Saving Seafood

Is offshore wind for the birds?

July 7, 2021 — The northbound spring migration of shorebirds through the New Jersey coast raises an obvious question: What happens if there are 850-foot-tall wind turbines spinning in their flyway between South America and Canada?

The prospect of dozens, perhaps hundreds of wind turbines on the East Coast outer continental shelf raises questions of how those structures may affect the red knot, considered a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Developers Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind LLC engaged one of the world’s top experts to find out.

“The birds jump off from Cape Cod, Brigantine, Stone Harbor,” said Larry Niles, ticking off coastal Massachusetts and New Jersey feeding grounds for the red knots. “We know the birds are going through the wind (power) areas.”

I met Niles years ago when he was chief of New Jersey’s Endangered and Non-Game Species Program and started the Delaware Bay Shorebird Project, now in its 25th year of monitoring the migration. Today he has a consulting firm, Wildlife Restoration Partners, with years of experience assessing the health of red knots with other shorebirds and working on wind power studies.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

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

UPDATE: Atlantic Shores Awarded Largest Single Project in New Jersey

July 2, 2021 — The following was released by Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind:

The Atlantic Shores Offshore wind team is excited to share some breaking news with you! On June 30th, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities issued an order awarding Atlantic Shores a 20-year OREC (Offshore Renewable Energy Certificate) for our 1,510 MW offshore wind project, which is the largest single project award in the state and second largest awarded offshore wind project in the U.S., enough to power over 700,000 homes. In addition to affordable, renewable energy, our project includes millions of dollars in key investments for New Jersey workers, top academic institutions, environmental and community organizations, as well as the creation of a turbine nacelle assembly facility and the launch of an innovative 10 MW green hydrogen pilot. With these commitments, New Jersey is well on its way to being a national leader in green energy and innovation.

Read the full release here

Latest offshore wind award to triple megawatts off South Jersey

July 1, 2021 — The state awarded the right to build another 2,600 megawatts of offshore wind electric generation to two companies Wednesday, a milestone Gov. Phil Murphy celebrated during his regular COVID-19 media briefing.

“We just approved the largest combined offshore wind award in history,” Murphy said of the action by the state Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday morning. “It will triple our total capacity and strengthen our commitment to securing good union jobs and make New Jersey a national leader in the offshore wind industry.”

BPU President Joe Fiordaliso, who attended Murphy’s briefing, said Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind will build a 1,510 megawatt farm off the coast between Long Beach Island and Atlantic City, and Ørsted’s Ocean Wind will build 1,148 megawatts of the new solicitation in its leasing area in federal waters southeast of Atlantic City.

“Combined, once these turbines are in the water, they will supply power to 1.1 million homes in New Jersey,” Fiordaliso said.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

New Jersey awards 2,658 megawatts in biggest U.S. pact

July 1, 2021 — The EDF/Shell Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind venture and a second phase of Ørsted’s Ocean Wind project were awarded a combined 2,658 megawatts of capacity by New Jersey utilities regulators Wednesday, in what state officials call the largest U.S. combined award to date.

The vote by the state Board of Public Utilities raises the state’s total planned capacity to over 3,700 MW, nearly half of a goal of 7,500 MW by 2035 set by Gov. Phil Murphy.

The board allocated 1,510 MW to Atlantic Shores and 1,148 MW to Ocean Wind II for their neighboring federal leases off Long Beach Island and Atlantic City, N.J.

Both developers will build new manufacturing facilities at the New Jersey Wind Port planned at the mouth of the Delaware River in Salem County, and use a foundation manufacturing facility upriver at the Port of Paulsboro, state officials said. Those projects are projected to be commissioned in 2027 through 2029.

“Combined, the two projects are estimated to create 7,000 full- and or part-time jobs across the development, construction and operational phases of the projects. This yields approximately 56,000 full time equivalent job-years, as some jobs will be shorter term and others will last for many years,” according to a BPU statement. “They will also generate $3.5 billion in economic benefits and power 1.15 million homes with clean energy.”

The BPU agreement requires the developers to contribute $10,000 per megawatt of capacity – some $26 million in all – to fund environmental research initiatives and wildlife and fishery monitoring in the region, with the money administered by the BPU and state Department of Environmental Protection.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Offshore wind developers fund shorebird study

June 30, 2021 — Red knot shorebirds make epic annual migrations, some logging up to 18,000 miles from the southern tip of South America to Canada and back, dropping down onto Delaware Bay beaches in May to gorge on horseshoe crab eggs.

That ancient pattern was disrupted by overharvesting of horseshoe crabs for commercial fishing bait in the 1990s. Biologists say neither the crab nor red knot populations have fully recovered yet.

Now, the prospect of dozens, perhaps hundreds of wind turbines spinning over waters on the East Coast outer continental shelf raises questions of how those structures may affect the red knot, considered a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Developers Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind LLC engaged one of the world’s top experts to find out.

