Saving Seafood

US East Coast states select firms to run offshore wind development compensation fund for fishers

November 12, 2024 — A coalition of U.S. East Coast states have selected two firms to manage the Offshore Wind Fisheries Compensation Fund, a mitigation program built to compensate commercial and recreation for-hire fishers for revenue lost due to offshore wind developments.

The fund is a collaboration between the governments of 11 East Coast states – Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina – to provide financial compensation for economic loss caused by offshore wind projects along the Atlantic Coast. The states launched a competition earlier this year to select an administrator to run the new fund.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Coast Guard Seeks Public Comment Until Nov. 21 On Empire Wind 1

November 12, 2024 — The U.S. Coast Guard is currently seeking public comment regarding their installation of “temporary safety zones” for a wind farm off New York and New Jersey.

The proposed wind farm is Empire Wind 1, which would be located about 13 miles south of Long Island and 19.5 miles off Long Branch. It is highly unlikely that Empire Wind’s turbines will be seen from the shore; the proposed wind farm is located too far out.

The Coast Guard says they are required to set up temporary safety zones during construction. They propose establishing 55 temporary safety zones during the development of the Empire Wind 1 Wind Farm project area.

Read the full article at the Patch

Richmond firm to oversee fishermen compensation related to offshore wind farms

November 6, 2024 — Richmond claims resolution firm BrownGreer PLC and London’s The Carbon Trust have been tapped to design and roll out a regional fisheries mitigation program on the East Coast.

The program is aimed at providing financial compensation to the commercial and recreational for-hire fishing industries related to the impacts of new offshore wind farms.

BrownGreer and The Carbon Trust will work with 11 East Coast states and their respective fishing industry communities on the program. The groups have established a design oversight committee and a for-hire committee to provide advice and guidance from respective parties on the program.

The involved states include Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

Read the full article at Richmond Inno

Ocean Harvesters, Omega call for increase of wind facility buffers

November 6, 2024 — Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein are calling on the federal government to increase the buffer for wind energy facilities from 6 miles to 15 miles, stating their operations are incompatible with wind turbine arrays and  critical adjustments are needed to protect the menhaden fishing industry.

The Reedville companies made those statements as part of their public comment to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which was soliciting feedback on possible commercial wind energy development in areas off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Read the full article at News On The Neck

NEW JERSEY: Philadelphia seafood market setting up shop in South Jersey

November 6, 2024 — A fresh seafood market is on its way to the borough.

Fishtown Seafood Co., “a new school fish shop,’’ is set to open in Haddonfield sometime this winter. The company states on its website that its third location will be in Haddonfield at 114 Kings Highway East.

This will be the first New Jersey location for Fishtown Seafood Co., which has two locations in Philadelphia, one along Pine Street and one along Belgrade Street in the Fishtown neighborhood of the city.

Read the full article at Aol

NEW JERSEY: Birds are attracted to offshore wind turbines. How Jersey Shore is preparing for risks.

October 28, 2024 — Much of the attention around what towering offshore wind turbines could mean for Jersey Shore animals has focused on whales and certain fish species.

Birds, some believe, have gotten short shrift.

As have bats.

Not that wind developers and environmentalists aren’t looking up to the skies.

During a recent tour of the Long Island South Fork wind farm — a project that could be instructive for what’s planned in New Jersey in the years to come — managers from Ørsted said they monitor for birds and bats.

How? With the Motus Wildlife Tracking System, an international collaborative research network.

The equipment is affixed to one of the projects’ 12 turbine platforms, the company said.
Worries have been shared by advocates about what wind structures, simply by the nature of their size and placement, will mean for birds and bats that travel off the coast. Bats have been shown to collide with turbines. Lighting has also been observed to attract certain birds to the structures, an organizer from the National Audubon Society told NJ Advance Media.

Environmentalists sue New York, New Jersey and Delaware over endangered sturgeon

October 25, 2024 — New York, New Jersey and Delaware were accused in federal lawsuits Thursday of improperly allowing Atlantic sturgeon to be killed by commercial fishing operations even as the prehistoric fish is on the brink of disappearing.

The three parallel lawsuits filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Hudson Riverkeeper accuse the states of violating the Endangered Species Act by not obtaining necessary permits that allow commercial fisheries to catch and kill Atlantic sturgeon while they fish for other species such as striped bass and summer flounder. The environmentalists say the once thriving fish’s recovery is threatened because they are unintentionally caught in commercial nets as “bycatch.”

Atlantic Sturgeon in the Delaware River and Hudson River were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2012.

“The Atlantic sturgeon of our two rivers are at risk from being wiped from the face of this earth within our lifetime,” Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum said during an online news conference.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

NEW JERSEY: Voters don’t think offshore wind should be a ‘major priority’ for N.J., poll finds

October 23, 2024 — New Jersey has ambitious plans to host hundreds of offshore wind turbines in the years and decades to come. One project may be in construction as soon as next year.

But as people prepare to head to the ballot box this November with a bevy of topics to consider, it turns out they don’t think harnessing power from the wind should be high on our To Do list.

Most voters in New Jersey don’t think offshore wind projects should be a “major priority” for the state, according to a Stockton University poll released Tuesday.

Alyssa Maurice, director of research at Stockton’s William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy, told NJ Advance Media that this was an independent poll with no external funding.

Read the full article at NJ.com

Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Clears Final Federal Hurdle

October 10, 2024 — While a local grassroots organization expressed disappointment over the federal government’s approval of the construction and operations plan for two wind farm projects planned off Long Beach Island, the developers and their supporters are elated at reaching the milestone.

“Atlantic Shores is thrilled to receive approval to build our first two projects and deliver sufficient clean power to serve one third of New Jersey households,” said Joris Veldhoven, chief executive officer of Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind. “Securing these critical approvals enables New Jersey’s first offshore wind project to start construction next year and represents meaningful progress in New Jersey achieving 100% clean energy by 2035.”

The company has until roughly the middle of November to pay the first year’s rent of $13,090 for Project 1’s easement and $112,040 for Project 2’s easement. Moving forward, the annual rent for the lease area and the project easement zone will be due on March 1, the lease anniversary, according to BOEM’s letter to company officials.

The leases, unless otherwise renewed, have a 25-year lifespan from the date of the approval of COP, according to the conditions of construction and operations plan approval issued by BOEM. The document also outlines the time frame for notification prior to construction activities on the outer continental shelf, including seabed preparation such as boulder relocation and pre-lay grapnel runs, and export cable installation among other items.

Read the full article at The Sand Paper

NEW JERSEY: ‘He knows we’re here’: Wind power critics protest Murphy to keep cables out of Sea Girt

October 7, 2024 — More than 100 protesters who oppose a plan to connect offshore wind power cables through this beachfront community descended on the area Sunday during a visit by Gov. Phil Murphy, urging him to stop the project and claiming it’s a health hazard.

Murphy was in town attending the New Jersey National Guard’s annual military review at its training center located just blocks from the Sea Girt beach.

Supporters of the group Stop The High-Risk Power Cables, which represents homeowners in Sea Girt, Wall, Manasquan and Howell, chose the event to let Murphy know of their objections.

“It’s a high-rise power cable,” said Kimberly Paterson one of the organizers. “People are upset.”

Read the full article at app.