Saving Seafood

Congressmen Van Drew and Rutherford Introduce ACEPA

February 11, 2019 — The following was released by the office of Congressman Jefferson Van Drew:

In response to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issuing five Incidental Harassment Authorizations (IHAs) which would advance permit applications for seismic air gun blasting off the Atlantic Coast, Congressmen Jeff Van Drew and John Rutherford have introduced the bipartisan Atlantic Coastal Economies Protection Act to prohibit or stop seismic air gun testing in the Atlantic Ocean. Seismic air gun testing is the first step towards offshore oil and gas exploration and a direct threat to the coastal fishing and tourism economies dependent on healthy ocean ecosystems.

Congressman Jeff Van Drew has a history of working to protect the coastal economy and environment. In 2018 during his time in the New Jersey state legislature, he introduced and passed Senate Bill No. 258 which prohibited offshore oil or natural gas exploration, development, and production in state waters. “Our local economy is dependent on fishing, tourism and wildlife watching – the bottom line is offshore oil and gas drilling isn’t worth the risk,” said Van Drew.

“The waters off the East Coast are home to vulnerable mammal populations, military operations, tourist destinations, and a vibrant maritime economy. Allowing seismic testing in the Atlantic is unnecessary and potentially hazardous to the coastal communities that rely on a healthy ecosystem. The U.S. should not jeopardize our coastal economy by expanding seismic testing and offshore drilling, particularly when our energy needs continue to be met,” said Congressman John Rutherford.

Van Drew and Rutherford were joined in the effort by Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ), Joe Cunningham (D-SC), Brian Mast (R-FL), and Donna Shalala (D-FL). The bill was also endorsed by a variety of stakeholders ranging from local chambers of commerce and fisheries organizations to conservation and environmental groups.

Endorsements: Oceana, League of Conservation Voters, Surfrider Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Environment America, Earthjustice, Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, Hands Across the Sand, American Littoral Society, Ocean Conservation Research, Recreational Fishing Alliance, American Sportfishing Association, International Game Fish Association, Center for Sportfishing Policy

Read the release here

Coast Guard makes arrest after boarding fishing vessel in Sandy Hook Bay

February 11, 2019 —  A man wanted on an outstanding warrant out of Union County was apprehended by the Coast Guard aboard a commercial fishing vessel on Friday.

The crew from the 87-foot Coast Guard cutter Shrike boarded the vessel at 1:30 p.m. in Sandy Hook Bay to arrest the suspect, who was a member of the commercial fishing vessel’s crew sought in New Jersey for the “use of dangerous drugs,” the Coast Guard said in a prepared statement.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

NEWSDAY: New York right to angle for fairer fluke catch

February 5, 2019 — The state’s pursuit of fair quotas for New York’s commercial fluke fishery has been its own white whale story.

The hunt has been futile, and it’s lasted for years. Thankfully, officials have not lost their passion for reeling in a sensible solution. We applaud Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for filing a lawsuit against the federal government demanding more equitable quotas. The evidence is entirely on New York’s side.

The quotas, set by federal regulators in 1993, were based on flawed and incomplete data that underreported the amount of fluke caught by New York’s commercial fishery in the 1980s. The quotas left New York fishers utterly unable to compete with their peers from other states. New York was allotted 7.6 percent of the entire Atlantic Coast fluke catch. Outrageously, Rhode Island was granted 15.7 percent, New Jersey 16.7 percent, Virginia 21.3 percent, and North Carolina 27.4 percent.

Read the full opinion piece at Newsday

Betting $1 Million on Offshore New Jersey Wind Paid Off Big Time

February 1, 2019 — Over the past year, U.S. Wind got calls “every day” to sell a lease the energy company bought for $1 million in 2015 in its push to build a wind farm off the New Jersey coast.

“Each time we’d say no,” said Salvo Vitale, the company’s chief counsel, but the offers kept rising. Finally, just before the year ended, they hit a level the company couldn’t resist after New Jersey’s new governor, Phil Murphy, helped push through a mandate that 50 percent of the Garden State’s power would come from renewable sources by 2030.

