Saving Seafood

Judge tosses suit claiming menhaden fish processor off NJ coast defrauded US

January 8, 2025 — A U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan dismissed a case against Cooke Seafood Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates that alleged it defrauded the U.S. in the operation of its East Coast menhaden processing facility in Virginia.

Menhaden, known colloquially as pogies and bunker, are a critically important filter-feeding baitfish in the ocean and estuaries along the East Coast, including here in New Jersey, where they are fed on by whales, birds and economically valuable finfish. While the menhaden are not overfished, the stock has contracted, leading to dust-ups between environmental groups and harvesters over the quota.

In a prepared statement, Cooke Inc. said it’s “pleased that the court has dismissed this baseless lawsuit, which we have always maintained was without merit. For over a decade, the individuals behind this lawsuit have repeatedly targeted menhaden harvesters and processors to undermine a sustainable and essential sector of the fishing industry.”

Read the full article at app.

NEW JERSEY: Watchdog group calls for greater transparency in turbines used for New Jersey wind farm

November 27, 2024 — A New Jersey shore community is calling on state regulators and an offshore wind company to conduct a transparent and detailed safety analysis on the turbines selected for the Atlantic Shores South Project.

Save Long Beach Island, a group dedicated to preserving the New Jersey shoreline, sent two invitations to the developers of the Atlantic Shores South Project to participate in a panel discussion on the proposed 200 wind turbines plotted for 8.7 miles offshore. Both requests were ignored.

Read the full article at Washington Examiner

NEW JERSEY: Sweden Blocks Offshore Wind Over Radar Interference; Is NJ Next?

November 21, 2024 — While President-elect Donald Trump has promised to do away with offshore wind, it’s unknown whether his incoming administration will follow Sweden’s lead of rejecting certain projects due to concerns over radar interference and its impact on national security.

“That was really interesting, because Sweden has been a strong proponent of these turbines,” Bob Stern, president and co-founder of Save LBI, said of reports that Sweden had blocked more than a dozen offshore wind projects in the Baltic Sea. “They apparently realized the number of turbines were going to interfere with their military radars onshore. They’re a little concerned now about Russia, and they did not want to tolerate an impairment of their defense capability.”

His comments came during the Nov. 12 Beach Haven Borough Council meeting, where he discussed litigation related to Atlantic Shores as well as a number of initiatives related to offshore wind that might be undertaken by the second Trump administration.

“That’s one of the issues connected to this (Atlantic Shores) project because we have military radars in Gibbsboro, N.J.,” Stern said, explaining radar is used to protect against unwanted things in the ocean and would be impacted by offshore wind turbines. “There have been rumblings from our Department of Defense about this project and other projects. We’ve not been able to really get a lot of information about that, maybe because some of it is classified. But I’m pretty sure our defense department has had some issues with this (radar interference), as well.”

Read the full article at The Sand Paper

NEW JERSEY: Save LBI Stays Course Despite Trump’s Promise to Kill Offshore Wind

November 14, 2024 — While President-elect Donald Trump is expected to make sweeping changes to national energy policy, including doing away with offshore wind on Day 1 of his new term, a local grassroots organization isn’t letting that news get in its way of fighting the construction of what is poised to be the country’s largest wind farm some 9 miles off the coast of Long Beach Island.

“We will be filing major lawsuits by the end of the month to invalidate at least some of those prior federal approvals,” Bob Stern, president and cofounder of Save LBI, said just days after voters returned Trump to office for a second term. “In addition, we will be seeking to have the lease area itself canceled so that new projects will not be resurrected in the future.”

Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind calls for 200 turbines in a lease zone that covers about 102,124 acres and is approximately 8.7 miles off LBI at its closest point. Projects 1 and 2 include roughly 10 offshore wind substations with subsea transmission cables that could make landfall in Atlantic City to the south and Sea Girt in the north.

