOEM would not meet an anticipated July 12 milestone for approving the final EIS for the 800-megawatt project.

“We understand that, as the first commercial scale offshore wind project in the U.S., the Vineyard Wind project will undergo extraordinary review before receiving approvals,” the company said in revealing the delay. “As with any project of this scale and complexity, changes to the schedule are anticipated.”

BOEM and the company are under pressure from Massachusetts and Rhode Island fishermen who fear loss of access to fishing grounds, and dangers navigating turbine arrays. BOEM and Coast Guard officials last year put wind developers on notice that they will be required to plan for safe transit lanes through the wind towers.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Nantucket group protests draft authorization for Vineyard Wind

July 11, 2019 — A Nantucket group wants to delay a key permit needed by Vineyard Wind to construct its 84-turbine wind farm south of the Islands.

ACK Residents Against Turbines, a group of more than 100 citizens, claims that federal regulators favor offshore wind over commercial fishing and intend to allow serious harm to endangered North Atlantic right whales.

“This process is moving too fast, and everyone needs to slow down and make sure we aren’t creating problems for the North Atlantic right whale that can’t be reversed,” Vallorie Oliver of ACK Residents Against Turbines said Tuesday. “This particular animal is clearly struggling, yet it appears that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, in their rush to clear the path for Vineyard Wind, are forgetting their obligation to protect the whale.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Gloucester Lobster Industry Feeling The Pinch From China Trade War

July 11, 2019 — In Massachusetts, lobster is about as local a food as you can hope to find. These days, it’s also likely to be on the menu in Beijing and Shanghai. China has become a major lobster importer.

But one year into the U.S. trade war with China, U.S. lobster sales to China are down, and coastal communities — including Gloucester — are feeling the pinch.

Vince Mortillaro, who runs a lobster wholesale company in Gloucester, has worked over the last decade to capitalize on the demand for lobster from China, developing systems that enable him to ship fresh lobster from Gloucester to China in 36 hours and spending $3 million to build a new dock and warehouse to hold extra product.

The payoff was enormous: a 30 to 40 percent jump in business.

Then the trade war began, and lobster, like soybeans and steel, was caught in the cross hairs. In response to U.S. tariff increases on Chinese goods in July 2018, China raised tariffs on U.S. imports — including lobster. It now costs Chinese companies an extra 25 percent to buy lobsters from the U.S.

“We’re down over $6 million in sales,” said Mortillaro. “Over a million dollars a month.”

But China is still importing plenty of lobster — now, from Mortillaro’s competitors in Canada. In the wake of raising U.S. lobster tariffs, China lowered tariffs on Canadian lobsters to 7 percent.

Read the full story at WGBH