Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Gov. Baker urges Interior: Keep NY turbines out of prime fishing grounds

November 5, 2018 — Gov. Charlie Baker wrote to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke on Thursday to ask him to consider eliminating the highest-priority fishing areas from future leases for offshore wind, particularly in the New York Bight, a heavily fished area south of Long Island.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has begun evaluating potential locations in the New York Bight for wind.

“Some of the areas under consideration for leasing represent very productive and high-value grounds for fishermen from Massachusetts and other states,” Baker said in the letter.

He cited an assessment of fish landings earlier this year by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils that calculated the value of fishing within the proposed areas at more than $344 million from 2012 to 2016.

“Views of the fishing industry must be valued, which has been fundamental to the successful process in Massachusetts,” he said.

New Bedford fishermen and city officials expressed serious concerns about the New York locations in a meeting with BOEM in September. At the time, vessel owner Eric Hansen said 40 to 50 percent of the scalloping grounds fished by New Bedford scallopers are within that area.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Day-long dialogue between fishing, wind industries nets some progress

November 1, 2018 — Eight hours of ideas, conversation, debate and dialogue from two industries relying on use of the ocean filled the the large grand ballroom at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Wednesday.

In a meeting described as the first of its kind, the fishing industry from Maine to New York as well as the offshore wind industry in Massachusetts and Rhode Island met for a workshop hosted by Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) to discuss two key aspects: fishing transit lanes and input on potential mitigation. NOAA and the Coast Guard were also in the room to get all the key players in a single spot at one time.

“We didn’t reach full consensus at the end of the day but we made progress …It’s step one,” said Mary Beth Tooley of the the O’Hara Corporation in Portland, Maine. “I think that’s the biggest takeaway that we have for the day.”

Most of the discussion revolved around transit routes with some success. Both industries agreed for the most part on two routes, specifically a north/south route and an east/west route.

Two obstacles remain, though, including the width of the lanes as well as a diagonal northwest/southeast lane through the current and future leased land. The issues really pop up in the northwest corner of that diagonal lane.

“The next big step is to try to resolve whatever the issues are that exist and then move forward with a transit lane consensus so not only the industry knows what’s coming but future leaseholders (know),” Eric Reid of Seafreeze Shoreside said.

The fishing industry agreed on a 4-mile width for transit lanes. The offshore wind industry offered lanes at one nautical mile and 2 nautical miles.

At one point toward the end of the meeting, the discussion focused on a north/south transit lane passing through unleased space. The fishing industry posed a question if the land is currently not held by any company, could a 4-mile lane be established?

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA drafts habitat maps for wind lease zones

November 1, 2018 — After years of mapping, NOAA, WHOI, UMass Dartmouth, and Howard Marine Research Laboratory researchers have created bottom, or benthic, habitat maps for the eight Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) in the Northeast. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management funded the mapping project, which included areas in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. A report from the habitat-mapping project titled “Habitat Mapping and Assessment of Northeast Wind Energy Areas” describes concerns with disturbing benthic environment in the process of assembling wind turbines. “Topics range from bottom water temperatures, bottom topography and features, types of sediments and ocean currents,” a NOAA release states, “to animals that live in and on top of the sediments and in the water column in that area either seasonally or year-round.”

Some of the details given in the release covered aspects of Massachusetts wind farm sites.

Read the full story at the Martha’s Vineyard Times

Fish council to review catch share regulations

November 1, 2018 — In May 2010, the world of the Northeast groundfishermen experienced a seismic transformation, as federal fishery managers ditched days-at-sea as its primary management tool and implemented a sector system centered on an expanded catch share program.

Now, nearly nine years later, the New England Fishery Management Council said it will conduct its first comprehensive evaluation of the groundfish catch share program to determine whether it is meeting its goals and objectives to improve the management of the fishery.

The review, according to council Executive Director Tom Nies, is not connected to any specific event or issue within the fishery, such as the widescale cheating, sector manipulation and ultimate conviction of New Bedford fishing kingpin Carlos A. Rafael.

