Saving Seafood

US fishing interests concerned over seismic air gun blasting in Atlantic Ocean

December 10, 2018 — A decision by NOAA Fisheries to issue five permits for seismic air gun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean has drawn sharp criticism from business and environmental leaders who fear the blasts could be harmful for fish and other marine wildlife.

The blasting will be used to conduct surveys that will provide data to oil and gas industry businesses, who may then seek to conduct offshore drilling in federal waters between Cape May, New Jersey and Cape Canaveral, Florida. President Trump opened the door for such exploration in an executive order last year.

“The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has responsibility for permitting geophysical surveys, and makes decisions about energy development in the waters of the outer continental shelf,” NOAA Fisheries said in a press release.

Observers will be aboard survey vessels and will notify operators if a protected species comes near the air guns. Shutdowns will be mandatory when certain species are seen.

However, opponents to the plan fear the blasts, which they claim can impact marine life thousands of miles away, will still be detrimental to marine life and those whose livelihoods depends on fishing. The Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast said it represents 42,000 business and 500,000 fishing families along the Atlantic coast.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Movement grows to establish seafood ‘gleaning’ program in N.J.

December 3, 2018 — The Cape May County Board of Freeholders is the latest legislative body to support a program that would allow the New Jersey fishing industry to donate discarded seafood to food banks, pantries, and soup kitchens.

Known as gleaning, the growing movement seeks to increase food security and reduce food waste by utilizing the approximately 20 percent of seafood that is discarded by United States fisheries annually for consumption.

“We in Cape May County are proud to support this initiative,” said Cape May County Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton. “The fishing industry is so important to our economy, and at the end of the day this can help people who are in real need.”

Read the full story at WHYY

Opponents Say Seismic Tests Could Lead To Atlantic Oil Drilling, Harming Right Whales

December 3, 2018 — The Trump administration has approved a first step toward offshore oil and gas drilling on the Atlantic coast.

The National Marine Fisheries Service issued permits Friday for five private companies to conduct offshore seismic tests from New Jersey to Florida.

The tests fire acoustic pulses into the sea floor in search of oil and gas deposits.

Such tests haven’t occurred in the Atlantic as part of hydrocarbon exploration since around the 1980s, according to federal officials, though academic seismic tests have happened more recently.

These permits, which were denied under the Obama administration in 2017, will allow the companies to disturb protected marine mammals during their surveys.

Read the full story at New England Public Radio

Wind “Stakeholder” Group Meets In NJ

November 30, 2018 — While it appears that actual invitations weren’t sent to many stakeholders in the fishing community – certainly not by way of public email blast or general notification – the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) is expected to meet with local “stakeholders” starting December 4 regarding wind farm development off the Jersey Shore.

Despite a noticeable lack of outreach and often restrictive holiday season planning, BPU will hold three Public Stakeholder Meetings in early December focused on Governor Murphy’s offshore wind goals and the BPU’s solicitation for 1,100 MW of offshore wind capacity.

A tip by Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) executive director Greg DiDomenico (who said he “stumbled across the announcement by accident”) reveals how BPU staff, members of the NJ Offshore Wind Interagency Taskforce, offshore wind developers, and environmental non-government organizations (NGO’s) are expected to meet three times in December to review the State’s process for developing offshore wind.

Read the full story at The Fisherman

House passes US Coast Guard bill with Jones Act exemption for America’s Finest

November 29, 2018 — The US House of Representatives has passed a US Coast Guard reauthorization bill that includes provisions allowing Alaska’s Amendment 80 fleet to finally gain the use of one of its newest vessels while also protecting shrimpers in the Gulf of Mexico from being fined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for cleaning off their decks.

The Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018, S. 140, was passed by a unanimous voice vote late Tuesday, moving the two-year, $10 billion bill named after a retiring New Jersey congressman to president Donald Trump’s desk for a signature. The action happened with just a few weeks to spare in the 115th Congress.

The legislation passed the US Senate back on Nov. 14 by a 94-6 tally, as reported by Undercurrent News.

Included in S. 140 is a long-anticipated Jones Act waiver for America’s Finest, a 264-foot catcher-processor built by Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes, Washington, for Kirkland, Washington-based Fishermen’s Finest at a cost of about $75 million. More than 7% of the ship’s hull contains steel from the Netherlands, which violates the Jones Act requirement that US fishing vessels be made of no more than 1.5% foreign steel.

The provision, which allows Fishermen’s Finest to use the vessel to replace American No. 1, a 39-year-old, 160-foot vessel, was fought for by senator Maria Cantwell and representative Rick Larsen, both Washington state Democrats, with cooperation from senator Dan Sullivan and representative Don Young, both Alaska Republicans

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Bill banning shark fin sales advances in New Jersey legislature

November 27, 2018 — A bill banning the sale of shark fins in New Jersey waters has advanced in the state legislature.

On Monday, the Senate Energy and Environment Committee unanimously passed bill S2905, which prohibits the possession and sale of shark fins. Sponsored by Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D., Burlington), the bill is meant to prevent New Jersey from contributing to the international shark fin trade.

