Saving Seafood

10 fisheries in N.J. may have wrongly received millions in COVID money, state watchdog says

March 25, 2022 — In its first report detailing the waste, fraud and abuse of the distribution of federal COVID funds, a state watchdog agency said nearly $2.4 million in CARES Act funding may have been improperly paid out to fisheries in New Jersey.

The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC), which is tasked with tracking the distribution of federal COVID funding, said 10 marine fisheries in New Jersey received more money than they lost because of the pandemic in 2020.

Guidelines for the program, administered by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), require that fisheries could not be made “more than whole,” meaning fisheries could not receive more funds than their actual losses in 2020.

“Our report finds that DEP did not take adequate steps to address red flags and protect federal recovery funds from being misspent,” said Kevin Walsh, acting state comptroller. “Getting COVID funding out quickly was important, but more should have been done to protect the funds from fraud, waste, and abuse.”

Read the full story at NJ.com

Commercial Fishing Could Receive Subsidies for Losses Due to Offshore Wind

July 29, 2021 — Nine states along the East Coast that are frontrunners for American offshore wind farms over the next decade are in talks with the federal government about ways to mitigate revenue losses for commercial fishing once the farms are built out.

Commercial fishing industries in the Mid-Atlantic have long been opposed to offshore wind farms, which coastal states and the Biden administration are pushing as a necessary component of a greener power grid. The fishing interests, which argue that the wind farms will interfere with their operations, are seen as the last major holdout to hundreds of wind turbines in the ocean from North Carolina to Massachusetts.

Commercial fisheries say the wind farms, which would be spread over hundreds of nautical miles, could displace wildlife, and shorten the amount of time spent fishing while at sea.

The nine states initially proposed providing some sort of subsidy to commercial fishing in a June 4 letter to President Joe Biden. Reuters first reported Wednesday that talks have begun between the federal government and states in how to offset fishing revenue losses.

Read the full story at NBC Philadelphia

Diners’ discarded shells help establish new oyster colonies

July 6, 2021 — Call it the seafood circle of life: Shells discarded by diners are being collected, cleaned and dumped into waterways around the country and the world, where they form the basis of new oyster colonies.

One of the latest such projects is taking place in Atlantic City, where a casino and two other restaurants are saving the shells left over from their diners. The shells are then collected by the state Department of Environmental Protection, and workers and volunteers with Rutgers and Stockton universities and the Jetty Rock Foundation load them on barges and dump them into the Mullica River.

That waterway is home to one of the last self-sustaining oyster populations on the Atlantic coast, according to Shawn LaTourette, the state’s environmental commissioner. The clam, oyster and other shells form the basis of new or expanded oyster colonies when free-floating baby oysters, known as spat, attach to the shells and begin to grow on them.

“You have the benefit not only of ecological restoration, but it has kept 65 tons of shells out of landfills,” said Scott Stueber, a fisheries biologist with the DEP. That helps the eateries save on waste disposal costs.

The program began in 2019 and currently collects oysters from the Hard Rock casino, the Knife & Fork restaurant and Dock’s Oyster House in Atlantic City. Several other casinos have expressed interest in joining.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

NJDEP Proposes Changes to Marine Management, Seeks Public Input

March 10, 2021 — The state Department of Environmental Protection is seeking comments on proposed new rules regulating crab and lobster management, marine fisheries and fishery management in New Jersey. Written comments can be electronically filed until April 30 or submitted via the regular mail.

“The department is proposing to reduce the number of commercial crab pot/trot line licenses and crab dredge licenses for both the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic coast due to a reduction in the number of actively harvesting license holders,” according to the March 1 DEP bulletin on the proposed rule change.

Under the proposal, a licensee could transfer licenses to any person, based upon the number of available licenses.

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

Feds give N.J. $1M to protect South Jersey wetlands

February 26, 2021 — More than 500 acres of wetland habitat near the Jersey Shore is in line to be protected, thanks to a $1 million grant from the federal government.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would award the funds to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Acres Program to help pay for the acquisition and permanent protection of 517 acres in Atlantic and Cape May counties.

The federal agency declined to give a specific location for the tract, but said it is adjacent to the state’s Tuckahoe Wildlife Management Area.

The total cost of the project is expected to reach $1,492,000, according to the USFWS. That leaves nearly $500,000 to be matched by the state and any local conversation groups that are partnering in the effort.

