Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: More offshore wind farms? New Jersey opens 4th round of bidding

May 1, 2024 — New Jersey officials pushed forward with plans to expand the state’s offshore wind power sector, despite recent slowdowns and setbacks in the industry.

The state Board of Public Utilities opened the fourth offshore wind power solicitation Tuesday, seeking proposals from companies for wind projects that could add 1.2 to 4 gigawatts of electricity production to the power grid.

New Jersey has already approved three offshore wind projects: Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, Attentive Energy Two and Leading Light Wind. Each of the projects remains in the permitting process. The companies have not yet broken ground for the turbine bases in the Atlantic Ocean.

Other offshore wind projects – including Ørsted’s two New Jersey projects and three offshore wind farm plans for New York – have been canceled or put on hold over the past 12 months. Companies say inflation, supply chain disruptions and high interest rates are contributing to the challenges facing the industry.

Read the full article at Asbury Park Press

The final journey of F/V Carrabassett

May 1, 2024 — The Axel Carlson Reef off the New Jersey shore now has a new artificial addition: the fishing vessel Carrabassett. The vessel was once part of Carlos Rafael, also known as the Codfather’s fleet, most recently owned by C&P Trawlers. The Carrabassett had quite the journey as a groundfish boat off New England’s coast but has now officially been laid to rest.

The Carrabassett, formerly known as the Cowboy under Rafael’s ownership, has a fascinating journey. After Rafael was forced to sell his entire fleet in 2017 due to his involvement in falsifying fish quotas, tax evasion, and conspiracy, the vessel found a new home with Blue Harvest Fisheries in 2020. It was then renamed and relaunched as the Carrabassett in August of the same year, only to face a new journey with Blue Harvest filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2023.

In 2021, the vessel ran aground under the Blue Harvest’s ownership and remained on Longnook Beach in Truro, Mass., for five days. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, no crew members were injured during the incident. Blue Harvest had obtained permits from government officials and private landowners to bring in equipment to help get the vessel off the beach. Eventually, a tug pulled it back into the water, and it fully floated.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Gusts of activity underway by friends and foes of offshore wind energy projects

April 28, 2024 — Government supporters of offshore wind energy projects in New Jersey and New York are trading blows with opponents in some shore towns who say many vacationers and local residents don’t want to see turbines filling the ocean horizon.

Eight Jersey Shore beach towns wrote to state utility regulators Wednesday, saying one wind farm proposal will be vastly more expensive than projected, and it will cost tourism-driven jobs and economic activity.

Their move came on the same day that federal energy regulators approved new rules to streamline the application and approval processes for offshore wind farms, and also the day that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued supply chain and logistics proposals to help her state’s offshore wind industry. Hochul’s move came days after three New York projects were scrapped because the companies and state regulators couldn’t agree on the financial terms

Read the full article at the Associated Press 

Rising Costs Sink New York Ocean Wind Projects, Is New Jersey Next?

April 22, 2024 — This week, rising costs sunk three offshore wind farm projects in New York State. After a tumultuous year on the other side of the river, New Jersey lost two large projects being built by Danish wind energy giant 0rsted. 0rsted bailed on New Jersey, and costs are continuing to rise, making previous wind energy deals unaffordable.

Can New Jersey be the next in the line of turbine dominos to fall?

Read the full article at Shore News Network

NEW JERSEY: Research Funding Addresses Offshore Wind Impact on Marine Ecosystems

April 4, 2024 — State environmental officials and utility regulators announced plans last week for their coordinated Offshore Wind Research and Monitoring Initiative, earmarking nearly $3.7 million in funding for research projects that will help ensure ecologically responsible development of offshore wind.

“As we continue to pursue a 100% clean energy economy by 2035, it’s imperative that we not only protect the interests of our ratepayers but safeguard the vitality of our marine ecosystems as well,” said Christine Guhl-Sadovy, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. “The Research Monitoring Initiative is a crucial piece of our comprehensive efforts to responsibly develop New Jersey’s nation-leading offshore wind industry.”

The bulk of the monies awarded is to expand the bat and bird tracking system, according to N.J. Department of Environmental Protection and Board of Public Utilities officials. The collaborative effort is being led by the American Bird Conservancy with $1.3 million to grow the existing regional network, which tracks radio-tagged birds and bats, officials said.

“This funding will result in the deployment and maintenance of 10 new land based Motus receiver stations and 10 ocean buoy stations as part of the Motus Wildlife Tracking System in strategic locations throughout New Jersey and offshore,” state officials said. “The expansion will improve regional network coverage and provide baseline data to aid researchers in assessing species migration routes to and through New Jersey airspace and offshore wind lease areas.”