Shark finning, seen in some Asian countries, is a practice in which fishermen pull sharks out of the water, slice their fins off and discard them back into the sea alive but unable to swim. The fins are used to make shark-fin soup, a Chinese delicacy.

“The goal is not to interfere with legal shark fishing but to not participate in the importation of shark fins that disregard where or how the fins were obtained,” said Alea Couch, policy coordinator for the assemblyman.

Environmental groups say it has contributed to a decline in the shark population over last few decades. According to estimates published in the Marine Policy Journal, 100 million sharks are killed each year.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

Blockages gone, fish back in post-Sandy projects in Mass., 5 other states

November 26, 2018 — Billions of dollars have been spent on the recovery from Superstorm Sandy to help people get their lives back together, but a little-noticed portion of that effort is quietly helping another population along the shoreline: fish that need to migrate from coastal rivers out to the sea and back.

After the 2012 storm, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spent nearly $11 million on a series of projects to remove dams and other blockages from coastal waters in six states, partnering with local environmental groups. Fish species that were scarce or entirely absent from those waterways for years soon began showing up again.

The so-called “aquatic connectivity” projects in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia were part of a $105 million effort not only to fix what was damaged by Sandy, but also to improve environmental conditions in places where recreational benefits could help tourism and the economy, as well. While the storm did its worst damage in New York and New Jersey, its effects were felt in many states along the East Coast.

“The idea was not only to do good things for fish and wildlife, but to provide community benefits and make communities more resilient,” said Rick Bennett, a scientist with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Massachusetts. “By removing dams, you also reduce flooding, especially upstream.”

Aquatic species benefiting from the work include the Eastern Brook trout, sea run brown trout, sea lamprey, American eel and river herring.

One of the first and most successful projects happened in Spring Lake, New Jersey’s Wreck Pond. For years, the conflicting goals of protecting the environment and some of the New Jersey shore’s priciest real estate from storms have bedeviled the pond.

Storms sometimes open a channel between the 48-acre tidal pond and the ocean, but governments keep sealing it shut to protect homes from flooding. The result was poor water quality and much narrower access to the ocean, which hurts fish that travel from ocean to pond to breed.

The American Littoral Society oversaw construction of a concrete culvert between the pond and the ocean to make it easier for fish, including herring, to reach the sea. In addition to letting fish in and out more easily, the culvert can be opened or closed as needed during storms to control flooding.

It succeeded at both goals, said Tim Dillingham, the group’s executive director.

“The restoration of connectivity to allow fish to return and spawn has been a great success,” he said. “We’re seeing fish come back in numbers we hadn’t seen before. And it has also added to the resiliency of the area during storms, by adding capacity to deal with flooding.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

Daniel Cohen, founder of Atlantic Capes, wind farm, sustainability champion, dead at 63

November 23, 2018 — Daniel “Danny” Cohen, the founder of Atlantic Capes Fisheries, one of North America’s largest scallop, clam, oyster and finfish harvesters and processors, and a major champion of wind farming and sustainable fishing practices, has passed away at the age of 63.

Cohen, who died in Cape May, New Jersey, heroically battled cancer for an extended period of time, an obituary published by Saving Seafood confirms.

The Fall River, Massachusetts-based company Cohen started in 1976 after graduating from Cornell University, in New York, with a degree in architecture, has grown into a fully integrated seafood company operating out of three states — Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey —  with more than 400 employees, 25 harvesting vessels, two unloading facilities, three processing plants and a fleet of delivery trucks, based on details contained on the company website.

Scallop industry executives, including those at competing companies, expressed their sadness on Wednesday.

“His passing marks the end of an era. He was a pioneer of the scallop industry, one of the men at the roundtable,” said Rob Rizzo, a commodities manager and longtime scallop industry professional at Eastern Fisheries, in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

“He was always professional, always a gentleman. He was a selfless champion of sustainable fishing and the scallop industry, standing up for everyone in the industry. And he treated everybody from the captains and crew of his vessels to the truck drivers and the workers in the processing plants as if they were equally important to his organization,” he said.

“It’s a very sad day. He will be greatly missed.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Atlantic Capes Fisheries Founder Danny Cohen Passes Away After Battle With Cancer

November 23, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Danny Cohen, the founder and CEO of Atlantic Capes Fisheries, passed away on Tuesday after battling cancer. He was 63-years-old.

Cohen started Atlantic Capes Fisheries after taking over a small fishing dock and several fishing boats that his father, Joseph Cohen, left to him. Over the years he served as Chairman of the National Fisheries Institute Scientific Monitoring Committee, and was a member of the NFI Clam Committee. He also worked with Rutgers University and founded Cape May Salt Oyster Company, “re-vitalizing the Delaware Bay oyster industry by growing disease resistant shellfish.”

National Fisheries Institute president John Connelly released the following statement on Cohen’s passing:

Danny Cohen, founder of Atlantic Capes Fisheries, Inc. was uniquely committed to both the sustainability of the resource and the sustainability of his employees.

