October 3, 2025 –Escalating vessel flow in New York waters has coincided with an alarming spike in humpback whale mortalities, underscoring a mounting hazard.
A 2024 study headed by Lesley Thorne, the dean of research at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, pointed to post-pandemic shifts in trade routes favoring the East to the West Coast and new transits along coastal routes adjacent to PANYNJ as the driving factors behind this surge.
September 18, 2025 — Researchers at Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S.A.-based The Maritime Aquarium claim new studies show a “troubling decline” in the horseshoe crab population within Long Island Sound.
“Horseshoe crabs are a cornerstone of estuarine ecosystems, and their decline is alarming in its own right but also has cascading consequences for other animals and ecological processes,” Maritime Aquarium Vice President of Conservation Sarah Crosby said in a release.
September 16, 2025 — East Hampton’s windfall from the South Fork Wind Farm is being used by the town to commence a much-needed federal dredging of the inlet to Lake Montauk, the biggest commercial fishing port in New York State.
According to East Hampton Town, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ bids to perform the long-planned Lake Montauk Harbor Navigation Improvement Project this fall came in $1.1 million higher than expected, and the agency informed the town it would need $1.1 million by Sept. 10 in order to go forward with the dredging, which can only be done between Oct. 15 and Jan. 15.
East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez announced Monday that the town has allocated $1.1 million from its Host Community Agreement, which in 2022 allowed South Fork Wind to place its transmission cables from its offshore wind farm under town roads in exchange for $28.9 million over the following 25 years.
The money, she said in a statement, would “fill a federal funding gap and ensure the dredging of Montauk Inlet moves forward, after Washington fell short on delivering the full commitment.”
September 2, 2025 — Democratic governors are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s plans to halt offshore wind developments.
“We are looking for the Trump Administration to uphold all offshore wind permits already granted and allow these projects to be constructed,” said a statement issued Monday by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.
Trump has a deep, long-running dislike of wind farms he’s derided as ugly, bird-killing monstrosities. But his administration has moved more aggressively in recent weeks to restrict their construction, including by blocking projects from obtaining rural development business loans, halting construction of a nearly completed Ørsted A/S venture near Rhode Island and moving to invalidate the permit for another planned project off the Maryland coast.
August 26, 2025 — When the Trump administration ordered that construction stop last week at Revolution Wind, a giant wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that was nearly finished, it alluded vaguely to national security concerns but did not offer any further explanation.
It’s becoming a striking pattern.
The order was the third time the Trump administration had revoked permits or halted work on wind farms that had already received federal approval while offering little legal justification for doing so, following actions against wind projects in New York and Idaho. Legal experts say that there is little basis for blocking projects that have already received permits.
The Trump administration has signaled in a court filing that it next plans to rescind federal approvals for yet another wind farm, the Maryland Offshore Wind Project, which had not yet begun construction but would consist of up to 114 wind turbines off the coast of Ocean City, Md. The filing was first reported by WBOC.
August 19, 2025 — Hurricane Erin churned slowly toward the eastern U.S. on Tuesday, stirring up treacherous waves that already have led to dozens of water rescues and shut down beaches along the coast in the midst of summer’s last hurrah.
While forecasters remain confident the center of the monster storm will remain far offshore, the outer edges are likely to bring damaging tropical-force winds, large swells and life-threatening rip currents into Friday.
Warnings about rip currents have been posted from Florida to the New England coast, and the biggest swells along the East Coast are expected over the coming two days. Rough ocean conditions already have been seen along the coast — at least 60 swimmers were rescued from rip currents Monday at Wrightsville Beach, near Wilmington, North Carolina.
New York City closed its beaches to swimming on Wednesday and Thursday, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered three state beaches on Long Island to prohibit swimming through Thursday. Several New Jersey beaches also will be off-limits.
August 13, 2025 — A court in the U.S. state of New York has ruled in favor of the Town of Oyster Bay on Long Island, New York, dismissing a long-term aquaculture leaseholder’s complaint that the town didn’t renew its lease for 1,800 acres of shellfish harvesting area.
“A reading of the town code makes it clear that the town was not required to renew the lease,” Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Gregg Roth said in his decision dismissing the former leaseholder’s claims.
August 13, 2025 –If you were hoping to catch and keep a bluefin tuna off the coast of Long Island this summer, you’re out of luck. A new federal shutdown of the bluefin tuna fishery for recreational and charter anglers is now in effect — and it’s already having a ripple effect across the local fishing industry.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ordered the closure, citing the need to stay within international conservation limits.
“This inseason action is needed to ensure the United States Atlantic bluefin tuna quota is not exceeded and is consistent with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) requirements,” a NOAA spokesperson said in a statement.
While commercial bluefin fishing can continue, the shutdown applies to all recreational and charter boat fishing. That means charter captains like Greg Gargiulo, of Patty Ann Charters based at the Captree Boat Basin, will have to drastically shift their business model by targeting yellowfin tuna instead, which are farther off shore.
July 30, 2025 — New York State’s Public Service Commission is withdrawing plans for a transmission line supporting offshore wind.
The line would have connected New York City with numerous offshore wind farms. But states are now facing federal pushback on developing wind power.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration attempted to stop development of New York’s Empire Wind Farm. Christopher Casey, New York utility regulatory director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the federal roadblocks make it harder to bolster this industry.
“There are permits and regulatory decisions that need to be made at both the state and the federal level,” said Casey. “If the federal government is putting up roadblocks wherever it can, then it is very difficult to move these projects – and ultimately, nothing can go forward.”
July 18, 2025 — Bronx, New York City, USA-based Fulton Fish Market Cooperative held an emergency rally on 16 July to urge U.S. President Donald Trump to halt the Empire Wind offshore wind project that seafood industry stakeholders claim will put their livelihoods at risk.
Seafood industry stakeholders gathered at the event – many of whom were unionized employees of the market – said the project threatens their livelihoods and those in New York’s seafood industry. Fulton Fish Market Cooperative CEO Nicole Ackerina said the project will heavily damage the industry and push it out of the region.