Saving Seafood

MARYLAND: Why the fishing industry is against offshore wind farms near Ocean City

July 23, 2018 — Concern from the fishing industry is the latest development in the escalating debate over offshore wind farms near Ocean City.

Representatives say wind farms could cause harm by driving marine wildlife away, disturbing the ocean environment and making navigation more difficult for fishers and mariners.

“Now with the current offshore wind leasing process, we have these fishing grounds being sold right out from under us,” said Meghan Lapp during a recent presentation to the Ocean City Town Council. Lapp is a fishing liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., a Rhode Island commercial fishing company.

But marine biologists and wind farm officials say the impact won’t be that severe.

“I think they took an emotional approach to the problem. … So there was some degree of misinformation,” said Salvo Vitale, general counsel for U.S. Wind, one of the offshore wind energy companies involved in the Maryland project.

Conflicting information has muddied many discussions surrounding offshore wind energy. This back and forth pattern of counter arguments has persisted throughout the history of the project.

Read the full story at the Salisbury Daily Times

Offshore wind farms concern fisherpeople

April 25, 2018 — When Greg Mataronas steams out of Narragansett Bay as early as 3 a.m., he is headed for grounds he knew as an eight-year-old. A native Rhode Islander, Mataronas grew up lobstering in Little Compton. After college, he returned to the ocean, unable to resist a profession rife with memories of his childhood. But as a commercial lobsterman, Mataronas’ days are far from youthful. Early morning wake-up calls, 16-hour days and occasional bouts of seasickness take their physical toll, and he has watched the lobster population around him decline over the last two decades. But more than the grueling lifestyle, there is a new force threatening Mataronas’ ability to provide for his wife and children: offshore wind energy.

Many fisherpeople see a future where segments of their industry will ultimately disappear unless the federal government ensures their concerns are taken into account in the construction and development of wind farms. Fisherpeople’s fears include the incompatibility of certain types of fishing gear with the clustered placement of wind turbines and a lack of site-specific research regarding economic and ecological impacts of the turbines.

Meghan Lapp, a fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Limited, an R.I.-based producer and trader of sea-frozen seafood, is also frustrated with a lack of communication between fisherpeople and wind energy companies. Though BOEM requires each wind energy company to construct and implement a “fisheries communication plan,” which details how the company will engage with and hear from the fishing industry, many fisherpeople complain that talk is not translating into action.

“All of our concerns fall on deaf ears,” Lapp said. “I personally have been meeting with BOEM for three years.” Lapp added that she gave “confidential business information” from over 20 fishing vessels to BOEM to demonstrate that there was heavy fishing activity on one particular lease site, but she said BOEM issued the lease regardless.   

Read the full story at the Brown Daily Herald

 

Michelle Malkin: Big Brother on America’s Fishing Boats

January 17, 2018 — Salt water. Seagulls. Striped bass.

My fondest childhood memories come from fishing with my dad on the creaky piers and slick jetties of the Jersey shore. The Atlantic Ocean is in my blood. So when fishing families in New England reached out to me for help spreading word about their economic and regulatory struggles, I immediately heeded their call.

Now these “forgotten men and women” of America hope that the Trump administration will listen. And act.

The plague on the commercial fishing industry isn’t “overfishing,” as environmental extremists and government officials claim. The real threats to Northeastern groundfishermen are self-perpetuating bureaucrats, armed with outdated junk science, who’ve manufactured a crisis that endangers a way of life older than the colonies themselves.

Hardworking crews and captains have the deepest stake in responsible fisheries management — it’s their past, present, and future — but federal paper-pushers monitor them ruthlessly like registered sex offenders.

Generations of schoolchildren have been brainwashed into believing that our seas have been depleted by greedy commercial fishermen. In the 1960s and ’70s, it is true, foreign factory trawlers from Russia and Japan pillaged coastal groundfish stocks. But after the domestic fishing industry regained control of our waters, stocks rebounded.

Reality, however, did not fit the agenda of scare-mongering environmentalists and regulators who need a perpetual crisis to justify their existence. To cure a manufactured “shortage” of bottom-dwelling groundfish, Washington micromanagers created a permanent thicket of regional fishery-management councils, designated fishing zones, annual catch limits, individual catch limits, and “observers” mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Even more frustrating for the fishing families who know the habitat best, the federal scientists’ trawler surveys for assessing stocks use faulty nets that vastly underestimate stock abundance.

Meghan Lapp, a lifelong fisherwoman and conservation biologist, points out that government surveyors use a “net that’s not the right size for the vessel.” This produces “a stock assessment that shows artificially low numbers,” she says. “The fishing does not match what the fishermen see on the water.”

Instead of fixing the science, top-down bureaucrats have cracked down on groundfishermen who fail to comply with impossible and unreasonable rules and regulations. The observer program, which was intended to provide biological data and research, was expanded administratively (not by Congress) to create “at-sea monitors” who act solely as enforcement agents.