“It’s not a response to Carlos, but it may help us identify areas related to his activities that we can address,” Nies said Wednesday.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s own catch share policy actually mandate that the councils periodically produce “a formal and detailed review … no less frequently than once every seven years” on catch share programs.

“This is the first review, really, since catch shares originally were implemented in 2004, and more importantly, expanded in 2010,” Nies said. “It’s been on our radar for a couple of years. The next step is to assemble a staff and get the report written.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

BOEM Announces Public Meetings For South Fork Offshore Project

October 31, 2018 — The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced three upcoming public meetings in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island to discuss Deepwater Wind’s proposed South Fork offshore wind project.

BOEM plans to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the construction and operations plan (COP) of Deepwater Wind’s South Fork Wind, proposed offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The plan would allow construction and operation of up to 15 turbines that connect via a transmission cable to a grid in East Hampton, N.Y., the east end of Long Island.

Read the full story at North American Wind Power

 

BOEM opens process for New York offshore wind power

October 31, 2018 — Federal energy officials are opening an environmental impact study for what could be the first offshore wind power project in East Coast federal waters, with public sessions next week on the South Fork Wind Farm proposal east of Montauk, N.Y.

The 15-turbine array is proposed by Deepwater Wind, the company that pioneered the first U.S. commercial offshore wind project at Block Island, R.I. Now in the process of being acquired by Denmark-based energy company Ørsted for $510 million, Deepwater Wind would build the South Fork array about 19 miles southeast of Block Island and 35 miles east of Montauk.

The Bureau of Offshore Energy Management is holding public scoping meetings Nov. 5 to Nov. 8 at Amagansett,  N.Y.;  New Bedford, Mass.; and Narragansett, R.I. Agency officials say they provide “multiple opportunities to help BOEM determine significant resources (e.g. avian, marine mammals) and issues, impact-producing factors, reasonable alternatives, and potential mitigating measures to be analyzed in the EIS.”

Read the full story at WorkBoat

UK delegates offer advice to New Bedford on offshore wind

October 31, 2018 — Visitors from the United Kingdom had clear lessons about offshore wind to share with the SouthCoast on Tuesday during an all-day symposium in New Bedford.

In the early days of the UK industry, communities in the Humber region were trying to figure out what kind of jobs they would get, said Mark O’Reilly, chairman and CEO of Team Humber Marine Alliance, a nonprofit business group based in East Yorkshire. Would it be welders? Fabricators?

The region got a blade factory that created 1,000 jobs, “which is great for jobs, not necessarily fantastic for supply chain. But you can’t have it all,” he said.

Because the UK is geographically close to established suppliers in Denmark and Germany, some of the hoped-for supply business did not materialize. New Bedford, in contrast, has the opportunity to position itself as the heart of the U.S. supply chain, one UK visitor said from the audience.

“Don’t squander it,” he said.

The symposium at the New Bedford Whaling Museum was hosted by the British Consulate-General in Boston, Bristol Community College, the city of New Bedford, and the New Bedford Wind Energy Center.

Harriet Cross, British consul general to New England, gave welcoming remarks. Speakers participated from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as from Massachusetts.

In a panel discussion on fishing, UK fisherman Davey Hill said he once led the charge against wind farms. “But I came quickly to realize that government policy doesn’t listen to fishermen,” he said.

With less space for turbines than the United States, the UK chose locations based on winds and water depth. Fishermen had no say, he said. But they decided to look for opportunities.

Today, some vessels serve as work boats for offshore wind, and also go out fishing. The process has benefited the fishing community because they have modernized their vessels and improved safety, Hill said.

Eric Hansen, a New Bedford scallop boat owner whose family has fished for generations, said unequivocally that vessels the size of those in the New Bedford fleet would not fish between turbines spaced 1.5 or even three miles apart. Showing the audience a radar image of a field of turbines, he said “Now, you show that picture to a fisherman, and he’d basically throw up. There’s no way they’re going to fish in that.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

BOEM to hold public meetings for proposed offshore wind farm

October 30, 2018 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) says it will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) submitted by Deepwater Wind that would allow it to construct and operate up to 15 turbines, an electric service platform offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and an export cable to East Hampton, New York.