Read the full article at The Sand Paper

NEW JERSEY: NJ steers $3.7M toward studies of offshore wind’s environmental impacts

March 26, 2024 — New Jersey officials pledged $3.7 million for scientific research and monitoring of the environmental impacts of offshore wind energy off the Jersey Shore.

Support for offshore wind remains politically polarized. Critics argue that construction and operation of ocean wind turbines would harm marine animals and outweigh environmental benefits.

Advocates counter that inaction on reducing greenhouse gas emissions will lead to more harm to the ocean environment due to warming water temperatures and ocean acidification.

The new award, announced Monday by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette and New Jersey Board of Public Utilities President Christine Guhl-Sadovy, will fund the state’s Offshore Wind Research and Monitoring Initiative.

Read the full article at app.

Offshore wind developers sought for NJ’s fourth round of energy projects

March 25, 2024 — A group of residents spoke out Wednesday against New Jersey’s latest offshore wind energy plans, saying that approving another round of projects would harm the environment and be costly for electricity customers.

The state Board of Public Utilities is preparing its fourth solicitation for offshore wind development as part of Gov. Phil Murphy’s goal to have 11 gigawatts of energy produced by ocean wind turbines by the year 2040.

To make that deadline, the state must move ahead quickly on the lengthy approval process. More than 90% of the state’s electricity was produced by natural gas and nuclear energy in 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Of the remaining 8% of the state’s energy that was produced by renewable sources, only a small fraction of a percent was generated by wind.

Read the full article at app.

Fishing Partnership brings safety training dockside

March 25, 2024 — With blue sky and a stiff northwest wind gusting 20 knots across Barnegat Bay, struggling into survival suits and jumping into 47-degree water at the town boat ramp was just the beginners’ class for how to abandon ship.

Imagine it in 40 knots and 20-foot seas, said instructor Dana Collyer.

“This is the most important piece of survival equipment you can have on the boat, bar none,” Collyer told fishermen at a March 21 safety course at Barnegat Light, N.J., with the non-profit group Fishing Partnership Support Services.

Collyer and other instructors coached fishermen on maintaining and tuning up survival suits. Small details matter. Collyer insisted that paraffin wax only be used to lubricate the zippers.

Even with light use in practice, the suits can be subject to wear and tear. But Coolyr added, “they’re $300. If you buy a new suit every five years, it’s not that much.”

New Jersey fishermen from surf clam and scallop boats, party and charter boats, and individual recreational boat owners came to the classes hosted by the Coast Guard Station Barnegat Light.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NEW JERSEY: Feds seek input on 157-wind turbine project off Long Beach Island

March 19, 2024 — A federal agency is seeking public input starting this week on a wind energy array containing as many as 157 turbines off Long Beach Island.

The Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind project would stretch from Atlantic City to Barnegat Light and at its closest approach, be 8.4 miles offshore, according to documents released by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM. The project is expected to power about 700,000 homes, according to the company’s website.

BOEM announced it would begin the environmental review for Atlantic Shore’s construction andoperations plan on Monday.

In addition to building as many as 157 turbines, construction would include eight offshore substations, a meteorological tower, two buoys for measuring wind and two cable corridors. The cable corridors will connect to the onshore grid at Sea Girt, and potentially near Asbury Park or New York City, according to BOEM.

Read the full article at app. 

Next BOEM studies will examine Gulf of Maine, NJ wind conflicts

March 19, 2024 — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on March 18 opened two new environmental assessments of offshore wind power: one for the agency’s proposed Gulf of Maine wind energy areas, the other for the Atlantic Shores project off New Jersey.

Both proposals are hotly contested by ocean user groups, but supported by Northeast state political leaders along with the Biden administration. The processes opened March 18 with a “notice of intent” in the Federal Register, and come as the budding U.S. offshore wind industry remains under financial and supply-chain setbacks.

The Gulf of Maine wind energy area includes around 2 million acres off Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, from 23 mile to 92 miles offshore, according to BOEM. The agency says that is an 80 percent reduction from a much broader area initially examined by BOEM, and a further 43 percent down from an early draft plan.

BOEM officials say their process sought to avoid lobster and other fishing areas and habitats. In its own August 2023 summary report, the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association said BOEM should have conducted an environmental review before outlining wind energy areas, and warned of threats to lobster, haddock and endangered right whales.

In a joint statement Tuesday with 16 other New England fishing groups, NEFSA called BOEM’s planning “the culmination of a rushed development process that is poorly informed on economic, scientific, environmental and cultural issues of paramount importance. Without adequate consideration of these issues, leasing in BOEM’s WEA designation should not be pursued.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman