Saving Seafood

N.J. fishermen make their case to feds as fluke battle rages on

June 20, 2017 — With New Jersey’s summer flounder fishing industry on the line, Garden State officials made their case to NOAA fisheries on Tuesday afternoon.

In a hearing with the federal agency, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection officials argued that the state’s regulations for summer flounder (or fluke) fishing reach conservation equivalency with new federal regulations.

The cornerstone of New Jersey’s argument: That the state’s proposed regulations will actually preserve more of the summer flounder stock than the measures being put forth by the feds.

Tuesday’s call was closed to the press, but in a statement following the call NJDEP spokesperson Bob Considine described it as a “good discussion.” He added that New Jersey emphasized its plan would protect more breeding females, thus making a brighter outlook for the future of the fluke stock.

The showdown between NOAA and New Jersey fishermen has been building throughout the spring. On June 1, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission declared New Jersey to be out of compliance with fluke regulations.

The dispute is now being considered by NOAA Fisheries, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, for a final decision. If the out-of-compliance finding is upheld, a moratorium on fluke fishing in New Jersey could be instated until the state returns to compliance.

Read the full story at NJ.com

Can Offshore Wind Power Revive U.S. Ports?

June 19, 2017 — This salt-caked fishing port has been flush with wind prospectors ever since Massachusetts legislators passed a law for massive wind development in the shallow waters south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Ed Anthes-Washburn, a local port official, estimates he gives five harbor tours a month to wind industry representatives. Planning for the industry’s arrival now occupies much of his time, alongside proposals to redevelop several old industrial sites and a Seattle-style fish pier.

“It started Aug. 8, the day the governor signed the bill,” Anthes-Washburn said, gazing out over the harbor here, where a mass of fishing trawlers, scallopers and clam boats formed a rocking forest of rigging and nets. “It’s been pretty consistent since then.”

States up and down the Atlantic coast are rushing to become the capital of America’s burgeoning offshore wind industry, hoping the massive turbines will breathe new life into ports mired by a shrinking fishing industry and a flagging industrial base.

Maryland officials last month approved renewable energy credits for two developments totaling 368 megawatts off their shores in a bid to transform Baltimore and Ocean City into the industry’s manufacturing and maintenance hub in the Mid-Atlantic (Climatewire, May 12).

Lawmakers in New Jersey are counting down the days until Gov. Chris Christie (R) leaves office early next year, when they plan to restore their own credits for offshore wind developments (Energywire, June 9).

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) wants to bring 2,400 megawatts of wind power online by 2030 (Energywire, Jan. 11).

But few places are betting on offshore wind quite like New Bedford.

Read the full story at the Scientific American

LoBiondo, NJ officials blast Trump’s offshore drilling proposal

June 19, 2017 — U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, called a move by the Trump administration to conduct seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean “barbaric” and “insane” during a press conference Monday.

Seismic air guns are used to find gas and oil pockets deep beneath the ocean floor. President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order in April aimed at expanding offshore drilling near the East Coast, and, earlier this month, five companies applied to conduct seismic testing — including in an area just south of Cape May.

Environmentalists, local politicians and tourism officials gathered Monday afternoon near the 30th Street beach in Avalon to signal their opposition to seismic testing and offshore drilling.

“We in Cape May County have a $6.3 billion tourism business,” Cape May County Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton said. “Now I want you to imagine an oil spill out there today, with this wind blowing on the beach.

“We can’t afford that, ladies and gentlemen,” he added.

During seismic testing, air is blasted into the ocean floor every 10 seconds for an extended period of time. LoBiondo said he attended an air-gun demonstration last year.

“The decibel level for this seismic air gun is up to 250 decibels.” LoBiondo said. “That would blow a human ear out.”

Industry groups say seismic surveys have been conducted in the United States and around the world for decades, with little adverse impacts. The National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, the agency seeking the seismic testing permits, has said that air-gun operations would include measures to monitor and mitigate any harm to marine mammals.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

Every single N.J. lawmaker in D.C. is against Trump on this one

June 13, 2017 — All 14 New Jersey lawmakers in D.C. have asked President Donald Trump‘s administration to reject seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean, a step that could lead to allowing oil drilling near the Jersey Shore.

“We are deeply concerned about the prospect of seismic testing being conducted within the Atlantic, and the damage such testing could cause to our coastal communities,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Donna Wieting, an official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

The fisheries service proposed earlier this month to support granting five permits for the testing, which involves airgun blasting and can harm marine life, reversing a decision made under President Barack Obama.

