Saving Seafood

Turbines are in the water – offshore wind has arrived in Massachusetts

September 23, 2023 — After more than two decades of proposing and planning, offshore wind is up and spinning. Fifteen miles off the coast of Matha’s Vineyard, the Vineyard Wind Project is installing 62 massive turbines. They estimate that this $4 billion project will power 400,000 homes and businesses. But some environmentalists believe the project could cause more harm than good.

Offshore wind is making a splash in New England, but it isn’t new to the Bay State. For more than two decades, plans for offshore wind turbines have been under discussion. Nearly 20 years after developers proposed the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound – a project that was eventually scrapped – offshore wind is up and spinning.

Fifteen miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, 62 turbines are being built for the Vineyard Wind project. Nearby, eight other developments have wind energy leases. However, offshore wind projects will soon span beyond Southeastern Massachusetts. In 2022, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management began gaging interest for offshore wind projects in the Gulf of Maine.

“Massachusetts has been called the Saudi Arabia of offshore wind. Within the United States, Massachusetts probably has the best wind energy resource offshore compared to any other state,” Christopher Niezrecki, director, Center for Energy Innovation and WindSTAR Center at UMass Lowell.

Read the full article at WCVB

MASSACHUSETTS: Fuel, diesel oil spills and bilge leaks continue to plague New Bedford Harbor

September 21, 2023 — They are called “mystery” spills, and they can be caused by a fuel line dislodging, a bilge leak or a diesel spill like the one that occurred near the State Pier on New Year’s Eve.

Andrew Jones, an environmental analyst in the Department of Environmental Protection’s Lakeville office, has been an emergency responder with the emergency response section for the last 24 years.  He said it’s called a “mystery” spill when there is no way of knowing its source or who caused it. He said it could have been an accident, a boat sinking, a land source or an elicit bilge discharge or another cause.

“I have been working with my supervisor, Dan Crafton, and my supervisor that preceded him, on efforts to figure out how to address a persistent and complex mystery sheen-oil spill problem that has been occurring in New Bedford Harbor for what amounts to decades essentially,” he said.

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: NMFS plans to end ‘Massachusetts Wedge’ exemption for trap gear

September 21, 2023 — The National Marine Fisheries Service is taking public comments until Oct. 18 on its plan to make the so-called Massachusetts Restricted Area Wedge fully covered by seasonal prohibitions on fishing trap and fish pot gear with vertical buoy lines.

The change is in a proposed amendment to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan for expanding boundaries of the Massachusetts Restricted Area to include the wedge between state and federal waters. Previously exempted from the strictest gear limits, the was closed by emergency rulemaking in 2022 and 2023 when federal officials said there was immediate risk to North Atlantic right whales from “mortality and serious injury caused by buoy lines in an area with a high co-occurrence of whales and buoy lines. This risk is expected to recur annually.”

Closing the wedge closes a gap in protection for right, fin and humpback whales from entanglement danger during the existing Massachusetts Restricted Area seasonal closure from February 1 through April 30 every year, according to the agency. Its proposed rule and draft environmental assessment can be found on the NOAA Fisheries webpage.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NPR and PBS Frontline document immigration and employment law flaws allowing staffing agencies to send under age employees to seafood companies

September 18, 2023 — Most of the teens said they were hired through staffing agencies that supply workers to seafood processors. Some didn’t know the names of the companies where they worked or the agencies that hired them. Nearly every teen said they applied for their jobs with fake IDs that showed they were over 18.

All of the teens said they had to work to pay debts to smugglers, send money home to their families, or support themselves. None could afford the months-long wait for a permit that would allow them to work in the U.S. legally. The teens said they felt working at seafood processing plants was the only way they could earn money.

As unprecedented numbers of children have crossed the border in recent years, the federal government opened new emergency intake sites, which have come under scrutiny for exposing children to physical and emotional harm.

In February, The New York Times revealed that, under pressure from the Biden administration to release children from shelters quickly, ORR ignored or missed warnings and sent migrant teens to live with adults who expected them to work.

Nathanael and Joel said that Workforce Unlimited charged them $12 a day for the van ride to and from work. On paydays, they said, the van took all the workers to a check cashing store in Providence. There, the driver brought their checks inside and then returned with cash for each worker — minus deductions for the ride and the cost of cashing the check.

Read the full article at PBS

 

Blue Harvest files for bankruptcy, appears headed for liquidation

September 13, 2023 — Blue Harvest Fisheries, a private equity-backed venture that launched in 2015 at New Bedford and grew to become the largest groundfish permit owner on the East Coast, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The move comes after operations abruptly ended Sept. 1 at the company’s New Bedford plant. Publicly the company has been silent but fishermen who worked for it as independent contractors were told the company would stop fishing.

The Sept. 8 filings in federal court in Delaware show private equity firm Bregal Partners, with ties to the wealthy Brenninkmeijer family of Dutch industrialists, as owning 89.5 percent  of the parent company that owns Blue Harvest vessels, permits and other assets, the New Bedford Light reported Sept. 11.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Vineyard Wind and Foss begin moving turbine components offshore

September 12, 2023 — Vineyard Wind and its U.S. service contractor Foss Maritime began shipping pieces for the project’s first GE Haliade-X wind turbine out of the port of New Bedford, Mass., Sept. 6 to the first installation site more than 30 miles off Cape Cod.