The result: A $215 million sale of the lease to Electricite de France SA and Royal Dutch Shell PLC last month. It’s a deal that may have marked the start of a new era for energy development in the U.S. Northeast as states rev up green-power mandates to fight global warming, and European energy giants seek to leverage their offshore expertise back home in a rich new market.

When New Jersey changed its standards, “the value skyrocketed” for U.S. Wind’s lease, Vitale said by telephone. “The signals on policy made it feel like the stock market. Each time news came out on policy, we’d get a call from a bank.”

New Jersey’s not alone in this effort. Concerns about global warming have gained among Northeast states as U.S. officials, under President Donald Trump, have been dismissive. Meanwhile, the cost of building offshore turbines is shrinking as the equipment gets bigger and more powerful, and the supply chain has worked out early kinks.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Scientists, harvesters, farmers talk shop at Northeast Aquaculture Conference

February 1, 2019 — To open the Northeast Aquaculture Conference and Exposition on January 9, a panel of ten experts from Prince Edward Island to New Jersey fired off a round of challenges into the ballroom of the Boston Park Plaza Hotel: labor shortages, complex regulations, public opposition, and climate change, among them.

But, for all the concerns, the aquaculture industry represented by some 550 attendees seemed buoyantly optimistic, despite the absence of federal employees furloughed by the partial shutdown of the federal government, many of whom were speakers.

“It’s an aquaculture pep rally,” said Matt Gregg of the Barnegat Oyster Collective in Barnegat Light, N.J., describing the three-day conference, which included field trips, research presentations, and a tradeshow.

Farm-raised seafood is the fastest growing food sector worldwide, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Globally, aquaculture supplies more than 50 percent of all seafood people eat.

First-time NACE attendee Kevin Thomson of Duxbury Oyster Company in Duxbury, Mass., emphasized the conference was information-intensive. “They’ve brought a lot of different kinds of people into one room,” he said.

That meant not only shellfish, seaweed, and finfish growers, but also researchers in marine biology, ecosystems ecology, climatology, food science and geothermal engineering, who hosted over 100 sessions on their findings.

“The studies have progressed,” noted Travis Ortega of Watch Hill Oysters in Rhode Island, who has attended three conferences.  “There’s a lot more knowledge now and not as many studies ‘in progress.’  We can apply what we learned when we go back to the farm,” he said.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Marine Mammal Stranding Center still running amid government shutdown

January 25, 2019 — While many federal agencies that regulate wildlife have had to stop working during the government shutdown, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center continues to rescue and treat animals in waterways across the state.

The nonprofit rescue and rehabilitation center has a permit and authorization from the state and federal governments, but operates with its own paid staff and volunteers to respond to strandings of whales, dolphins, seals and sea turtles.

All funding comes through donations, memberships and its own fundraising efforts.

“I feel for the people that are being furloughed and can’t collect a paycheck, but it doesn’t affect what we’re doing,” founder Bob Schoelkopf said.

The center is currently looking after three seals it rescued during the shutdown from Beach Haven, Long Branch and Harvey Cedars.

Typically, the Stranding Center would also have to submit its final health report to the National Marine Fisheries Service when releasing an animal. Even though the service won’t be around to process the material, the center said it will continue to follow procedure.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

Science Center for Marine Fisheries Continues Work with New National Science Foundation Grant

January 23, 2019 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:

Following the completion of its initial 5-year National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCeMFiS) has been awarded a new Phase 2 grant by the NSF to continue its work. SCeMFiS will use the new grant to further its track record of quality, collaborative research with its fishing industry and academic partners.

The grant is part of NSF’s Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) program, which was developed to initiate long-term partnerships among industry, academia, and government. SCeMFiS is the only Phase 2 IUCRC program dedicated exclusively to fisheries and marine science research.

“Our new Phase 2 grant will allow SCeMFiS researchers to continue our collaborative work with the fishing industry,” said Center Director Dr. Eric Powell, of the University of Southern Mississippi, one of the academic members of SCeMFiS. “The Phase 2 grant will enable SCeMFiS to continue to fund the groundbreaking research necessary to maintain healthy fish stocks and healthy fisheries at a time when reliance on the best available science is increasingly critical.”

