Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: $11.3 Million in Pandemic Aid to State Fisheries Discussed

August 26, 2020 — Disbursement of over $11.3 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act was discussed at the Aug. 17 meeting of the Atlantic Coast section of the N.J. Shellfisheries Council. Led by John Maxwell of Atlantic County, 26 members met virtually to discuss various topics with state Bureau of Shellfisheries representatives.

At the top of the list is the distribution of $11,337,797 New Jersey will receive from the CARES Act to assist commercial fisheries that have been negatively affected by the pandemic.

Joseph Cimino from the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Marine Fisheries Administration said they have sent a required spending plan to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for review. The plan would allocate 50 percent of the funds received to commercial fisheries and aquaculture, 35 percent to processors and dealers and 10 percent to for-hire recreational and charter fleets.

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

Who we are: Jeremy and Jason Muermann

August 19, 2020 — The seafood industry’s coronavirus crisis hit early in New Jersey, and Jeremy Muermann was making new calculations even before the crabs started moving around in Barnegat Bay.

“My motto for this whole thing has been just keep it small,” said Muermann, 42, who with his brother Jason, 38, works the bay with a 35-foot Chesapeake-built Evans. They stopped the winter dredge season two weeks early and talked with buyers to carefully gauge how the uncertain spring might pan out.

With supply chains from other Mid-Atlantic states stalled out, local demand was still surprisingly good. But supply disruptions worked the other way too, and menhaden for bait could be suddenly hard to locate.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

SCEMFIS Study Shows Importance of Summer Flounder Fishery to Mid-Atlantic Communities

August 13, 2020 — A new report from the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) displays the importance of summer flounder to Mid-Atlantic coastal communities.

SCEMFIS found that $26.5 million worth of fish landed at the docks, generating over $151 million in total sales for wholesalers, retailers and restaurants. Overall, the fishery which operates in New Jersey, Virginia and Rhode Island is responsible for over $259 million in total economic output and over 1,600 direct jobs.

Read the full story at Seafood News

NJ and MA Members of Congress Request More COVID-19 Relief Assistance For Nation’s Fishing Industry

August 7, 2020 — Members of Congress from New Jersey and Massachusetts have sent letters to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi requesting assistance for the nation’s fishing industry in the upcoming COVID-19 relief package.

“New Jersey was among the hardest and earliest hit states by the pandemic and continues to have one of the highest counts of COVID-19 cases in the nation,” reads a letter from NJ’s representatives, including Frank Pallone, Jr. and Andy Kim. “The pandemic arrived in New Jersey at the start of the critically important Striped Bass and Black Fish season, leading to devastating results for our fishing industry. With bipartisan support, Congress has already acted once to deliver $300 million in aid targeting fishing communities throughout the country. Congress must act once again to save this vital industry and protect those in our state and across the country who rely on it.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

Pallone, Kim Lead NJ Delegation in Call for Fishing Industry Aid in Next Coronavirus Package

August 6, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ):

“The men and women of New Jersey’s fishing communities dedicate their lives to putting food on our tables and now it’s time for us to ensure there’s food on theirs.”

Washington, DC – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) and Congressman Andy Kim (NJ-3) led their New Jersey colleagues in a bipartisan letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy today calling for funding to help the fishing industry in the next coronavirus relief package. A decline in tourism and a reduction in restaurant operations have been deeply harmful to New Jersey’s fishing industry. The pandemic also arrived in New Jersey at the start of the critically important Striped Bass and Black Fish season.

“The commercial and recreational fishing industry in our home state of New Jersey has felt the devastating economic impacts of the pandemic. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn, restaurants that serve seafood have either closed or reduced operations. This reduction along with a decline in tourism have caused significant disruptions throughout the seafood supply chain and created substantial economic hardship for both commercial and charter fishing operations in our state,” the letter stated.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that Congress passed and was signed into law in March allocated $300 million in fisheries assistance. In April, Pallone sent a letter with the New Jersey delegation calling on the Trump Administration to fairly and quickly distribute financial aid to the fishing industries in states like New Jersey that incurred greater economic losses as a result of the pandemic. Pallone later announced New Jersey would receive $11 million in federal funding to help the state’s fishing industry.

New Jersey’s commercial fishing industry generates over $8 billion annually supporting over 50,000 jobs and has one of the largest saltwater recreational fishing industries in the United States.

A copy of the letter is available here.

Ocean Acidification Threatens Bivalve Industry

July 9, 2020 — Worldwide, ocean levels are rising at an accelerated pace. Cape May County is feeling the effects of exacerbated weather events, as a result.

Yet, there is another drastic change affecting the oceans – a decrease in the water’s pH levels. This is a change that industry leaders and scientists fear will drastically affect the county, namely its bivalve (aquatic invertebrates with a hinged shell) industry that is, as marine and coastal sustainability expert Dr. Daphne Munroe said, “At the heart of the economy in this region.”

As carbon is released into the atmosphere, it was once speculated that the ocean’s tendency to absorb emissions would be a net positive, as it spared the Earth’s atmosphere from the worst of the emissions. Dr. Feely, senior scientist at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said, “[It’s] a huge service the oceans are doing that significantly reduces global temperature.”

However, scientists are coming to realize that the ocean’s absorption of carbon emissions comes at a great cost, and that the long-term effects of an ocean that has absorbed great amounts of carbon emissions mean that ecosystems will ultimately suffer.

Read the full story at the Cape May County Herald

New Jersey aims to lead nation in offshore wind. So it’s building the biggest turbine port in the country.

June 17, 2020 — New Jersey wants to be known for more than just its shores and casinos.

It aims to be the hub of the nation’s nascent offshore wind energy industry.

On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) is set to announce the construction of what he calls the country’s first port dedicated to constructing the colossal turbines that may one day dot the East Coast horizon as Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states rush to build more renewable energy.

For New Jersey, it is about more than just tackling climate change. Just as Texas is the de facto capital of the U.S. oil and gas industry, New Jersey wants to be an economic engine for offshore wind.

“We have a huge opportunity,” said Tim Sullivan, chief executive of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. “Somebody’s going to get to be the Houston of American offshore wind.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

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.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

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.”

Read the full story at New Jersey Monthly