The agency said it would seek comments through July 7 before making a final decision on granting the permits for an area from the Delaware-New Jersey border to Florida’s Space Coast.

The delegation asked for public hearings on the permits in New Jersey and the other affected states, as well as 60 days of comments for each of the five applications.

“Coastal communities should have the opportunity to weigh in on these pending permits,” the lawmakers wrote. “Environmental groups should have an official forum to present their research into the harmful effects of seismic testing.”

One of those environmental groups, the New Jersey Sierra Club, welcomed the delegation’s action, calling it a “clear message” to Trump.

“By allowing seismic testing, Trump is actually opening up our coast to offshore drilling,”  director Jeff Tittel said in a statement.

Under the Obama administration, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in January said there was no need for the testing because the region had been placed off limits to oil and gas drilling through 2022.

In addition, Obama permanently closed off almost 6,000 square miles of ocean territory from Massachusetts to Virginia, including off New Jersey coast, to drilling.

Read the full story at NJ.com

New Jersey Congressman Blasts Plan To Use Underwater Air Guns To Look For Oil In The Atlantic

June 9, 2017 — The Trump Administration wants to look for oil and natural gas under the Atlantic Ocean using seismic air guns, a proposal that doesn’t sit well with a South Jersey congressman.

The National Marine Fisheries Service wants permits to use those air guns from Delaware to Central Florida. Republican Congressman Frank LoBiondo is dead set against the proposal.

“This was started by President Obama while he was in office with his Department of Commerce,” LoBiondo told KYW Newsradio. “It was a dangerous and dumb idea then and it continues to be a dangerous and dumb idea now.”

The oil and gas industry is pushing for these surveys, and five companies have applied through the Interior Department to get those permits.

LoBiondo’s reasons for opposing the plan are mostly economic.

“Why would we want to take a risk on endangering our tourist season, endangering our fishing, commercial and recreational? It is beyond me, and there’s no good reason why, if they had to do this, it couldn’t be done in February,” he added.

Read the full story at CBS Philly

NJBIZ: We must fight any plan to drill off the Jersey Shore

June 11, 2017 — Drilling for oil and natural gas off the coast of New Jersey is a bad idea that never goes away.

Former President Barack Obama was for it — before, at the very end of his term, he signed an executive order reinstating a moratorium on offshore drilling from Massachusetts to Virginia. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order of his own to reopen the possibility of drilling off the East Coast. And then, last week, the Trump administration announced plans to issue five permits for offshore seismic testing from the Delaware-New Jersey border to Florida. The tests, which involve loud blasts that critics say harm whales and other sea creatures, are a first step to oil exploration.

(The National Marine Fisheries Service is seeking public comment on the proposal until July 7.)

And that’s only the recent history of this perennial issue. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, oil companies actually drilled exploratory wells off Atlantic City. They didn’t find significant enough deposits to continue the effort.

But here we are again.

New Jersey’s two U.S. senators and House members from coastal districts are opposing the latest push for offshore drilling, just as they have done every time this issue has bubbled to the surface, no matter their party. And the argument — a good one — against offshore drilling is always the same: Why endanger the state’s $44 billion-a-year tourism industry and the 500,000 jobs it supports? Half of that revenue is generated from counties along the coast. Offshore drilling could also threaten the state’s $7.9 billion-a-year fishing industry and the 50,000 jobs it creates.

The fear, of course, is that a spill off the state’s coast could blacken New Jersey beaches with oil. Furthermore, oil spills from drilling off states to the north and south of New Jersey could also end up drifting onto the state’s beaches.

Massive oil spills can cause catastrophic damage. The Gulf of Mexico still has not recovered, and may never recover, from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill. Once pictures of oil-coated wildlife fade from the news, the spills are largely forgotten by the general public — but not in the region where the spills occur, where the damage is lasting.

Read the full editorial at NJBIZ

PRESIDENT: “FISHERMEN FOR TRUMP, I LIKE THAT”

June 12, 2017 — Regardless of your political persuasion, when’s the last time you remember the President of the United States talking about recreational fishing?

More specifically, as a New Jersey angler, do you recall if there was ever a moment that the Commander in Chief spoke directly to a group of New Jersey fishermen and boat builders from the Garden State? How about a personal “shout out” to Viking Yachts on the Bass River or the New Jersey based Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA)?

President Donald J. Trump came to New Jersey on Sunday to headline a fundraiser for the re-election of Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ 3rd District) at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.

While the event was closed to the media, cellphone video posted from the event shows the President speaking to assembled guests – who sources say helped raise more than $800,000 for the MacArthur campaign – and asking where his fishermen were seated as he reaches into his suit pocket and fishes out a Fishermen for Trump bumper sticker created during the 2016 election by the RFA.

“Fishermen for Trump, I like that,” the President said on Sunday at Bedminster while holding up the bumper sticker in front of the audience, flanked by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Rep. MacArthur. “My brother loved fishing, loved fishing, and he loved Viking by the way too,” President Trump said while tucking the bumper sticker back into his jacket pocket.

For Jim Donofrio, executive director of the RFA, the president’s personal interaction with saltwater anglers and fishing industry representatives should give plenty of reason for optimism.

“I’ve had such an extraordinary response from this White House, it’s just amazing,” Donofrio said on Sunday after leaving the Bedminster event. “Just two weeks ago we were down in Washington meeting with Earl Comstock, director of policy and strategic planning at the Commerce Department, and I feel we finally have an administration that’s focused on the socioeconomic impact of recreational fishing, from fluke and sea bass all the way out to offshore tuna and billfish.”

Read the full story at The Fisherman

In the Mid-Atlantic, nobody fishes more than New Jersey

June 9, 2017 — New Jersey is the leader in the Mid-Atlantic region when it comes to saltwater recreational fishing, according to the findings of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report.

No fishermen take more trips, buy more fishing tackle or work in the industry more than fishermen do in the Garden State.

The Mid-Atlantic States in the report include Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Virginia.

The report, titled Fisheries Economics of the U.S., 2015, was released in May.

Based on the report’s 2015 numbers, New Jersey’s saltwater recreational fishing industry generated the most jobs 16,100 jobs, sales at $1.8 million and took the most fishing trips at 4.3 million.

New York was next with 7,800 jobs, $874 million in sales and 3.2 million trips.

Nationally, New Jersey’s saltwater recreational fishing industry ranked 3rd in jobs created behind Florida and California, 4th in sales behind Florida, California and Texas and 3rd in trips taken behind Florida and North Carolina.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

New Jersey has good reasons to resist federal rules on fluke

June 7, 2017 — If federal fisheries managers got fan mail from some flounder these days, would it side with their catch limits or New Jersey’s defiant alternate rules?

State and local officials and the N.J. congressional delegation pushed hard against this year’s federal plan to reduce the catch of summer flounder, also called fluke, by 30 percent. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission wanted to require fish to be an inch bigger to be kept — 19 inches in the ocean and nearby waters and 18 inches in Delaware Bay.

Since last year’s limits were already tough on fishers and marine businesses, the plan prompted an uproar. Rep. Frank LoBiondo said “unelected bureaucrats in Washington use questionable methodologies and outdated science to cut us off at the knees.” He and fellow Rep. Frank Pallone introduced bipartisan legislation to prevent the new flounder quotas from taking effect.

The state Department of Environmental Protection also went all in, telling the U.S. secretary of commerce the new rules would destroy recreational flounder fishing in the state, an important part of its summer tourism appeal. It asked for a return to 2016 rules and a new full assessment of the flounder stock.

Read the full editorial at Press of Atlantic City

New Jersey ruled out of compliance on summer flounder, moratorium possible

June 5, 2017 — If New Jersey doesn’t bring its summer flounder limits in line with federal regulations, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said it may result in a moratorium on fluke fishing.

When summer flounder season began May 25, New Jersey decided to keep in place an 18-inch limit it felt was a fair compromise to the 19-inch limit federal regulators were requiring.

The Marine Fisheries Commission did not agree and voted earlier that week not to accept New Jersey’s rules. On Thursday, the federal agency found New Jersey out of compliance with the mandatory management measures for summer flounder, scup and black sea bass.

The commission believes the 19-inch limit achieves conservation goals and helps to end overfishing of summer flounder. The state argues the larger minimum size would result in more dead fish. Other opponents of the federal rules, including many local anglers, say the rules directly target female spawning flounder.

“We’re disappointed the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission continues to myopically distance itself from sound fisheries management and advocates for a 19-inch size limit that kills more fish through dead discards than the actual harvesting of fluke,” N.J. Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said. “This would result in an overall higher mortality rate and be more detrimental to the fish stock that we are sworn to protect.”

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City