Saving Seafood

Fishermen rescue 7 from sinking boat miles off Cape May, NJ coast

August 7, 2018 — Fishermen came to the rescue of seven people whose boat sank Saturday several miles off the coast of Cape May, New Jersey, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The seven were aboard a boat called “Beach Runner,” when it started “rapidly taking on water” about nine miles off shore in the area of Cape May reef, the Coast Guard said.

They had issued a distress call on radio Channel 16, which prompted an “Urgent Marine Information Broadcast” to alert boaters in the area.

The signal worked: Two other nearby fishing boats, the Miss Addison and the Porgy IV, rushed to the scene to pluck the seven fellow boaters from the ocean.

Read the full story at The Courier Express

Offshore Wind Is Likely The Next Big U.S. Renewable Sector

August 2, 2018 –At this moment, 30 megawatts of offshore wind turbines are sending power to Narraganset Electric, the National Grid affiliate serving Rhode Island. They are the only offshore turbines in operation in the U.S., a pittance considering Europe is closing in on 20,000 MW in operation.

But in the U.S. renewable sector, offshore wind is generating increasing excitement. Between dropping costs, ambitious state renewable targets, and a host of European developers looking to bring their knowledge stateside, the long-awaited U.S. offshore wind surge is now widely seen as imminent.

“The U.S. will certainly take advantage of the path already traveled by the EU offshore market and will be in a position to catch up in just a few years,” said Alejandro de Hoz, the vice president of U.S. offshore for Avangrid Renewables.

Offshore wind development is especially crucial in the Northeast. Blue states like New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts are looking to up their clean energy usage, which entails using wind and solar to power cities near the coast. But the abundant land needed for onshore wind and solar farms is difficult to find near population centers while piping power long distances is inefficient. Besides, New York has neither the wind resource of Texas nor the solar intensity of California.

Read the full story at Forbes

How many sharks are there off the Jersey Shore? This scientist wants to find out

August 1, 2018 — Shark fishing is big business in New Jersey.

People come to the Shore from across the state and throughout the region for their chance to hook the ocean’s apex predator. But the thrill only happens if the sharks show up.

But studies of the sharks in Jersey waters have been few and far between. Little is known about how many sharks there are, and when they migrate.

Now, a Monmouth University professor is working with local fishermen to get answers.

Enter Keith Dunton.

A native of Long Island, Dunton came to Monmouth University from Stony Brook University three years ago for the chance to the study sharks. Dunton said he was drawn to New Jersey because there was a lack of shark research in the Garden State, despite the popularity of shark fishing.

Last summer, shark research group OCEARCH conducted their first scientific voyage into New Jersey waters, with the goal of tagging white sharks in the deep ocean.

And the National Marine Fisheries Service has studied the shark population of Delaware Bay. But Dunton aims to create a definitive understanding of the sharks that live off of New Jersey.

Read the full story at NJ.com

 

Buoy to scout way for New Jersey offshore wind energy farm

July 20, 2018 — It’s not the Yellow Submarine, but the bright yellow device setting sail from Atlantic City could help New Jersey’s plan to harness the energy of the ocean wind by staying on top of the waves.

Orsted, a Danish wind energy company, is launching a research buoy to measure wind, wave and weather conditions at a site 10 miles off Atlantic City where it envisions a bunch of wind turbines.

The project is still in its early stages, and needs state and federal approvals. But at a press conference Monday to display the buoy, company and New Jersey officials said the wind farm project could help meet Gov. Phil Murphy’s goal of having 3,500 megawatts of wind energy operating by 2030.

“The winds of change have come to Atlantic City,” said state Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, a Democrat representing the area.

How many turbines get built depends on how much electricity the state commits to buying.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The San Diego Union-Tribune

Fishermen Vent About Fears on Offshore Wind

July 19, 2018 — Three staffers from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) faced a tidal wave of resentment when they met with commercial fishermen on July 11 at the Montauk Playhouse.

The federal employees were there to obtain comments about the federal government’s plan to lease sections of the continental shelf south of Long Island and east of New Jersey for wind farm development.

The highly structured event was supposed to have included a slide presentation and question-and-answer session that was billed “New York Bight Call and Area Identification” in the four-hour event schedule. “Call” areas are those identified by BOEM as suitable for leasing.

Instead a group of about 15 fishermen spent the time peppering BOEM fisheries biologist Brian Hooker with questions, complaints and a few rants, including that of fisherman Chuck Morici, who told the officials they made him sick.

Read the full story at the Sag Harbor Express

Spending a year at sea to find best spots for wind turbines

July 17, 2018 — It’s a little reminiscent of the Beatles’ yellow submarine, but it doesn’t go underwater.

Instead, the bright yellow, boat-like buoy that floated off a dock Monday at Gardner’s Basin will use high-tech instrumentation on deck to help Danish offshore wind company Orsted place wind turbines for its Ocean Wind project, planned for 10 miles off Atlantic City.