“You’ll see these things all over the place. They destroy everything. They’re horrible and the most expensive energy there is. They ruin the environment,” Trump told supporters at his May rally in Wildwood, about an hour south of the Island. “They kill the birds. They kill the whales.”

Read the full article at The Sand Paper

US East Coast states select firms to run offshore wind development compensation fund for fishers

November 12, 2024 — A coalition of U.S. East Coast states have selected two firms to manage the Offshore Wind Fisheries Compensation Fund, a mitigation program built to compensate commercial and recreation for-hire fishers for revenue lost due to offshore wind developments.

The fund is a collaboration between the governments of 11 East Coast states – Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina – to provide financial compensation for economic loss caused by offshore wind projects along the Atlantic Coast. The states launched a competition earlier this year to select an administrator to run the new fund.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Coast Guard Seeks Public Comment Until Nov. 21 On Empire Wind 1

November 12, 2024 — The U.S. Coast Guard is currently seeking public comment regarding their installation of “temporary safety zones” for a wind farm off New York and New Jersey.

The proposed wind farm is Empire Wind 1, which would be located about 13 miles south of Long Island and 19.5 miles off Long Branch. It is highly unlikely that Empire Wind’s turbines will be seen from the shore; the proposed wind farm is located too far out.

The Coast Guard says they are required to set up temporary safety zones during construction. They propose establishing 55 temporary safety zones during the development of the Empire Wind 1 Wind Farm project area.

Read the full article at the Patch

Richmond firm to oversee fishermen compensation related to offshore wind farms

November 6, 2024 — Richmond claims resolution firm BrownGreer PLC and London’s The Carbon Trust have been tapped to design and roll out a regional fisheries mitigation program on the East Coast.

The program is aimed at providing financial compensation to the commercial and recreational for-hire fishing industries related to the impacts of new offshore wind farms.

BrownGreer and The Carbon Trust will work with 11 East Coast states and their respective fishing industry communities on the program. The groups have established a design oversight committee and a for-hire committee to provide advice and guidance from respective parties on the program.

The involved states include Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

Read the full article at Richmond Inno

Ocean Harvesters, Omega call for increase of wind facility buffers

November 6, 2024 — Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein are calling on the federal government to increase the buffer for wind energy facilities from 6 miles to 15 miles, stating their operations are incompatible with wind turbine arrays and  critical adjustments are needed to protect the menhaden fishing industry.

The Reedville companies made those statements as part of their public comment to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which was soliciting feedback on possible commercial wind energy development in areas off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Read the full article at News On The Neck

NEW JERSEY: Philadelphia seafood market setting up shop in South Jersey

November 6, 2024 — A fresh seafood market is on its way to the borough.

Fishtown Seafood Co., “a new school fish shop,’’ is set to open in Haddonfield sometime this winter. The company states on its website that its third location will be in Haddonfield at 114 Kings Highway East.

This will be the first New Jersey location for Fishtown Seafood Co., which has two locations in Philadelphia, one along Pine Street and one along Belgrade Street in the Fishtown neighborhood of the city.

Read the full article at Aol

NEW JERSEY: Birds are attracted to offshore wind turbines. How Jersey Shore is preparing for risks.

October 28, 2024 — Much of the attention around what towering offshore wind turbines could mean for Jersey Shore animals has focused on whales and certain fish species.

Birds, some believe, have gotten short shrift.

As have bats.

Not that wind developers and environmentalists aren’t looking up to the skies.

During a recent tour of the Long Island South Fork wind farm — a project that could be instructive for what’s planned in New Jersey in the years to come — managers from Ørsted said they monitor for birds and bats.

How? With the Motus Wildlife Tracking System, an international collaborative research network.

The equipment is affixed to one of the projects’ 12 turbine platforms, the company said.
Worries have been shared by advocates about what wind structures, simply by the nature of their size and placement, will mean for birds and bats that travel off the coast. Bats have been shown to collide with turbines. Lighting has also been observed to attract certain birds to the structures, an organizer from the National Audubon Society told NJ Advance Media.