“The birds jump off from Cape Cod, Brigantine, Stone Harbor,” said Larry Niles, ticking off coastal Massachusetts and New Jersey feeding grounds for the red knots. “We know the birds are going through the wind (power) areas.”

As the former chief of New Jersey’s Endangered and Non-Game Species Program, Niles started the Delaware Bay Shorebird Project, now in its 25th year of monitoring the migration. He’s now principal of Wildlife Restoration Partners, with years of experience assessing the health of red knots with other shorebirds and working on wind power studies.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

100s More Offshore Wind Turbines Greenlighted for New Jersey Coast

June 30, 2021 — New Jersey cleared the way for hundreds of wind turbines off the state’s coast in coming years through approvals Wednesday of 2,658 megawatts in offshore wind power.

Two wind farm projects were approved, and would provide enough power for 1.1 million homes, officials said.

The approvals add to the 1,100 megawatts already given the green light by New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities, which announced approval of the new projects at a special meeting. New Jersey now has approved the second-most offshore wind power of any state, behind only New York.

The two projects are a 110-turbine wind farm by Atlantic Shores, which is owned by European power companies Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America, and a 82-turbine farm by Ørsted called Ocean Wind 2.

Atlantic Shores’ farm will be located about 10.5 miles off the coast of shore towns north of Atlantic City. Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 2 will be nearly 14 miles off Cape May.

But the massive amount of power still needs to get through federal permitting and navigate potential hurdles such as lawsuits from fishing interests and shore communities. None of the offshore wind farms are expected to begin construction until mid-2023 at the earliest, and the two newest projects are not expected to come online until 2027 at the earliest.

Read the full story at NBC Philadelphia

Proposed Offshore Wind Projects Could Cost NJ Tourism Billions, Says LBI Rental Business Owner

June 30, 2021 — Citing a University of North Carolina study, the founder of Vacation Rentals LBI said the economic impact of proposed offshore wind farms to be located off the coast of Long Beach Island would be in the billions and half of all tourism dollars in New Jersey.

Ship Bottom resident Duane Watlington’s comments came during the online June 23 LBI Coalition for Wind Without Impact forum in which more than 200 individuals tuned in to hear speakers discuss environmental, socio-economic and recreational fishing concerns. His business portfolio also includes Vacation Rentals Ocean City, New Jersey, and Vacation Rentals Wildwood. All three businesses connect vacationers with rental homeowners and real estate agencies.

The UNC study found more than half of rental home vacationers would choose to rent elsewhere if wind turbines are visible from the shoreline, according to Watlington’s presentation.

The closest western, or inshore, boundary of the proposed Atlantic Shores lease site is 10 miles from Barnegat Light and 9 miles from Holgate. The lease area has the potential to generate 3 gigawatts of offshore wind energy.

The Jersey Shore is responsible for nearly half of the overall tourism dollars in the state and generated over $22 billion in 2019 alone, according to Watlington.

Based on information from the UNC study, he said, an offshore wind farm would have an economic impact of roughly $12 billion annually.

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

Rutgers, Offshore Wind Company Investigates Clams Off New Jersey

June 29, 2021 — Atlantic Shores is a partnership between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF Renewables North America. The joint venture plans to develop more than 183,000 acres of land between Atlantic City and Burnegat Light, 10 to 20 miles from the New Jersey coast.

When fully developed, the region could generate over 3,000 megawatts of wind energy, which is sufficient to power about 1.5 million households.

Jennifer Daniels, Development Director at Atlantic Shores, said: “By applying tools like this simulator, we can responsibly develop leased areas and provide renewable energy to the New Jersey community with minimal impact on the fishery.”

New Jersey power regulators may decide to approve the company’s proposal later this month.

Read the full story at Pennsylvania News Today

NEW JERSEY: Senate Approves Bill Exempting Commercial Fishermen from State Unemployment Tax

June 28, 2021 — Legislation approved June 24 by the Senate and sponsored by Sen. Michael Testa (R-1st) would exempt commercial fishermen from a portion of the state unemployment tax. 

“Currently, New Jersey’s commercial fishermen are on the hook for unemployment taxes, but they are not paid hourly wages, and they have never been able to collect unemployment benefits,” stated Testa. “This bill will have significant impact on the state’s vital fishing industry that has been extremely hard-hit by the pandemic.” 

According to a release, Testa’s bill (S-3501) would exempt commercial fishermen who are paid on the percentage of fish caught or a percentage of the selling price of those fish from the state unemployment law and its costly tax on earnings. 

“It will allow dedicated, skilled fishermen to keep more of their hard-earned income, a change that suits the independent nature of the proud individuals who make their living at sea,” Testa stated. 

Read the full story at the Cape May County Herald