Read the full story at the National Review 

 

Nantucket Squid Restrictions Not Approved by Mid Atlantic Council

December 19, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted against a proposed squid buffer zone framework off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

According to The Independent, Narragansett Town Council members signed a letter requesting that the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council reject the buffer zone for the summer squid fishery off Nantucket. The council members wrote that “any exclusion zone or restrictions” could potentially result in “economic devastation,” not only for the fishing industry, but other businesses and the town in general.

“Squid is the economic foundation of Narragansett’s fishing industry and it is necessary that access to that valuable resource be preserved,” the letter reads. “We therefore respectfully request that the council protect the access of the squid fishery to these very important and historic fishing grounds.”

Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., told the Independent that: “A potential squid buffer zone off the south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, it’s federal waters. So there are a handful of fishermen from Nantucket who do not want squid fishing in Nantucket south of the island. So the commercial squid fishery, it occurs in the summertime south of Nantucket. It has been occurring for decades, since at least the `970s. There have been squid vessels commercially fishing squid there since the ‘70s at least.”

Nantucket charter boat captains have been complaining about the squid fishery causing a decline in striped bass. The ban was proposed due to pressure from the recreational fishing industry, but is now will not  take place in federal waters.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

 

RNC SUPPORTS THE NORTHEAST COMMERCIAL FISHING INDUSTRY

November 13, 2017 — WARWICK, Rhode Island — RI National Committeewoman Lee Ann Sennick sponsored a Resolution Supporting the Northeast Commercial Fishing Industry at the recent Summer Meeting of the Republican National Committee. Receiving widespread support, the resolution (full text of which can be seen here, click) was passed unanimously by the 168 person body.

Sennick, who has professional ties to the industry, has formed a Republican Fisheries Coalition along with Richard Fuka, President of the RI Fisherman’s Alliance and Meghan Lapp, political liaison for Seafreeze Ltd. “Rich and Meghan reached out to the RI Republican Party because they have serious concerns for the future of the industry and the economic impact on our state. Those concerns have not been satisfactorily addressed by RI’s Democrat Congressional Delegation,” stated Sennick.

Read the full story at Fisherynation.com

CONNECTICUT: Industry expert says consumers have a role in saving local seafood

July 28, 2017 — STONINGTON, Ct. — Finding fresh, locally caught fish isn’t easy, but if educated consumers are persistent, they will not only help local fishermen, they’ll also help rebuild weakened domestic seafood markets that have been deeply gouged by imports and regulations.

Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., a producer and trader of frozen seafood in North Kingstown, explained these points and more in her presentation, “Sea to Table: Bringing the Bounty of the Sea to You,” before an audience of about 40 people at the La Grua Center Thursday night.

In attendance were state Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, First Selectman Rob Simmons and a number of longtime local fishermen. The Stonington Economic Development Commission sponsored Lapp’s presentation.

She was joined by a panel comprised of Tom Williams, a generational fisherman with two sons who are commercial fishermen; Rich Fuka, president of the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance; and Mike Gambardella, owner of Gambardella Wholesale Fish at the Stonington Town Dock.

Lapp said the fishing industry was so over-regulated, “You practically have to be a lawyer to go fishing.”

Read the full story at the Westerly Sun

CONNECTICUT: Expert’s talk at LaGrua Thursday to focus on benefits of local sea-to-table options

July 24, 2017 — STONINGTON, Ct. — Meghan Lapp, an expert on the commercial fishing industry and its regulations, will give a talk entitled “Sea to Table: Bringing the Bounty of the Sea to You” on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the LaGrua Center at 32 Water St.

The Stonington Economic Development Commission is sponsoring the presentation, which will focus on how local harvesters provide fresh seafood, navigate fishery regulations and science, and what species are fresh, local and available. Admission is free.

Lapp, of Narragansett, is a fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., a producer and trader of sea-frozen fish in North Kingstown. She is on the Habitat Advisory Panel and the Herring Advisory Panel for the New England Fishery Management Council, the Ecosystems and Oceans Planning Advisory Panel for the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Menhaden Advisory Panel for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

She holds a master’s degree in legal science from Queen’s University in Belfast.

Growing up in Long Island, Lapp had familial ties in the fishing industry and worked in a fish market alongside commercial fisherman during summers in college.

Read the full story at the Westerly Sun

RHODE ISLAND: Fishing community shares thoughts on menhaden

December 30, 2016 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which manages many of the saltwater species we fish in Rhode Island that travel the east coast, held an Atlantic menhaden public hearing Monday at the URI Bay Campus.

The hearing addressed a Public Information Document (PID) that aims to incorporate ecosystem-based management strategies to manage Atlantic menhaden. The PID serves as a predecessor to an amendment (Amendment 3) to the Atlantic menhaden Fishery Management Plan scheduled to be developed next year. About 30 recreational and commercial fishermen, fish processors, environmental groups (like Save the Bay) and fish managers attended the hearing. Two main issues were discussed at the hearing. The first issue was the use of ecosystem-based management strategies to determine stock status and allowable catch limits. The second issue addressed landing timeframes, which would be used to determine allocation of quota.