As it moves into Phase 2, SCeMFiS will focus on reducing scientific uncertainty; the effects of climate change on fish stocks and fishing communities; resolving issues between fishing and offshore energy interests; and developing sound ecosystem-based fisheries management.

“Our priorities for Phase 2 reflect the biggest challenges in the future of the fishing industry,” said Center Site Director Dr. Roger Mann, of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, another SCeMFiS academic institution. “To meet these challenges, the industry and fisheries managers will need the kind of innovative research that SCeMFiS has regularly produced over the last 5 years.”

In its first 5 years, SCeMFiS has done groundbreaking research on finfish and shellfish. Among other projects, the Center produced the first age-frequency distributions for ocean quahog, one of the longest-lived species in the ocean. SCeMFiS scientists conducted the first benthic survey on important ocean habitat east of Nantucket, and mapped the shifting range of surfclams, documenting how climate change is beginning to affect the species.

SCeMFiS has also designed a pelagic survey for Atlantic menhaden and provided recommendations to improve port sampling for the species, carried out the only scientific work to date on Atlantic chub mackerel, and carried out an economic analysis for longfin squid.

All of these projects were reviewed, approved, and funded by the industry members on our Industry Advisory Board, who rely on sound science for the health of their fisheries and businesses.

“Fisheries management is only as good as the science it’s based on,” said Greg DiDomenico, Executive Director of the Garden State Seafood Association and a member of SCeMFiS’ Industry Advisory Board. “That’s why it’s so important for the fishing industry to maintain its partnership with SCeMFiS. We need to promote the best available science.”

Past decisions in seafood management portend future actions, Rutgers study finds

January 23, 2019 — A study led by Rutgers University has shown that the choice to conserve or overharvest renewable resources such as fish is often due to habits and past decisions, which could help fisheries discover why some succeed at conservation and others fail.

The study, “Path-dependent institutions drive alternative stable states in conservation,” was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It showed that conservation is significantly easier to continue once it has already been started.

According to lead author Edward W. Tekwa, those who start conserving can often continue with it, but when conservation is not being practiced, the opposite is true.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

DAILY PRESS: Seismic blasting is too risky along Atlantic Coast

January 15, 2019 — Imagine the misery of living next to a rock quarry in a place where local laws did not inhibit the company’s use of explosives or the times they could blast.

That constant, annoying presence is what some environmental protection groups fear will happen to marine life if the Atlantic Coast is opened for underwater oil and gas exploration.

The Atlantic Ocean is a virtually untapped expanse for energy companies, and the Trump administration wants to open nearly 200,000 square miles from New Jersey to Florida for companies to seek out subsea oil and gas deposits as a way of shoring up the country’s energy independence.

The first step in that process is seismic blasting, a practice that environmental activists and coastal communities — including business groups that rely on seafood and marine tourism — are decrying as potentially harmful to their ways of life.

If allowed, boats would traverse Atlantic Ocean waters for months towing two to three dozen air guns that create underwater explosions of up to 180 decibels every 10 to 15 seconds.

Read the opinion piece at the Daily Press

Only one wind project proposed in waters off LI, filings show

January 14, 2019 — Only one of five developers who intend to vie for a New York State contract for off-shore wind energy is proposing its project off Long Island waters. The rest would be off Massachusetts/Rhode Island or the New Jersey coast, according to recent state filings.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, which is overseeing the bids and will award contracts for upward of 800 megawatts of offshore wind energy this year, said the five notices of intent to participate in the state bid represented the strongest response to any state solicitation to date. One megawatt of offshore wind powers around 360 homes. Formal bids are due Feb. 14.

The project located in the New York wind-energy area is off Long Island’s South Shore in waters previously identified by the federal agency responsible for leasing water rights. Another possible developer has offered a project off the New Jersey coast. A state official said all projects would get careful review, and downplayed the notion of their distance from New York.

Read the full story at Newsday