July 8, 2020 — Already struggling to stay in business since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the owner of a fourth-generation New York City seafood wholesaler was devastated to hear the news last week that restaurants in the city cannot open for indoor dining – only outdoor.
To top it off, Broadway theaters will remain closed through the end of this year, and nightclubs remain closed.
April 16, 2020 — New York City is seeking philanthropic support for its food distributors, raising some concerns about the viability of the merchants that sell fruit, vegetables and meat to groceries and bodegas in the epicenter of the United States coronavirus epidemic.
Food distributors are facing such “a significant liquidity issue,” that City Hall has asked the philanthropic and financial sectors to create a fund to support the merchants, according to a confidential memo acquired by POLITICO. While philanthropic dollars have been devoted to meals for the poor and vulnerable, the city is asking for donations to bolster a private industry crucial to the food supply of more than 8.6 million people.
“We’re completely dependent on the food distribution network,” said Kathryn Garcia, who serves as both the city’s Covid-19 food czar and its sanitation commissioner, in an interview Wednesday. “That’s how we eat. We need them to be resilient. We need them to be healthy.”
March 25, 2020 — With the coronavirus being spread around the world and nations reacting to this threat in many different ways — from doing nothing, to closing the borders and full quarantines — the unintended effects of such government actions have yet to be fully felt.
Granted the stock market has lost 30 percent in value in just three weeks’ time, the average American really doesn’t feel that unless he is living on his investment returns.
With the closing of schools, and restaurants and any places of public gatherings, an enormous crisis is being created. Many people are being put out of work, and some of them may not have a business to come back to when the crisis is over. The coronavirus may topple an empire if we let it.
How? By exposing our self-inflicted dependence on foreign imports by every major industry in our country.
Years ago, the problem was our dependence on imported oil from the Middle East. That problem was based on cost of production — it was cheaper to import oil than to produce our own oil. As oil prices rose, and fracking technology advanced, we have reached a point where we have energy independence — although it is based on fossil fuel, and not fissionable fuel.
In regard to almost every other industrial production, be it agricultural, pharmaceutical, manufacturing or whatever, our own companies have sold their soul to short-term profits. We are at the mercy of foreign companies and governments for many of our essential items, and it was our politicians of both parties that sold us out.
December 13, 2019 — When Hurricane Sandy struck New York on October 29, 2012, it deluged every neighborhood it hit. Seven years later, many neighborhoods—including Coney Island, Canarsie in Brooklyn, and points all along the shore of Staten Island—are still recovering. Others, such as Staten Island’s Fox Beach, were destroyed in their entirety, never to have residents again.
With these events in all too recent memory, New Yorkers know how susceptible they are to climate change and are at the forefront of developing new approaches to the climate crisis, with the city’s young people getting especially involved. As the recent youth climate strikes that brought hundreds of thousands to New York’s streets attest, the younger generations—those who will be most affected by climate change—are taking concrete steps to try to turn back the tide, quite literally.
One of the programs that is engaging youth is the Billion Oyster Project. While the project’s founding goal aimed to to make the “waters surrounding New York City cleaner, more abundant, more well-known, more well-loved,” it has a more pressing role in the time of accelerating climate change: creating oyster reefs that can help blunt storm surges that accompany hurricanes by breaking up the waves before they hit land.
November 26, 2019 — One of the most anticipated forced sell-offs in the history of US commercial fishing – the unloading of Carlos Rafael’s fleet in New Bedford, Massachusetts — looks to be on the verge of completion.
Blue Harvest Fisheries, a US scallop and groundfish supplier backed by New York City-based private equity Bregal Partners, has signed a purchase agreement to buy at least 35 vessels and skiffs and all of their associated permits from Carlos Rafael for nearly $25 million, documents obtained by Undercurrent News confirm.
The deal includes millions of pounds of quota for at least eight types of fish in the Northeast multispecies fishery, including cod, haddock, American plaice, witch flounder, yellowtail flounder, redfish, white hake, and pollock.
August 9th, 2019 — The number of humpback whale sightings in New York City and northern New Jersey has increased dramatically in recent years, by more than 500 percent, as a result of warmer and cleaner waters, raising the risk of dangerous interactions between the huge marine mammals and humans, according to a Rutgers University-New Brunswick researcher.
The increase in sightings near one of the world’s busiest ports is a safety concern for both whales and humans, especially with a new wave of migration headed close to shores this fall, said Danielle Brown, a doctoral student in ecology and evolution in Rutgers’ School of Environmental and Biology Sciences and the lead humpback whale researcher and naturalist for Gotham Whale, a New York-based nonprofit that studies and advocates for whales.
Since Gotham Whale started documenting humpback whale sightings in the New York Bight apex – the Atlantic Ocean area from New York harbor east to Fire Island and south to the Manasquan Inlet– the number has increased to 272 last year up from five in 2011. Many of the sightings have occurred less than two miles from the shore.
July 15, 2019 — Following is a transcript of the video.
Narrator: It’s no secret that lobsters are pricey. And a standard lobster dinner in a restaurant can set you back $38 or more. Lobsters are considered a gourmet dish today, but there was a time when they were known as the cockroaches of the sea and even served to prisoners. So when did lobsters become such a delicacy? And why are they so expensive? There are a lot of species of lobster, but we’re interested in the recognizable, clawed lobsters you might see on the menu: Homarus americanus and Homarus gammarus, better known as American and European lobster. These two species are very similar. The biggest difference is their color. We went to Ed’s Lobster Bar in New York City to speak to someone who has a lot of experience buying, preparing, and cooking the crustacean.
Ed McFarland: So, one of the hardest things about working lobster is, truthfully, it’s the price range of lobster, and it fluctuates greatly and from year to year, and the price increases. And the yield when you clean a lobster is very low. So you could buy a pound-and-a-half lobster, I think this is what most people don’t understand, is in a pound-and-a-half lobster, there’s probably only 4 ounces of meat out of a hard-shell lobster. So there’s not much yield that comes out of the lobster. So when you’re cleaning the lobster yourself to make lobster rolls, it really turns into a very, very expensive product.
Narrator: To fully understand what makes lobster so expensive, we need to take a look at its history, because it wasn’t always as revered as it is now. Lobster’s history varies across the world, but, for a long time, it was a source of food for many of the poorest in society.
During the Viking era, lobsters as food became much more popular in northern Europe as boats more suited to deep-sea fishing became available. And by establishing meat-free days for certain religious holidays, the church also increased the demand for seafood, including lobster.
Across Europe, lobsters became associated with status and a lavish lifestyle. And they were often featured in paintings to show wealth. But the value of lobster remained low in North America. Native Americans used lobsters as fishing bait and crop fertilizer, a practice that European colonists later copied.
May 31, 2019 — Humpback whales are seen much more often around the approaches to New York Harbor, and with them comes the potential for more deadly encounters with vessels, according to a new study.
“Whales feed in close proximity to the entrance of the Port of New York and New Jersey, creating potentially dangerous situations for both vessels and whales. Documenting humpback whale presence and identifying the risks are crucial for both short- and long-term management,” wrote researchers at George Mason University in Virginia and Gotham Whale, a nonprofit group in New York City.
Published in the journal Marine Policy, authors Danielle M. Brown, Paul L. Sieswerda and E.C.M. Parsons report humpback whale sightings – along with strandings of dead whales – have substantially increased around the apex of the New York Bight since 2011. The team makes a case for stepping up whale monitoring in the Bight, for both conservation and the safety of mariners and whales.
A humpback whale and vessels near New York. Tugs and tows travel at lower speeds but can still be at risk of collision with whales feeding close to shore, according to a new study.
May 10, 2019 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
The public is invited to attend the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s meeting to be held June 4-6, 2019 in New York, NY. The meeting will be held at the Yotel New York, 570 Tenth Ave (at W 42nd), New York, NY 10036, Telephone 646-449-7700.
Meeting Materials: Briefing documents will be posted at http://ww.mafmc.org/briefing/june-2019 as they become available.
Public Comments: Written comments must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, May 22, 2019 to be included in the briefing book. Comments received after this date but before 5:00 p.m. on May 30, 2019 will be posted as supplemental materials on the Council meeting web page. After that date, all comments must be submitted using an online comment form available at http://www.mafmc.org/public-comment.
Webinar: For online access to the meeting, enter as a guest at http://mafmc.adobeconnect.com/june2019.
Agenda: Click here for a detailed meeting agenda.
April 24, 2019 — Amazon and Walmart are participating in a United States government pilot program that allows Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients to buy groceries online.
The two-year test, which recently launched in New York, allows online purchasing by SNAP households with electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards issued in New York.
Amazon and Walmart will participate in the initial pilot launch on 23 April with ShopRite joining early next week. ShopRite and Amazon are providing service to the New York City area and Walmart is providing online service in upstate New York locations.