Saving Seafood

Alabama shipyard is a go-to for East Coast scallopers

May 6, 2020 — Jemison Marine & Shipbuilding of Bayou La Batre, Ala., recently delivered the scallop boat Patriarch, the fourth new fishing vessel built by Jemison for Tom McNulty Sr. of T&S Fisheries out of Cape May, N.J.

The double-dredge permit F/V Patriarch is the latest of the four boats at 80′ x 27′ x 13′ and holds 50,000 pounds of payload in its insulated ice hold. In comparison, McNulty’s boat Pride and Joy, also built by Jemison, holds 25,000 pounds.

“You can fit twice as much in the Patriarch as in the Pride & Joy,” said McNulty. “We have just started working the new boat, and it is outstanding.”

McNulty said he has had two different crews work the Patriarch on seven closed trips and 15 open bottom day trips. “The crews cannot say enough about how comfortable the boat is.”

Patriarch was designed by naval architect Travis Carver of Sterling Marine in Gulf Breeze, Fla., with the aid of McNulty’s son Tom McNulty Jr.

“Tom Jr. played a big part in the design of the boat,” says his dad. “He provided a great deal of input into the design of the deck and fish hold.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Commercial fishing industry on the ropes as pandemic-era shoppers avoid seafood

May 6, 2020 — Fisherman Marty Scanlon has not returned to his Long Island home since leaving for North Carolina at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in New York.

Scanlon, a longliner captain from Hauppauge left for North Carolina in early March — roughly the same time the first case of Covid-19 emerged in Manhattan. In the weeks that followed, Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered most businesses to close, effective March 22, casting a pall over New York City restaurants in a once-bustling culinary capital.

Business for Scanlon has been brutal ever since.

“We basically don’t have the money to go home,” Scanlon said, over the phone. “We can’t go home til we pay our bills.”

Scanlon’s plight is reverberating across the Northeast. While meat, poultry and produce remain in demand, seafood, a once-reliable market, has been swapped for the whims of the home chef who has grown unused to, and perhaps slightly intimidated by the prospect of storing and preparing fish.

And it’s putting an $11 billion industry in New York and New Jersey on the ropes, with as much as a 30 percent drop in revenue since the coronavirus took hold in the region.

Scanlon and his crew aim to scrape 1,000 pounds of mixed swordfish and tuna each night, but it has become increasingly difficult to bear each trip’s financial costs in the face of dwindling profits, he said.

Read the full story at Politico

Northeast lawmakers demand immediate guidance, speedy release of coronavirus aid

May 1, 2020 — Congressional delegations from Massachusetts and New Jersey took up fishing industry calls for immediate guidance and “transparent distribution” from the Department of Commerce to allocate $300 million in coronavirus fisheries assistance approved by Congress.

“The Trump administration must swiftly make this financial assistance available to fishing communities and allocate it in a way that equitably accounts for the severe economic losses the hardest hit states have endured,” New Jersey’s delegation wrote in an April 23 letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

“It has been nearly a month since the CARES Act was signed into law by President Trump…and yet the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has not released guidance for the distribution of the emergency aid nor has it publicly stated when that guidance will be released.”

“Since Congress passed the CARES Act on March 25, 2020, the Commerce Department has made only one public statement on the assistance to fisheries participants,” the Massachusetts lawmakers told Ross in an April 29 message.

NOAA’s sole public communication on the CARES Act fisheries aid was six sentences that appeared April 2 on its website, along with the link to an email address for fishermen and other stakeholders to submit information about the economic impacts of coronaries on their businesses.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NJ’s State & Federal Appeal for Fish Funds

May 1, 2020 — The $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress and signed by the president on March 25 set aside $300 million in COVID-19 relief funding to help the nation’s fishing community. Members of the recreational and commercial fishing industry can qualify for funding if they’ve lost 35% of their revenue compared to a previous 5-year average.

Yet more than month since the cash was made available, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and all 14 New Jersey members of Congress, are still waiting to see how and when these funds are to be dispersed in the areas hardest hit by the global pandemic.

On April 23, the New Jersey congressional delegation sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) concerning the $300 million in fisheries assistance made available through the CARES Act. The letter addressed to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and OMB Acting Director Russell T. Vought seeks a transparent distribution methodology that accounts for the economic devastation wrought by the COVID19 pandemic in the hardest hit states like New Jersey, and the execution of the disbursed funds as soon as possible.

Read the full story at The Fisherman

As Economy Has Faltered, New Jersey’s Fishing Industry Gets Walloped

April 27, 2020 — From Delaware Bay oysters to Atlantic scallops, the state’s fisheries are struggling to survive as retail sales dry up.

In the town of Port Norris, on South Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore, the first weeks of spring have for well over a century marked the beginning of the annual oyster harvest, a time when the waters of the Maurice River burst to life with a commercial fleet eager for prosperous days ahead. But as the first few weeks of the season come to a close, Port Norris remains still, a sign of just how deep the COVID-19 pandemic has drilled into the state’s economy.

“It’s brought things to a halt,” said Steve Fleetwood, president of Bivalve Packing, South Jersey’s largest wild-caught oyster processor. Already, Fleetwood has had to lay off some of his roughly 20 employees, who, in a rural community as small as Port Norris, are friends and neighbors. “I hate to see people without jobs,” he continued. “Hopefully we can suck it up and wait it out.”

