June 17, 2020 — New Jersey wants to be known for more than just its shores and casinos.
Delaware River site chosen for New Jersey offshore wind port
June 17, 2020 — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says the state will develop a dedicated offshore wind energy port on the lower Delaware River, spending up to $400 million to support the state’s ambitious goal of developing 7,500 megawatts of wind power capacity by 2035.
Located adjacent to the Hope Creek nuclear power station in Lower Alloways Creek Township in rural Salem County, the site of 200-plus acres is close to the deep-draft ship channel from Philadelphia to Delaware Bay and the Atlantic – and downstream from highway bridges over the river. That eliminates the constraints of air draft at other East Coast ports like New York, where even bridge clearances of 200 feet will not be enough to accommodate the size of next-generation turbine components carried on barges and installation vessels.
“Offshore wind is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not only protect our environment but also greatly expand our state economy in a way that has immediate impacts and paves the way for long-term growth,” Murphy said Tuesday in announcing the site selection. “The New Jersey Wind Port will create thousands of high-quality jobs, bring millions of investment dollars to our state, and establish New Jersey as the national capital of offshore wind.”
Murphy’s announcement came at a pivotal moment for U.S. offshore wind, days after the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a supplemental draft environmental impact statement that looks at cumulative impacts of more than a dozen proposed turbine arrays off the East Coast.
Jersey’s Commercial Fishing Industry Struggles to Stay Afloat
June 16, 2020 — Sam Martin has never had to deal with a housing crisis. Now, thanks to the pandemic, he’s got a big one. Ordinarily, when the oysters he raises along the Delaware Bay shoreline outgrow their bags and cages, he ships them to market and starts over again. But with “virtually all our sales coming from restaurants,” and the restaurant industry on hold, Martin’s oysters have nowhere to go.
“It’s a big bottleneck,” he says.
Atlantic Cape Fisheries, of which Martin is chief operating officer, is a large commercial fishery as well as New Jersey’s largest producer of farmed oysters. Based in Port Norris, about 20 miles northwest of Cape May, its oyster operation has “doubled in size each of the last three years,” Martin says. “Last year we sold 2.5 million oysters, and we planned to sell 5 million this year, but sales so far are down about 80 percent compared to last year.”
Lodged in the water in their bags and cages, the oysters continue to grow. But once they exceed the ideal raw-bar size of about 3 1/2 inches, they lose as much as 60 percent of their value and wind up in the commodity breading-and-frying market. This month, the company will make a difficult decision. To free up bags and racks for future crops, it may have to dump its unsold, now-oversize oysters into the bay.
Three counties away, the Barnegat Oyster Collective is facing similar straits on the Atlantic coastline. Before the pandemic, “tens of thousands of people were eating our oysters in restaurants,” says CEO Scott Lennox. But since the collective was selling to distributors, “we didn’t know who they were. So we had to completely pivot and turn ourselves into an e-commerce company. We created the party pack. You get two dozen chilled oysters in a foam box with gel packs, a free oyster knife with instructions, and free shipping. And we do a Saturday Instagram shucking demo.”
Fishermen file lawsuit against herring at-sea monitoring rule
June 9, 2020 — The Cause of Action Institute has filed a motion for summary judgement on behalf of New Jersey, U.S.A., fisherman against a new set of regulations called the “Omnibus Amendment,” which requires some boats in the Atlantic herring fishery carry at-sea monitors at their own cost.
The new rule was designed by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), and was recently finalized by NOAA and the Department of Commerce. The New Jersey fishermen, according to a release from the Cause of Action Institute, object to the at-sea monitor requirements, as it is expected to cost fishermen “upwards of USD 700 [EUR 619] a day.”
N.J.’s fishing industry has taken a beating from coronavirus. Will easing of restrictions save it?
May 26, 2020 — Dale Parsons is a fifth-generation clammer whose family has owned Parsons Seafood in Tuckerton since 1909. He’s quick to tell you, proudly, that his facility in Little Egg Harbor has both an oyster shell recycling program and the only restored living oyster reef in New Jersey.
These days, however, things at Parsons Seafood are tight. The coronavirus pandemic, and the wave of restrictions put in place to slow the disease, has pushed his business down about 40%, Parsons said.
That big hit is driven by the loss of restaurant demand — no one eating at restaurants means no one is ordering fish.
“We’re down quite a bit,” Parsons said, who noted that that his retail business has tripled, though it doesn’t make up for what restaurants would normally buy. “We’ve improvised and sourced some new costumer base.”