Danny was influential in organizing efforts to promote the sustainable harvest of clams, scallops, and other seafood. He took a long-term view of the fisheries and encouraged a balance between industry and environment that would prove an instrumental equilibrium for crew, vessels, and the fish.

Even as Atlantic Capes grew to a multi-species company with dozens of boats, a fleet of trucks and hundreds of employees, his strategy and steady leadership remained the same.

Danny is remembered for serving as Chairman of the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) Scientific Monitoring Committee and on the NFI Clam Committee.

His foresight, innovation, commitment, and his unforgettable laugh, will be missed.

Cohen is survived by his daughter Dorit, his sister Maxi, brother Barry and sister-in-law Ronnie, and his companion Sharon. A funeral will be held Sunday, November 25 at 10:30 a.m. at Shirat HaYam in Ventnor, NJ. Shiva will follow at Barry and Ronnie Cohen’s home in Linwood, NJ.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Saving Seafood Mourns the Passing of Danny Cohen, Founder and CEO of Atlantic Capes

November 21, 2018 — With sadness, Saving Seafood reports the passing of Daniel M. Cohen, founder and CEO of Atlantic Capes Fisheries, Inc. Danny was a longtime supporter of Saving Seafood, our National Coalition for Fishing Communities, and our member organizations, including the Fisheries Survival Fund and the Garden State Seafood Association.

Danny was featured in a 1997 New York Times profile, “Not on Board, but at the Helm,” and in 2014 testified before the U.S. Senate on the effects of climate change on wildlife and agriculture (he appears in this C-SPAN video beginning at approximately 1:19:30).

His obituary follows:

Daniel Myer Cohen, a pillar of the East Coast commercial fishing industry, and an eloquent spokesperson for commercial fisherman throughout America, died on November 20, 2018 in Cape May, NJ, at the age of 63, after a protracted and heroic struggle with cancer.

“Danny,” as he was known, took over the small fishing-dock and several fishing boats left to him by his father, Joseph Cohen, in 1976 and built it into Atlantic Capes Fisheries, Inc., an industry leading vertically integrated seafood enterprise.  ACF’s fleet of scallop, clam and other fishing vessels working out of company owned and managed facilities in Ocean City Maryland, Cape May and Point Pleasant New Jersey and additional ports in New England, supply seafood to company owned processing plants in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Early in his professional life and in his emerging role as a public advocate, Danny recognized that ensuring a sustainable wild harvest industry depended upon responsible environmental and resource stewardship.  Among other activities in the field of fisheries science, policy and management, Danny appeared before Congress and served as Chairman of the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) Scientific Monitoring Committee and on the NFI Clam Committee, both of which work to sustainably manage the major shellfisheries of the mid-Atlantic region.

Illustrating the advancing impact of applied research to the seafood aquaculture, in the 1990s Danny began working with Rutgers University and founded Cape May Salt Oyster Company, re-vitalizing the Delaware Bay oyster industry by growing disease resistant shellfish whose triploid oysters, championed early on by the slow food movement, can be found on the menus of some the nation’s finest restaurants.   Tetraploid technology which is also being applied to scallop aquaculture is revolutionizing shellfish production across the globe.

Well over a decade ago Danny also recognized the impact offshore wind development would pose to the commercial fisheries. In an effort to protect the fishing industry while harnessing its maritime expertise, Danny galvanized the industry by founding Fishermen’s Energy of New Jersey, LLC which was poised to build the first offshore wind farm in the United States.  Unfortunately, New Jersey’s political climate stymied a decade of progress.  Nonetheless, in 2009, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities named Danny New Jersey’s “Clean Energy Advocate of the Year.”

Whether in aquaculture, wild harvest, processing and marketing, offshore wind development or a host of other projects spanning the globe, Danny Cohen has been a leading light for over 4 decades.

Daniel “Danny” Myer Cohen was born on March 3, 1955 in Vineland, New Jersey. He was the third and youngest child of Joseph Cohen, a trucking and commercial boat operator born in the Alliance Colony and his beloved mother, Doris Cohen nee Maier, a refugee from Nazi Germany.  Danny expressed his love of Judaism through an interest in Musar, a Jewish ethical, educational, and cultural movement whose name encapsulates Danny’s philosophy of life: Musar can be translated “as upright conduct.”

Danny is survived by his daughter Dorit with ex-wife Mindy Silver, his sister Maxi, brother Barry and sister-in-law Ronnie; his nephew, niece and cousins; companion Sharon and by the many friends he has made in the seafood industry; the captains and crew that are the company’s lifeblood  and by the nearly  500 member ACF family that Danny helped to build and nurture. The family also extends its gratitude to the home health aides from Synergy HomeCare as well as the hospice nurses and staff from Holy Redeemer Hospice.

A funeral will be held Sunday November 25th at 10:30 am at Shirat HaYam located 700 N. Swarthmore Avenue in Ventnor NJ. Shiva will be held at the home of Barry and Ronnie Cohen in Linwood NJ. In lieu of flowers, charitable contributions in Danny’s memory can be made to the Sarcoma Foundation of America to help fund research into Sarcoma cancers. Arrangements are made by Roth-Goldsteins’ Memorial Chapel.