Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: SouthCoast Wind Will Pay $60 Million To Terminate Power Purchase Agreements

September 2, 2023 — While Vineyard Wind’s turbines are rising in the waters off Nantucket, another offshore wind energy developer seeking to build an even larger wind farm south of the island is facing a major setback.

SouthCoast Wind, which hopes to construct 149 offshore wind turbines 20 nautical miles south of Nantucket, is attempting to back out of the power purchase agreements it had signed with three Massachusetts utility companies.

In a petition filed this week with the state Department of Public Utilities, SouthCoast Wind stated it would pay dearly to terminate those agreements. The offshore wind company – which is a joint venture of the petrochemical giant Shell and Ocean Winds North America – agreed to pay $60 million to rip up its deals with Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil.

Read the full article at South Coast Today

Blue Harvest Fisheries reportedly shutting down all operations

September 2, 2023 — New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Blue Harvest Fisheries is reportedly shutting down all of its fishing operations.

The company, which recently suspended its processing work and laid off workers in March 2023, told fishermen it will by ceasing operation on Friday, 1 September, the New Bedford Light reported. Luke deWildt, captain of the Teresa Marie IV – one of Blue Harvest’s fishing vessels – said his most recent fishing trip would be the last for the company.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US approves major Rhode Island offshore wind farm

August 23, 2023 — The U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday approved the construction of a 704 megawatt (MW) wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island, the fourth offshore wind project the agency has greenlighted as the Biden administration targets bringing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power online by 2030.

The Revolution Wind project off Point Judith, Rhode Island, could power nearly 250,000 homes and create 1,200 local jobs during the construction phase, the Interior Department said.

Owned by wind energy developers Orsted (ORSTED.CO) and Eversource (ES.N), the project includes up to 79 possible locations for the installation of 65 wind turbines and two offshore substations.

Read the full story at Reuters

MASSACHUSETTS: Aquinnah reaches wind mitigation agreement

August 17, 2023 — Officials with the town of Aquinnah say they have reached an agreement over mitigation funding with the developer of the closest, and likely largest, offshore wind farm planned for nearby waters.

Orsted, the developer of Revolution Wind, is expected to provide the town with over a million dollars to fund the renovation of the Gay Head Lighthouse and other historic structures in the area.

The agreement, while not signed by either side yet, comes after several months of negotiations.

While the town is pleased to have gotten something from the developers, town officials say they didn’t get all they wanted.

“With any agreement, there is some give and take on both sides,” Aquinnah town administrator Jeffrey Madison said Wednesday. “It is what it is. We’re happy that there is some consideration being given to our community.”

Still, funding from Revolution, combined with funding from other offshore wind companies, will help make the Aquinnah Cliffs more accessible. But the majority of funding will also go toward needed repairs to the glass and steel framing of the lighthouse. Madison said that the project would be too big for the town to take on itself.

Read the full article at MV Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Lobstermen Face Hypoxia in Outer Cape Waters

August 17, 2023 — Alex Iacono, a lobsterman who says he favors lobsters and ocean solitude over people, is worried about the future of his business. Iacono, who lives in Truro and fishes out of Provincetown on the F/V Storm Elizabeth, says his catch has significantly dwindled in recent years.

He’s not alone; other lobstermen working across Cape Cod Bay have noticed a downward trend. They believe that hypoxia — dangerously low levels of oxygen in the water — is to blame.

On Aug. 11, local lobster fishermen were advised by the Div. of Marine Fisheries (DMF) that low levels of dissolved oxygen had been recorded in two areas: at the southern end of Cape Cod Bay near Barnstable and here, in the waters between Provincetown and Wellfleet.

Hypoxia first came to fishermen’s attention in 2019 when it caused a catastrophic lobster die-off in the bay. After that, the DMF started affixing sensors to buoys and traps to monitor oxygen levels, and they have consistently observed mild hypoxia since then.

Tracy Pugh, leader of the Invertebrate Fisheries Project at DMF, pioneered a “stoplight” color-coded hypoxia mapping system: green indicates areas with over 6 mg. of dissolved oxygen per liter of water; water with under 6 mg/L is coded yellow on the DMF map; orange signals mildly hypoxic water with less than 4 mg/L; and red indicates severely hypoxic water, with less than 2 mg/L of dissolved oxygen.

Read the full article at the Provincetown Independent 

MASSACHUSETTS: Revolution Wind Promises Fewer Turbines Off Aquinnah Ethan Genter

August 16, 2023 — An offshore wind energy developer says it will cut down on the number of turbines it is proposing to put in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard in order to reduce the number that can be seen from Aquinnah.