As the coronavirus gripped New Jersey, stories like Parsons’ are common: commercial captains have seen restaurant demand evaporate; and the wholesalers that move the seafood from dock to table have been forced to find new markets.
NJ’s Multibillion-dollar Fishing Industry has Reason to be Concerned About Turbines
May 19, 2020 — Scallops. Black sea bass. Squid. Oysters. New Jersey’s coastal fisheries harvest millions of dollars worth of seafood annually from the state’s bountiful coastal waters, but some in the industry fear an ill wind is blowing.
From Cape May to Sandy Hook, 313,990 acres of Atlantic Ocean have been leased to three energy companies, with plans to erect soaring wind turbines visible from the Jersey Shore. The worry from some in the New Jersey fishing industry is the green energy will limit access to fisheries, exacerbate the danger they face and hurt profits.
Rutgers University Looking for Participants for Survey on Economic Impact of COVID-19
May 18, 2020 — The following was released by Rutgers University:
Scientists at the Rutgers University Center for Fisheries and Ocean Sustainability are conducting a study of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on commercial fishermen and their livelihoods in the Northeast US.
Study organizer, Dr. Victoria Ramenzoni says: “There are many media reports of fishermen suffering devastating losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated market changes and required social distancing measures. We want to hear from fishermen themselves about how they’ve been impacted, what support they’re receiving, and how they’re adapting”.
All commercial fishermen (including vessel owners, captains, and crew) in the Northeast US (North Carolina through Maine) are invited to complete the 15 minute anonymous survey online here: https://rutgers.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1MiTWJDQDt4atTf
The survey will remain open until May 31.
New Jersey commercial fishing operations counting on relief funds to stay in business
May 15, 2020 — The Garden State Seafood Association is hoping the $11 million recently allocated to New Jersey’s seafood industry as part of the coronavirus stimulus law will prepare it for reopening.
“The money should go to those businesses that have a proven negative impact from the COVID pandemic and should be used to help keep as many fishing businesses in operation as possible,” Scot Mackey, the Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) Government Affairs director based in Trenton, told The Center Square.
Mackey said he hopes the funds can be distributed to impacted businesses soon, especially to commercial docks.
$11M to keep New Jersey fishing industry alive; ‘This is getting very serious’
May 11, 2020 — New Jersey’s hard-hit fishing industry will be allocated $11 million of the $300 million available in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, according to U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.
Pallone, a Democrat whose Sixth District stretches along the coast of much of Monmouth and Middlesex counties, said the money will be made available to the commercial fishing, charter and for-hire fishing businesses, aquaculture operations, processors and other fishery-related businesses in the state. The money will be in the form of grants that do not have to be repaid.
The CARES Act was approved by Congress on March 27. Pallone said he thought it “outrageous” that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has taken until May to make the funds available. Even still, the funds are not ready to be distributed.
Lund’s Fisheries Supports President Trump’s Order Promoting American Seafood
May 8, 2020 — The following was released by Lund’s Fisheries:
Jeff Reichle, Chairman of Lund’s Fisheries, Inc., issued the following statement on President Trump’s “Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth”:
Lund’s Fisheries has been in business since 1954; I myself have been with the company since 1974. This is the first time in my memory that a sitting President has taken the time and initiative to recognize the hard work and value of this country’s fishing industry and its importance in feeding Americans.
Fishermen are notoriously independent people, seldom looking for help, and most often overlooked by their government. It is refreshing, to say the least, that the President has chosen to recognize our industry in this time of national crisis.
We at Lund’s Fisheries are extremely grateful to this Administration for this recognition and Executive Order. With 5 processing companies employing over 300 people in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California, we are ready to continue to meet the country’s needs during this crisis.
We are especially grateful to hear that the Administration will help us with trade barriers and inequities in our international import/export business. Far too often trade barriers have been put in place by foreign nations against our products with no pushback from the U.S. government. We cannot thank the President enough for his tough negotiations on these matters, and look forward to working with his Administration on these issues following his welcomed announcement yesterday.
We further look forward to working with the Administration to ensure that the commercial wild fishing industry is able to stay healthy and vibrant without being impeded by the installation of wind turbines on historical fishing grounds. We hope that the opening sentence in section 1, which states “America needs a vibrant and competitive seafood industry to create and sustain American jobs, put safe and healthy food on American tables, and contribute to the American economy” will include safeguarding this historic industry by ensuring that our ability to produce seafood into the future will not be lost in a rush to produce subsidized wind energy at any cost.
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