If built, Ocean Wind would be New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm, and only the second in the nation after the five-turbine, 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island.

Company officials have said they could have the wind farm operational by 2025, but only if it is soon awarded state offshore wind energy credits to finance construction. The program to do that is still being created by the state Board of Public Utilities.

Gov. Phil Murphy has committed New Jersey to quickly generate 1,100 megawatts of electricity through offshore wind, 3,500 megawatts from offshore wind by 2030, and 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

Shifting fish giving New Jersey an early global warming challenge

July 13, 2018 — The slow warming of the Earth someday will require difficult adaptations in many sectors of society, for example farming, energy and insurance.

One challenge already is here — fish. They are voting with their fins, moving northward out of warming ocean waters and into cooler temperatures they prefer. And that is disrupting fisheries management and quotas, which only recently had achieved stability and acceptance.

Earlier this year, a study led by a Rutgers University marine biologist predicted two-thirds of the 700 ocean species it analyzed would be forced to migrate — some more than 600 miles — in the worst warming scenarios.

A 2016 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study found half of the Northeast’s fish and shellfish were highly vulnerable to climate change. It warned that fisheries dependent on a single valuable species, such as New Jersey is on scallops, are at particular risk.

And global warming might shrink fish as well. A pair of University of British Columbia scientists last year reported the size of fish is likely to decrease by 20 to 30 percent for every 1 degree Celsius increase in water temperature, as their metabolisms speed up and the oxygen content of the water diminishes.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

Rescue team saves entangled humpback whale off New Jersey coast

July 13, 2018 — A rescue team has saved a juvenile humpback whale that had been entangled in a line for months in an operation Wednesday off the New Jersey coast, the federal fisheries agency said Thursday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries agency said the whale was the same one that was seen swimming in Raritan Bay on July 4.

The first report of the entangled whale came last November, but a team’s attempt to cut the line was only partially successful, and a tight wrap of line remained around its upper jaw, NOAA said, adding that it was “wrapped around especially sensitive locations, including the eye and blowhole.”

On Wednesday, a team from the Cape Cod-based Center for Coastal Studies was able to make a delicate cut to disentangle the whale off Sandy Hook.

“If left alone, the animal had no chance,” David Morin, NOAA Fisheries’ Atlantic large whale disentanglement coordinator, said in a statement. “The whale would have died a slow and painful death. Even in response, the tight wrap left such a small area — about a foot or two wide — that we could cut.”

Read the full story at The Philadelphia Inquirer

Levittown Man Trafficked More Than 3,500 Protected Turtles, Feds Say

July 11, 2018 — Federal prosecutors indicted a Levittown man Tuesday for allegedly trafficking protected diamondback terrapin turtles.

According to William McSwain, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, David Sommers, 62, of Levittown, was charged with smuggling the turtles and submitting false records for a shipment sent to Canada. The indictment included four violations of the Lacey Act for allegedly trafficking more than 3,500 turtles in interstate commerce.

Federal prosecutors said Sommers would capture the diamondback terrapins and their eggs from marshes in coastal New Jersey. The Levittown man would sell them illegally and had sent turtles across the border with Canada in 2014 in a package that he claimed contained a book.

Sommers is accused of violating the Lacey Act, a wildlife trafficking law, while transporting the turtles from New Jersey into Pennsylvania, according to prosecutors.

“Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) are a semi-aquatic species of turtle native to brackish waters in eastern and southern United States. They are not found in the wild in Pennsylvania but have a dwindling habitat range in neighboring New Jersey. The terrapins are prized in the reptile pet trade for their unique, diamond-shaped shell markings. The turtles are protected under New Jersey law and by an international treaty, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (“CITES”),” prosecutors said in a press release.

Read the full story at Levittown.com

New Jersey fishermen get up close with great white shark

July 9, 2018 — We might be at a summer fishing peak with quite a variety providing something for just about every taste and style.

The incidental catch of a small great white shark at the Cigar has created quite a buzz.

A 4- to 5-foot great white was hooked and released after a short fight that brought it to the boat by Chris O’Neill of Little Egg Harbor Township. As soon as the crew of Joe O’Neill, Chris’ uncle from the Manahawkin section of Stafford Township, Sam Messler, of Manahawkin, and Robert McLauglin, of Barnegat, identified it as a great white, they quickly released it unharmed because it a protected species.

O’Neill, who is 34, said in a phone call Friday afternoon that he and his crew are responsible fishermen who follow all the rules. Sounds as though the crew did everything right during the release. They fish together a lot on his 26-foot Angler boat that he docks in his “backyard,” meaning he lives on the water.

He also said he has caught bigger striped bass. He then made a guess that the fish was months old. And he estimated the phone call from the local scribe was the 30th he has received from various media.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City