Revolution Wind, at the suggestion of the federal agency currently reviewing the project, will seek no more than 65 wind turbines about 14 miles off the western tip of the Island. The project is still facing backlash from Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), who is calling for officials to slow down the permitting process.

Revolution Wind initially proposed erecting up to 100 wind turbines in an area southwest of Aquinnah to supply 700 megawatts of renewable wind power to Rhode Island and Connecticut. In a July environmental report on the project from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the bureau found the project would impact Aquinnah’s scenic horizon and suggested potential changes.

In its preferred plan, BOEM recommended Revolution Wind install only 65 wind turbines, as well as potentially relocating some that would be close to the Island. As originally pitched by Revolution Wind, the closest turbine to Aquinnah was planned to be about 13 miles, but under BOEM’s preference turbines would be moved back to a minimum of 14.25 miles from the western side of the Island.

Read the full article at the Vineyard Gazette

MASSACHUSETTS: Mayor Mitchell pushing NOAA to open new center in New Bedford

August 14, 2023 — New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell is re-upping a pitch for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to open a site in the Whaling City.

The mayor recently co-signed a letter with more than 50 others, including business owners and local and state officials, to urge NOAA to consolidate its Northeast facilities in New Bedford.

In the letter addressed to NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad, the mayor and others want the agency to consider opening sites in New Bedford “when facilities owned or operated in the Northeast by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service are scheduled to be rebuilt or re-leased.”

Read the full article at WPRI

Why are we seeing more black sea bass in Rhode Island and Massachusetts?

August 12, 2023 — Charlie Borden, a commercial fisherman from the Rhode Island town of Little Compton, got his start targeting lobster when he was just a kid. His dad taught him to fish.

“We used to fish together out of a skiff,” Borden said.

Now 44, Borden still targets lobster, but has since added black sea bass to his repertoire. He was one of the first to target black sea bass in the region. And, as their populations have grown, so has the size of his boat and his crew. He has graduated to his own 47-foot fishing vessel “Drake.”

One of his workers, Providence resident Rob Sherman, was beginning to mix up giant vats of clams —bait for black sea bass — at about 5:30 am one morning in late July.

“These are big surf clams. I’d say a little over 400 pounds,” he said.

The sun is hazy red with Canadian wildfire smoke and it’s just finished blooming over the eastern horizon. The still half-frozen clams smell sweet — for now.

“When it’s sitting in the sun gasses build up and it can be pretty damn nasty,” Sherman said.

Read the full article at wbur

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford said to be best place for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

August 10, 2023 — Is there a better place to site the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast operations than New Bedford?

Mayor Jon Mitchell doesn’t think so.

And he’s joined in that opinion by a “very broad coalition of business and civic leadership.”

Mitchell sent a letter co-signed by more than 50 business and civic leaders to NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad this month making a pitch to consolidate its Northeast facilities in New Bedford.

A similar letter was sent to NOAA in 2016, but recent developments warranted another entreaty.

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

Another Lawsuit Against Vineyard Wind Dismissed

August 9, 2023 — Another attempt to stop the Vineyard Wind project southwest of Nantucket has failed.

Federal Court Judge Indira Talwani last Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Thomas Melone in July of 2021 that attempted to block the Vineyard Wind and its 62 turbines now under construction. It was the second lawsuit challenging the project to be dismissed, with the first one being rejected back in May.

Melone, the president of various solar energy companies, owns a home in Edgartown and accused the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when issuing an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to Vineyard Wind for its offshore wind energy project.

“Plaintiff’s argument regarding “old data” relies entirely on information that emerged after the IHA was issued,” Talwani says in the memorandum and order filed on August 4. “Plaintiff has not, and cannot, demonstrate that NMFS was unreasonable in failing to consider reports and studies that did not exist at the time the IHA. To the extent Plaintiff complains that NMFS also failed to consider current population data at the time of issuance, that argument is contradicted by the Record. As such, Plaintiff’s argument that NMFS relied on ‘old data’ and that such reliance was arbitrary and capricious fails.”

“Plaintiff has not shown that NMFS acted arbitrarily, capriciously, or otherwise unlawfully,” Talwani continued. “Accordingly, NMFS and Vineyard Wind’s motions for summary judgment are granted and Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment is denied.”

Read the full article at the Nantucket Current