The property is part of the Great Egg Harbor estuary, which includes a variety of wetland habitats, from barrier islands and back bays to mud flats and forested areas. The area is critical for the survival of various fish and shellfish, plus hundreds of species of birds, including the threatened red knot.

Read the full story at NJ.com

Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind to test ocean floor for energy project

February 16, 2021 — Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind will take its initial steps toward installing New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm by submitting an application to test whether the ocean floor is suitable to support an electric transmission cable.

In an application made to the Department of Environmental Protection, the firm seeks to test the ocean substrate from 155 feet out to 3 miles off the coast of Atlantic City.

Testing will involve taking sample borings from 10 areas, ranging from 8 to 10 inches in diameter and extending from 19 to more than 65 feet deep.

The goal of the Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind is to build wind turbines from Barnegat Light to Atlantic City, as close as 9 miles from the beach. If approved, construction can begin as early as 2025 and operations by 2027. The number of wind turbines to be built has not been determined yet.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

CARES Act money to be disbursed to N.J.’s fishing and aquaculture industry

February 5, 2021 — As of Thursday morning Capt. Rich Issaken, owner of the Isaetta commercial boat at the Belford co-operative dock, was still waiting for word on whether his application for CARES Act grant money was approved.

This is the week that New Jersey’s fishing sector is to begin receiving disbursements of CARES Act money from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

The state was awarded $11 million from the initial federal pandemic relief package that was passed by Congress last March. The DEP said it would start notifying fishermen the week of Feb. 1.

“We applied. Haven’t heard anything yet,” Issaken said.

Most of the grant funds, $6.1 million to be exact, are earmarked for the state’s commercial and aquaculture sector. The recreational fishing industry sector was allocated $1.1 million while the remaining $3.8 million was awarded to the dealer and processor sector.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

N.J.’s sinking fishing industry nabs $11M life raft from state

January 29, 2021 — Nearly a year after being approved by federal lawmakers, financial relief is being handed out to New Jersey’s battered fishing industry.

Gov. Phil Murphy and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection announced Friday that $11.3 million in grants are being distributed to Garden State fishermen, and the businesses that support them.

“Our fishing communities and seafood industries are important parts of our New Jersey identity, and crucial components of our state’s economy,” Murphy said in a statement. “The grants our administration is making to our partners in fishing industries will help the business and communities impacted by this public health emergency. I continue to encourage our New Jersey family to support our fishing industry by buying from local seafood suppliers and enjoying fishing through our local charter boat operations and bait and tackle shops.”

Read the full story at NJ.com

Plenty of fish in the sea? Scientists can now count them using DNA

December 7, 2020 — One liter of ocean water can not only unlock the recent presence of dozens of species — it can also reveal the relative number of these fish.

According to the most extensive comparison of its kind, the relative abundance of DNA from different species found from ocean water samples taken off the coast of New Jersey correlates well with the data gathered by the more expensive and destructive technique of bottom trawling.

“It’s really going to be a game change for ocean science, with many applications,” said Mark Stoeckle, an environmental genetics researcher at Rockefeller University in New York City. He added that as DNA analysis becomes cheaper and more accurate, analyzing environmental DNA could be used for everything from tracking fluctuations in fish stocks due to fishing operations, to cataloguing the effects of climate change on species diversity and abundance.

Read the full story at ABC News

New Jersey Releases Offshore Wind Strategic Plan

October 29, 2020 — The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved and published online the New Jersey Offshore Wind Strategic Plan on Sept. 9. The 500-plus-page document is the state’s comprehensive map for achieving 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2035. It makes recommendations on establishing an offshore wind industry that achieves net economic benefits while also protecting the environment, commercial and recreational fishing interests, and mitigating the impacts of climate change.

While developing the state’s offshore wind resources, the state Department of Environmental Protection is tasked with identifying and prioritizing the research and monitoring the industry with ongoing habitat surveys as well as fish and wildlife studies.

Chief to the success of the industry is the offshore wind renewable energy certificate (OREC) funding mechanism, the method by which New Jersey ratepayers will fund offshore wind projects and how revenues from these projects will be refunded and delivered to ratepayers. OREC funding mechanism rules mandate that the OREC price reflect the total capital and operating costs for an offshore wind project, offset by any state or federal tax or production credits and any other subsidies or grants, as approved by the board.

Read the full story at The Sand Piper