Saving Seafood

Public invited to Open Houses on Draft Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan

July 5, 2016 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean:

WHAT: The Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body (RPB) invites ocean stakeholders and the interested public to attend a series of Open Houses to be held across the region on the Draft Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan. The Draft Plan outlines a series of actions on how federal and state agencies, tribes and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council may better collaborate to ensure healthy, productive, and resilient marine ecosystems and sustainable ocean uses in the Mid-Atlantic, including state and federal waters off Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. An opportunity to provide public comment on the Draft Plan will be provided.

Prior to the Open Houses, the draft Plan will be available at:

http://www.boem.gov/Ocean-Action-Plan/

WHO: The Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body (MidA RPB) is made up of representatives from Federal, State, and Tribal entities and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. It was established in 2013 to implement and advance ocean planning through improved inter- governmental coordination and stronger engagement of stakeholders, the general public, and scientific, business and technical experts to identify and address issues of importance to the region. The Open Houses will be hosted by MARCO1 on behalf of the MidA RPB.

LEARN MORE: www.MidAtlanticOcean.org/YourOceanPlan\

WHEN and WHERE:

Virginia Open House

Tuesday, July 12, 2016. 6-8pm

Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center
717 General Booth Blvd, Virginia Beach, VA 23451

New Jersey Open House

Thursday, July 14, 2016. 6-8pm

See the full advisory here

ERIC REID: Work on marine monument not done yet

July 5, 2016 — In June, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, a Republican U.S. Rep. Utah, visited New Bedford and spoke to several members of the industry regarding their concerns about a potential marine monument off the coast of New England. Following the meeting, I remarked to The Standard-Times reporter that a monument could potentially cost the industry up to $500 million in economy activity, in addition to countless jobs.

This estimate has been criticized for being far too high. But it is based on two premises — a conservative estimate of the economic impact of fishing in New England, and the lack of clarity surrounding the marine monument discussion.

Currently, the commercial fishing industry from Maine to New Jersey brings in an estimated $1.4 billion per year in landings. These landings support hundreds of millions of dollars more in economic activity for related and shoreside businesses, and employ tens of thousands of people up and down the coast.

Because no one in the Obama administration’s Council on Environmental Quality has put forward an actual, concrete proposal of what an Atlantic monument might look like, the industry considers all of this to be potentially at risk.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

The Garden State Seafood Association strongly opposes the “Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2016”

June 23, 2016 — The following was released by the Garden State Seafood Association:

Finning of sharks (the process of removing fins at sea and discarding the shark) is currently illegal in the U.S. and Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) supports that law. The Shark Conservation Act of 2010 (SCA) prohibits any person from removing any of the fins of a shark at sea and discarding its body. The GSSA supports this law and existing associated exemptions for spiny dogfish and smooth dogfish sharks.

However, there is a direct federal allowance for the sale and possession of legally-harvested shark fins regulated and supported by NOAA, the U.S. Congress and the Obama Administration. Any effort to overturn this allowance at the federal level is simply not based on fact.

The “Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2016” makes it illegal to sell the fins from legally-harvested shark species, including all large coastal sharks, Threshers and Mako. One result of this requirement may include the fins of these sharks being removed on shore after harvest and needlessly thrown away.

This legislation represents a shameful waste of food and results in decreased revenues to New Jersey fishermen and their families. It will harm commercial fisherman, their families, and coastal communities around the Nation who participate in legal shark fisheries. And since sharks are already sustainably managed by NOAA, the legislation adds no conservation benefit to shark resources.

U.S. fisheries management has a strong conservation ethic with respect to our shark fisheries. The sharks we harvest are sustainably managed by NOAA, the meat is consumed throughout the U.S. and around the world, and the fins associated with these legally-harvested sharks are desired by overseas markets for their food and cultural significance.

Support U.S. fishermen and U.S fisheries management by OPPOSING the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2016

Read the release as a PDF

About the Garden State Seafood Association:

The GSSA is comprised of commercial fishermen, shore-based seafood processors, commercial dock facilities, seafood markets and restaurants, and various NJ-based commercial fishing industry support businesses. The GSSA membership represents every major port in the State, harvesting approximately $100 million dollars worth of seafood products annually, supporting 2000 jobs, and contributing significantly to the coastal economy of the State of New Jersey.

Proposed wind farm off the New Jersey coast concerns local fisherman

June 21, 2016 — LONG BRANCH, N.J. — A proposal to build a wind farm off the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey is concerning some local fisheries, which say that the farm could hurt their livelihood.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held its first of four public meeting in Long Branch Monday night to education the public on what environmental impacts a wind farm in the ocean could have.

Local fisherman Arthur Osche says that the proposed building site for the farm is right where he usually fishes for scallops. Scallops make up about 40 percent of his fishery business.

“My boat typically does about $3 million a year, so it would be like $1.2 million,” he says.

Osche says that although he does support renewable energy sources, he does not want to see them build where he and other fisheries fish.

Read and watch the full story at News 12 The Bronx

Could Seismic Tests Harm Fish?

June 16, 2016 — Fish might not have fancy communication equipment like whales and dolphins, but they do have their specialized ways of navigating through an ocean filled with predators and mobile food sources. And these honed adaptive responses could potentially be harmed by seismic air guns.

But as the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management continues to review the effects of proposed seismic surveys on marine mammals in the Atlantic, an environmental advocacy group is putting out alarms that the tests’ potentially ill effect on fish will be glossed over in the review process that is close to completion.

“There are fisheries impacts that are not very well understood, and now is the time to do these reviews,” said Zachary Lees, ocean and coastal policy attorney for Clean Ocean Action, a New Jersey-based nonprofit group.

Eight companies are currently seeking to conduct seismic surveys in areas off the southern Atlantic coast between Delaware and Florida to look for oil and natural gas resources. Although oil leases in the Atlantic have been canceled until at least 2023, the federal government is moving forward with mapping the sea floor for hydrocarbon deposits.

After approving a final programmatic environmental impact statement, or PEIS, on seismic surveys in 2014, BOEM was made aware earlier this year of new information on protected marine mammals that triggered additional review.

Read the full story at CoastalReview.com

Monkfish Money to Allow Study of the New England Fishery

June 13, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government says two projects designed to improve the future of the monkfish fishery will receive more than $3.7 million in grants.

The grants are going to the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology and Cornell University Cooperative Extension.

The monkfish fishery was worth more than $18 million in 2014. It is based in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Fishermen also land monkfish in other states including New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Maine.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Maine Public Broadcasting Network

Fishermen’s Energy Wind Farm Has Hope with DOE and Senators’ Backing

June 2, 2016 — The U.S. Department of Energy has announced a no-cost extension until the end of the year for Fishermen’s Energy Atlantic City Wind Farm to secure an agreement to sell its power and continue to receive funding as one of the department’s offshore wind advanced technology demonstration projects.

Fishermen’s Energy is currently in the second of five DOE funding stages, and has met all of the criteria to advance to the next stage once an “offtake” agreement – a plan to sell the energy – is reached. As the project advances, it will be eligible for nearly $50 million in federal funding. The DOE estimates that the offshore wind farm will become operational in 2018, which would make it one of the first commercial offshore wind projects in the U.S.

On Tuesday, Fishermen’s Energy Chief Operating Officer Paul Gallagher said the DOE always intended to have the demonstration project completed by 2018. “It’s within their right to want an offtake agreement,” said Gallagher.

But so far the state’s preferred method of selling energy has been through the powerful Board of Public Utilities and obtaining an offshore renewable energy certificate (OREC) that can be sold to power companies.

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

How safe is the fishing industry in South Jersey?

May 25, 2016 — CAPE MAY, N.J. — The dangers of commercial fishing were illustrated dramatically 6 miles off Cape May on April 28 when the scallop boat Last Stand collided with a 400-foot barge pushed by the tug Dean Reinauer.

Three fishermen aboard the Last Stand donned survival suits, climbed into a life raft and paddled away from the rigging as the fishing boat rolled and sank beneath the waves in just minutes.

Nobody was hurt, and the U.S. Coast Guard based in Cape May rescued the fishermen safely. The Coast Guard is investigating the accident.

“The industry is as cautious as they can be. They are prepared. They’re not careless. They’re not reckless,” said Gregory DiDomenico, president of the trade group Garden State Seafood Association.

DiDomenico said the sinking shows how preparation and training made a difference in a crisis. By comparison, he said, many times more recreational boaters die in accidents each year.

“When you consider all the regulatory measures and Coast Guard inspections and the amount of technology and electronics on board today … they want to come home at the end of every trip,” he said.

Read the full story at Press of Atlantic City

Fishermen free humpback whale from tangled net off New Jersey

May 24, 2016 — BRICK, N.J., — A group of fishermen rescued a humpback whale tangled in fishing gear off the coast of northern Ocean County in New Jersey.

Fisherman Sal Gatto posted a video to Facebook showing the whale slowly swimming off Saturday after the boat’s crew cut through ropes and nets to rescue the 40-foot sea creature from some abandoned fishing equipment.

“I was out looking for some bass during the early morning and spotted a 40 foot humpback whale tangled in a large fish net with rope near the Manasquan Inlet,” Gatto told JSHN.com.

Read the full story at UPI

Woods Hole Researchers ‘Listen’ to the Ocean Floor

May 23, 2016 — WOODS HOLE, Mass. — Listening to the noise of the deep sea.

That’s the intent as researchers with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, based at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, recently placed a handful of recording devices along the ocean floor from George’s Bank to New Jersey to listen to the sounds of whales, dolphins and other marine life.

It’s part of a national effort to establish a network to monitor long term changes in ocean noise.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com