Saving Seafood

New Jersey residents challenge Orsted offshore wind farm’s $1 billion subsidy

July 31, 2023 — New Jersey residents have sued Danish renewable energy developer Orsted and the state over a tax break the company received to build a major offshore wind farm in the Atlantic, claiming the estimated $1 billion subsidy violates the state constitution.

New Jersey groups Defend Brigantine Beach and Protect our Coast NJ filed their lawsuit on Thursday in state court in Trenton. They claimed the law authorizing the tax break, signed earlier this month by Governor Phil Murphy, violates a provision of the state constitution that generally prohibits legislation that specifically favors a single, private entity.

The groups asked the court to invalidate the law, which they said created the tax break “for the singular purpose of protecting Orsted from commercial risk it voluntarily assumed” when it submitted bids to develop the project, known as Ocean Wind.

Orsted said on Friday it does not comment on pending litigation. The New Jersey attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full article at Reuters

How NJ herring fishermen could upend federal laws, push power from White House to Congress

July 26, 2023 — Several New Jersey commercial herring fishermen say they don’t think it’s fair that a federal rule forces them to pay over 20% of their earnings to cover the salary of the government’s at-sea monitors who ride on their boats. And their case, now going before the U.S. Supreme Court, has a chance of upending the way federal laws are made and shifting power from the White House back to Congress.

The at-sea monitors collect scientific, management and regulatory compliance and economic data and report back to the government. They also focus on the discarded catch, or fish that are thrown back because they’re not the target species or are undersized, for example. The data is used for the management and monitoring of the annual catch limits.

The fishermen concede federal law allows the government to require at-sea monitors on their boats, but they argue Congress never gave the executive branch further authority to pass monitoring costs onto the herring fishermen. They contend that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which manages the nation’s fisheries, has abused its power.

“It’s humbling that a few herring fishermen like us could bring such an important case to the nation’s highest court,” said Stefan Axelsson, one of the fishermen who brought the case. “If the government can do this to fishermen trying to make an honest living, they can do it to anyone.”

Read the full article at app.

NEW JERSEY: Fishermen, activists protest offshore wind farms near Montauk, cite recent whale deaths

July 25, 2023 — Conservative activists, environmentalists and New Jersey fishermen protested the construction of wind turbines off the East Coast on Monday, highlighting increasing whale deaths in the region that they say are tied to offshore renewable energy.

The coalition, organized by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, sent out three boats to South Fork Wind Farm, roughly 20 miles from both Martha’s Vineyard and Montauk, NY, holding signs that read “STOP WINDMILLS SAVE WHALES” while shouting through a bullhorn at machinery operators to halt construction.

“Since offshore wind operations began in 2016, there is a disturbing number of whales washing up dead on beaches along the Eastern shores, and it is shocking to see how quickly utilities are willing to rush to construct them,” the group’s president, Craig Rucker, told The Post in a statement. “Their motto is almost like, ‘Damn the Whales, full steam ahead.’”

Read the full article at New York Post

NOAA Takes Ownership of the James J. Howard Laboratory in New Jersey

July 23, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries held a transfer of ownership ceremony on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 in front of the James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory building within the Gateway National Recreation Area in Highlands, New Jersey. Guests included NOAA officials, as well as U.S. Rep Frank Pallone, Zach McCue of U.S. Sen. Cory Booker’s staff, Highlands, New Jersey Mayor Carolyn Broullon and Middletown, New Jersey Mayor Anthony Perry.

“It’s a victory for NOAA and the State of New Jersey, but really it’s a victory for the American public,” emphasized NOAA Deputy Under Secretary Ben Friedman. “I’m happy to be here to make this a permanent part of the NOAA family.”

In 1993, this building replaced the original laboratory—a building that became a marine science laboratory in 1961 though it was originally constructed as a military hospital in the late 1800s. The State of New Jersey owned the new building, and NOAA leased space there. The official transfer of ownership was years in the making. Current and retired laboratory staff, NOAA employees from other locations, and local partners gathered for the celebration.

Northeast Fisheries Science Center Director Jon Hare said, “This is a purpose-built seawater laboratory that has the capability to do world-class research. Now that NOAA owns it, we can put it to its full use.”

Fisheries Ecology Branch Chief Beth Phelan emphasized the laboratory’s value to NOAA.

“NOAA is America’s environmental intelligence agency, and our lab here in New Jersey adapts and directs its research to important topics to help produce the best available science,” Phelan said.

She has been a scientist and leader at the laboratory for nearly four decades.

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey may revoke half of Covid-19 relief funds distributed to commercial fishermen

July 23, 2023 — The U.S. state of New Jersey is considering taking back millions of dollars in Covid-19 relief from commercial fishermen after an audit found multiple issues.

In May 2020, the federal government announced USD 300 million (EUR 270 million) in fisheries assistance funding as part of the CARES Act. New Jersey was awarded USD 11.2 million (EUR 10 million) of that funding and established the Marine Fisheries Assistance Grant Program to distribute the money to fisheries-related businesses that had suffered at least a 35 percent loss in revenue from Covid-19.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEW JERSEY: Dolphin found in Barnegat Bay is 40th death this year in N.J.

July 20, 2023 — A boat captain on the Barnegat Bay on Monday morning found a dead dolphin floating near Tice’s Shoal off Island Beach State Park.

Korey Tomei was providing a boating lesson at about 9:30 a.m. when he spotted what the Marine Mammal Stranding Center confirmed to be an adult male bottlenose dolphin.

From a distance, Tomei said thought he had spotted garbage and only realized what he saw was a dolphin after moving in for a closer look as he had planned to retrieve the trash.

Read the full article at NJ.com

Supreme Court urged to blunt power of federal regulators

July 19, 2023 — The Supreme Court is being asked to overturn a decades-old law giving federal regulators wide-ranging powers as it weighs a legal challenge by New Jersey commercial fishermen over new monitoring rules.

The high court is considering a lawsuit filed in 2020 by plaintiff Loper Bright Enterprises of New Jersey, challenging a rule requiring the industry to fund monitors to go out on commercial fishing vessels to collect data to craft new regulations. The fishermen argue the rules will force them to pay more than $700 per day to contractors, or about 20% of their pay.

But plaintiffs in the case say the dispute over federal monitors also provides an opportunity for the high court to blunt the powers of federal agencies by overturning the so-called Chevron deference.

“It’s a classic David versus Goliath story,” said Ryan Mulvey, an attorney with Cause of Action Institute representing commercial fishermen. “Chevron deference tips the scales of justice towards powerful federal agencies and away from citizens like the fishermen who are seeing their livelihoods threatened by a bureaucracy run amok.”

Read the full article at The Center Square

NEW JERSEY: Protesters Link Hands on Beach to Denounce Offshore Wind Farms

July 17, 2023 — Max Maher had no intention of going to an offshore wind farm protest in Ocean City on Saturday. But when the Johnstown, Pa., teenager read a pamphlet handed to her on the Boardwalk warning about what could happen if a wind farm is built off the South Jersey coast, she felt she had to go.

“I came for the weekend to see my friends. I’m not a huge beachgoer, but when I read that the wind farm could destroy the marine life and the environment, I was angry,” the 16-year-old said. “I wanted to do my part.”

Opponents of a proposed wind energy farm off the South Jersey coast joined hands and formed a human chain symbolizing their fight against a project they believe will cause harm to the shore’s economy and the environment. Dubbed “Hands Across The Beaches,” the protest, organized by Protect Our Coast NJ, a grassroots organization, brought out people of all ages to take a stand.

They stood together to send a message to the Danish energy company Orsted that they do not want the project, which would entail 98 towering turbines in the waters 15 miles off the coast from Atlantic City to Stone Harbor.

Read the full article at OCNJDaily

Lawsuits could delay the start of New Jersey’s first offshore wind power project

July 13, 2023 — A tangle of litigation could delay the start of New Jersey’s first offshore wind energy project, as developer Orsted is suing governments to stop delaying necessary permits, and citizens groups try to halt the project altogether.

The latest in a fast-growing thicket of litigation came July 3 when Danish wind power developer Orsted sued Cape May County, alleging the government is dragging its feet in issuing a road permit needed to do test work along the route a power cable would run.

The company is also suing the city of Ocean City over similar delays to the project, which the federal government has endorsed as a significant piece in the White House’s efforts to “jump-start the offshore wind industry across the country,” in order to tackle the catastrophic effects of climate change.

Read the full article at the Associated Press 

NEW JERSEY: LBI Towns Voice Offshore Wind Opposition

July 14, 2023 — The municipalities of Long Beach Island are voicing their opposition of offshore wind development and are preparing to take legal action if need be, according to a letter filed with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).

In a joint statement with law firm Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, which filed the letter on behalf of all of LBI’s municipalities regarding the proposed Atlantic Shores application calling for a federal consistency certification that the offshore wind project is consistent with New Jersey’s coastal policies.

Frank Huttle, representing the municipalities along with Pashman Stein Chair and Managing Partner Michael S. Stein, said that the project does not comply with NJDEP’s coastal zone management regulations. The applicant should instead “seek approval of a project in a designated lease area further offshore that would have far fewer impacts on the state’s coastal resources and economy,” Huttle said.

Read the full article at the Patch