Recreational anglers up and down the east coast have claimed that fishing for striped bass and other game fish is off when the quantity of Atlantic menhaden (a forage fish for striped bass) is down. Additionally, Atlantic menhaden are filter feeders, with each fish processing thousands of gallons of water filtering out plankton to help prevent algae blooms. The Atlantic menhaden Fishery Management Plan will be the first ASMFC plan that utilizes ecosystem-based management in this fashion.

Meghan Lapp of Seafreeze, Ltd., North Kingstown (the largest producer and trader of sea-frozen fish on the East Coast) and a member of the ASMFC Atlantic menhaden Advisory Panel, said “Historically, Rhode Island has landed a lot more fish than the allocation reflects.” George Allen, representing the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association (a recreational fishing association that represents 30 different fishing organizations with 7,500 members), said, “Currently, one state (Virginia) takes 85 percent of the catch because of the Atlantic menhaden reduction fishery. This is inequitable for the rest of the coastal states.”

Most in attendance were in agreement that the Atlantic menhaden allocation in the northeast states, and specifically Rhode Island, should be enhanced to more accurately reflect historical catch over a longer period of time, including the time period when landings were high due to active processing plants in the northern states. So, instead of using average landings between 2009 and 2011, many at the meeting were advocating for a longer time-series average, extending to include years prior to 2009 such as 1985, when more accurate bait fishery landings data became available.

Read the full story at the Cranston Herald

Rhode Island quota for menhaden the focus of debate

December 27, 2016 — About 30 recreational and commercial fishermen, fish processors, environmental groups (like Save the Bay) and fish managers attended Monday’s public hearing on Atlantic menhaden at the URI Bay Campus held by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The two main issues at the hearing were the use of ecosystem-based management strategies to determine stock status and allowable catch limits, and landing time frames, which would be used to determine allocation of quota.

The Atlantic menhaden plan will be the first ASMFC plan that utilizes ecosystem-based management in this fashion.

Meghan Lapp of Seafreeze, Ltd., North Kingstown (the largest producer and trader of sea-frozen fish on the East Coast) and a member of the ASMFC Atlantic menhaden Advisory Panel, said “Historically, Rhode Island has landed a lot more fish than the allocation reflects.” George Allen, representing the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association (a recreational fishing association with 7,500 members), said, “Currently one state (Virginia) takes 85 percent of the catch because of the Atlantic menhaden reduction fishery. This is inequitable for the rest of the coastal states.”

Most in attendance agreed that the Atlantic menhaden allocation in the Northeast states, and specifically Rhode Island, should be enhanced to more accurately reflect historical catch over a longer period of time including the time period when landings were high due to active processing plants in the northern states. So instead of using average landings between 2009 and 2011, many at the meeting were advocating for a longer time-series average extending to include years prior to 2009 such as 1985 when more accurate bait fishery landings data became available.

However, there was much disagreement in the room when it came to determining ecological reference points in estimating how many fish would be allowed to be taken out of the water. A representative from Save the Bay said, “Atlantic menhaden have great ecological value for Narragansett Bay and we advocate for existing guidelines for forage fish species until menhaden-specific ecological reference points (ERPs) are developed by the ASMFC’s Biological and Ecological Reference Point (BERP) workgroup.”

Read the full story at the Providence Journal 

Confusion after LIPA wind farm meeting postponed

July 25, 2016 — New York State’s decision to postpone LIPA’s consideration of an offshore wind farm that is popular with environmentalists prompted confusion and rancor in its aftermath, as the Cuomo administration works on a wind-energy blueprint that could include other areas directly off Long Island.

A presentation prepared by the Long Island Power Authority this month – before the state stepped in recently and nixed a LIPA trustee vote – included a map of up to six “potential” New York wind-energy areas, including a long, straight swath 12 miles off the coast of the entire South Fork.

Another site comprises more than 100,000 acres in an area beyond an existing wind-energy area that LIPA and Con Edison previously had identified about 12 miles from Long Beach. Fishing groups oppose use of the location for a wind farm.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which has taken over that LIPA-Con Ed project, has been working for months on a comprehensive plan for wind energy for the state. A draft “blueprint” of that plan is due out in coming weeks.

A map similar to LIPA’s that lists the same six potential wind energy areas for New York appears in the state’s April cost analysis for Clean Energy Standard. In it, NYSERDA identified the South Fork coastal area off the Hamptons as having the potential to produce 3,081 megawatts of wind power from about 385 turbines rated 8 megawatts each.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which leases ocean sites, has yet to receive any formal request for the Hamptons-area site or other proposals beyond NYSERDA’s, said spokesman Stephen Boutwell.

If it were to, he said, the agency would work with the New York Renewable Energy Task Force, which includes federal and state agencies, local governments and tribes, to “identify other users of the areas and environmental concerns to assess the suitability of areas for leasing.”

Should the state move forward with any of the additional wind-energy areas listed in the LIPA and NYSERDA maps, they can expect opposition from fishing groups.

“Those [potential] wind-energy areas would destroy multiple fisheries,” said Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., a Rhode Island commercial fishing group. Added Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for the Fisheries Survival Fund, representing commercial scallopers, “All of them [wind-energy areas] are right smack dab in the middle of scallop grounds.”

Read the full story from Newsday at National Wind Watch