Comments may be submitted until November 19, 2018 by either of the following two methods:

  • Federal eRulemaking Portal: In the entry titled “Enter Keyword or ID,” enter BOEM– 2018-0010, and then click “search.”  Follow the instructions to submit public comments and view supporting and related materials available for this notice.
  • U.S.  Postal Service or other delivery service.  Send your comments and information to the following address:

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Office of Renewable Energy Programs
45600 Woodland Road (VAM-OREP)
Sterling, Virginia 20166

BOEM’s scoping process is intended to identify any important issues and potential alternatives for consideration in the Deepwater Wind COP EIS. Throughout the scoping process, there will be multiple opportunities to help BOEM determine significant resources (e.g. avian, marine mammals) and issues, impact-producing factors, reasonable alternatives, and potential mitigating measures to be analyzed in the EIS.

Read the full story at Windpower Engineering & Development

MASSACHUSETTS: Dock-U-Mentaries Series Presents Life By Lobster

October 30, 2018 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

The Dock-U-Mentaries Film Series continues on Friday, November 16th at 7:00 PM with Life by Lobster, a 55-minute documentary that takes you inside the lives of five young lobster fishermen determined to pursue this proud traditional vocation against steadily mounting obstacles.

Contrasting the stark beauty of the Downeast Maine seacoast with the stark reality of earning a living there, Life by Lobster, a documentary by independent filmmaker Iain McCray Martin takes you inside the lives of five young lobster fishermen determined to pursue this proud traditional vocation against steadily mounting obstacles.

Co-produced by LA television director J. Miller Tobin (Gossip Girl, Num3ers, CSI) and Maine-based Opera House Arts, LBL was selected as part of the Maine International Film Festival’s “Best of 2009” collection and is partially funded by the Perfect Storm Foundation, among others.

“I began work on this film when I was 19, in the summer between my freshman and sophomore years at Emory University.  During that first year away from the small island off the coast of Maine where I had grown up, I realized, like never before, the uniqueness of my home and the people who define it.

While I left our island to go off to college and pursue new found opportunities, many of my classmates in our close-knit, 26-member graduating class of 2005 opted to go directly to work on the water, taking on the life and lifestyle of commercial lobstermen.

Facing a myriad of economic and regulatory hurdles, not to mention trying to overcome youthful inexperience in a tough, competitive industry, these young men could be, I feared, a dying breed.  Their story needed to be told.

Initially armed with little more than a camcorder and a newly found commitment to a career in film, I began my attempt at making something that personified the characterizations, motivations, and lifestyle associated with pursuing lobstering as a vocation.

Three years later, after a continual progression in my own abilities as a filmmaker, stacks of grant requests, upgrades in equipment, incredible honesty and patience from my subjects, over 20 hours of raw footage, and endless support from friends, family, and mentors came the story I had hoped to tell – an authentic portrayal of lobster fishing as an industry, a community, and a way of life.”
– Iain McCray Martin 

Dock-U-Mentaries is a co-production of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.  Films about the working waterfront are screened on the third Friday of each month beginning at 7:00 PM in the theater of the Corson Maritime Learning Center, located at 33 William Street in downtown New Bedford. All programs are open to the public and presented free of charge.

MASSACHUSETTS: Can Scituate’s last four fishermen stay afloat?

October 29, 2018 — SCITUATE — Frank Mirachi, a 75-year-old retired fisherman, still goes to town pier to look out over the water now and then. It’s still a nice view, he says, but it’s nowhere near the scene that existed 50 years ago, when 120-foot-long sword-fishing boats and dozens of commercial vessels fought for a spot at the dock.

“When I started, it was basically the Wild West, you could do anything you wanted, and people did,” Mirachi said. “You’d go out and there would be boats everywhere you looked — all fishing. . . I bet there were 100 jobs on this pier.”

Today, there are only four federally-permitted fishermen working in Scituate.

Read the full story at The Patriot Ledger