It was a landmark for the joint venture by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to install 804 megawatts of capacity on the first utility-scale offshore wind array in U.S. federal waters. Foss Maritime is using two purpose-built 400’ deck barges, the Marmac and Foss Prevailing Wind, for Jones Act-compliant delivery of turbine components to  construction partner DEME Group’s Denmark-flagged 433’x150’ Sea Installer vessel with 300’ deep legs stationed 65 miles from New Bedford south of Martha’s Vineyard.

The barges were built using Barge Master technology that uses a patented control system and cylinders that support a platform and actively compensate the motions of the barge. The wind turbine components are fastened to the motion compensated platform for a smooth ride in ocean conditions.

“It may look easy, but the safe transportation of these components miles over the open water is no small feat,” Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus S. Moeller said in an announcement of the first barge movement out of New Bedford.  “While we’ve had many firsts, once this turbine is installed, it will stand as a proud symbol of American’s energy transition.  I want to thank all of our partners for their continued collaboration and look forward to celebrating the progress of our industry.”

Read the full article at WorkBoat

MASSACHUSETTS: Blue Harvest Fisheries files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

September 12, 2023 — New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Blue Harvest Fisheries has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

A Chapter 7 filing means the company has officially ceased all operations and its assets will be sold off in order to compensate its creditors. Blue Harvest’s fishing partners in New Bedford reported in late August the firm planned to terminate operations imminently.

Read the full articles SeafoodSource

Brian Helgeland’s ‘Finestkind’ is a New Bedford fishing story — and his most personal film yet

September 12, 2023 — Early in “Finestkind,” a Massachusetts-based family drama that recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, the crew of a New Bedford fishing boat huddles together, lit only by the glow of a flashlight. During a pause in the chatter, the boat’s rookie poses a crucial question to the group: “What the hell does ‘finestkind’ mean? You guys always say it.”

Brian Helgeland, the writer and director of “Finestkind,” is still sorting out the answer. “It means anything and everything,” he said over lunch just a few hours before his film’s premiere. “It’s kind of like you have to live the word to know what it means.”

Set and shot in New Bedford, “Finestkind” follows Charlie (Toby Wallace), a recent college graduate with an English degree, as he joins his older half brother, Tom (Ben Foster), on a commercial fishing boat named Finestkind. Tom, a huffy but experienced captain, accepts his kid brother onto his crew grudgingly; he believes that Charlie, who grew up wealthy, should be working a white-collar job instead. The pair nonetheless grow close, until a work mishap strains their relationship and puts them in the tough situation of needing a load of cash fast. The film also features Tommy Lee Jones as Tom’s cantankerous father, a veteran fisherman facing health issues.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: Wind Power Demand High, But So Are Costs

September 10, 2023 — Gov. Maura Healey last week announced a new effort to procure up to 3,600 megawatts of offshore wind power – the largest call out to developers in the state’s history.

Together with three electric companies, the state is seeking projects to produce what amounts to about 25 per cent of Massachusetts’ annual electricity demand. The new request for proposals will likely be welcomed by offshore wind energy developers that have stalled under pre-pandemic agreements to supply power to the state’s main utility companies.

Two companies with plans to place wind turbines off Martha’s Vineyard have agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to get out of old contracts that they said made the projects economically unviable.

The procurement push from the state is for projects that already have a lease in the outer continental shelf area more than 10 miles south of the Island and signals a willingness to offer developers flexibility as the state strives for more renewable energy.

“With our top academic institutions, robust workforce training programs, innovative companies and support from every level of government – Massachusetts is all-in on offshore wind,” Ms. Healey said in a statement on August 30.

The day before the state’s announcement, SouthCoast Wind agreed to pay $60 million to get out of its contract with three utilities that it had promised to supply power to from the proposed farm 30 miles off the Island. Commonwealth Wind, another developer planning to build to the south of Martha’s Vineyard, agreed to pay $48 million earlier this year.

“Closing these contracts was never the plan but impacts of Covid-related supply chain disruptions and the war in Ukraine made them unfinanceable,” SouthCoast Wind spokesperson Martha Keeley said in a statement to the Gazette.

Read the full article at the Vineyard Gazette

MASSACHUSETTS: Wind Power Demand High, But So Are Costs

September 10, 2023 — Gov. Maura Healey last week announced a new effort to procure up to 3,600 megawatts of offshore wind power – the largest call out to developers in the state’s history.

Together with three electric companies, the state is seeking projects to produce what amounts to about 25 per cent of Massachusetts’ annual electricity demand. The new request for proposals will likely be welcomed by offshore wind energy developers that have stalled under pre-pandemic agreements to supply power to the state’s main utility companies.

Two companies with plans to place wind turbines off Martha’s Vineyard have agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to get out of old contracts that they said made the projects economically unviable.

The procurement push from the state is for projects that already have a lease in the outer continental shelf area more than 10 miles south of the Island and signals a willingness to offer developers flexibility as the state strives for more renewable energy.

“With our top academic institutions, robust workforce training programs, innovative companies and support from every level of government – Massachusetts is all-in on offshore wind,” Ms. Healey said in a statement on August 30.

The day before the state’s announcement, SouthCoast Wind agreed to pay $60 million to get out of its contract with three utilities that it had promised to supply power to from the proposed farm 30 miles off the Island. Commonwealth Wind, another developer planning to build to the south of Martha’s Vineyard, agreed to pay $48 million earlier this year.

“Closing these contracts was never the plan but impacts of Covid-related supply chain disruptions and the war in Ukraine made them unfinanceable,” SouthCoast Wind spokesperson Martha Keeley said in a statement to the Gazette.

Read the full article at Vineyard Gazette