Read the full story at the New Jersey Spotlight

Reps. Pallone, Kim Lead Delegation Demand for Fair and Quick Distribution of Assistance to Fishing Communities

April 27, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Andy Kim (D-NJ):

Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) and Congressman Andy Kim (NJ-03) demanded that the Trump Administration fairly and quickly distribute financial aid to the fishing industries in states like New Jersey that have incurred greater economic losses as a result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The letter to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought requested the agencies distribute the financial assistance based on state-specific economic impacts of the pandemic. It was also signed by Senator Bob Menendez, Senator Cory Booker, Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), Congressman Bill Pascrell (NJ-09), Congressman Albio Sires (NJ-08), Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. (NJ-10), Congressman Donald Norcross (NJ-01),  Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Congressman Tom Malinowski (NJ-07), Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11), and Congressman Jeff Van Drew (NJ-02). Last month, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which allocated $300 million in fisheries assistance.

“The commercial and recreational fishing industry in our home state of New Jersey has felt the devastating economic impacts of the pandemic. The Trump Administration must swiftly make this financial assistance available to fishing communities and allocate it in a way that equitably accounts for the severe economic losses the hardest hit states have endured,” the letter states. “While many states with lower numbers of COVID-19 cases kept their commercial and recreational fisheries open or have already completed their most important fishing seasons of the year, the pandemic has left our fishing industry in dire financial straits.”

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.

The letter is available here.

Offshore wind turbines headed to Virginia; New Jersey launches ‘WIND Institute’

April 24, 2020 — Components for the first two offshore wind energy turbines to be installed in U.S. federal waters departed from Denmark, bound for Nova Scotia and ultimately installation off Virginia, project backers said April 21.

The pair of 6-megawatt Siemens Gamesa will be assembled by Dominion Energy and wind developer Ørsted for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW), a pilot project 27 miles offshore for what is planned to become a much larger array on a federal lease east of Virginia Beach.

The foundations, consisting of the turbines’ monopiles, transition pieces and anode cages fabricated by metals manufacturer EEW SPC, were loaded at Rostock, Germany onto the Bigroll Beaufort, a 568-foot Netherlands-flagged flat deck cargo ship. Turbine components were loaded at Esbjerg, Denmark, before the vessel embarked in mid-April. Arrival is expected around April 25 in Halifax, according to commercial vessel tracking services.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NEW JERSEY: Wind Council Releases Report on Plan for NJ WIND Institute

April 23, 2020 — Gov. Phil Murphy’s Wind Council today released a report detailing plans for creating the Wind Innovation and New Development (WIND) Institute. The WIND Institute will serve as a center for education, research, innovation, and workforce training related to the development of offshore wind in New Jersey and the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region.

In August 2019, Governor Murphy signed Executive Order No. 79, establishing a Council for the Wind Innovation and New Development Institute, charged with developing and implementing a plan to create a regional hub for New Jersey’s burgeoning offshore wind industry and build upon the Murphy Administration’s commitment to making New Jersey a national leader in offshore wind. The Council includes representatives from the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, the Board of Public Utilities, the Department of Education, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

“Offshore wind is coming to the United States and bringing billions of investment dollars and thousands of jobs along with it,” said Governor Murphy. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not only grow New Jersey’s economy, but also move rapidly toward a clean energy future that puts us on a path to 100 percent clean energy by 2050. The report released today outlines our plans for establishing a WIND Institute that will facilitate workforce development, research, and innovation in New Jersey’s offshore wind industry, ensuring that we take full advantage of this opportunity to grow our economy and create new opportunities for New Jersey workers while protecting our environment.”

To inform its recommendations, the Wind Council assessed the state of the offshore wind industry in New Jersey, conducted a gap analysis of workforce assets in the state, and facilitated discussions with a range of stakeholder groups, including offshore wind industry members, organized labor, four-year colleges and universities, community colleges, vocational technical schools and comprehensive high schools, and fisheries.

Read the full story at New Jersey Business

One month into coronavirus shutdowns, New Jersey fishermen search for new customers

April 9, 2020 — Weeks after the New York region’s fresh seafood market suddenly froze with government-mandated restaurant closings to control coronavirus, fishermen, docks and dealers are slowly finding new ways to get fresh fish to consumers.

“It’s a sustainable, natural, healthy resource,” said Richard Brecka, who owns the Shore Fresh Seafood Market at the Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. “We’ve got 13,000 pounds for tomorrow.”

Brecka’s crew was busily cutting black sea bass Wednesday afternoon, preparing for another open-air seafood sale near the dock, which was hit hard by the late March collapse of New York market prices. The first event April 4 attracted enough of a crowd – maintaining the required 6-foot social distancing among customers – to sell out 300 pounds of scallops in an hour.

“It’s coming back up” as retail customers seek out sources for local seafood, said Brecka. But the retail shop can handle only a portion of what the Point Pleasant fishermen can land during good weather, he added.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NEW JERSEY: Pop-up seafood market at Jersey Shore helps fishermen hurt by COVID-19 restaurant closures

April 7, 2020 — A pop-up wholesale seafood market is helping to keep the fishing industry afloat in an Ocean County municipality.

Point Pleasant Beach’s Shore Fresh Seafood Market is collaborating with the Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative to sell the catch — brought ashore on the docks directly behind the business — on its outdoor patio on Channel Drive.

According to a posting on Shore Fresh Seafood Market’s Facebook page, the new offering is out of necessity.

Read the full story at WHYY