Saving Seafood

FSF Statement on Appeals Court Ruling in New York Wind Farm Case

May 20, 2021 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

The Fisheries Survival Fund is disappointed in the decision issued today by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. However, we will continue to work with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and all federal, state, and local government agencies, as well as wind energy farm developers, to ensure that these new uses of our coastal waters are created in such a way that they do not devastate existing uses, which in this case is one of the most important scallop grounds on the East Coast.

The court ruled that because BOEM doesn’t technically commit to anything at the lease stage, it is too early to challenge the siting of the wind farm under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The decision means that affected parties cannot challenge a lease location under NEPA until BOEM approves a Construction and Operations Plan (COP) for the wind farm. However, that is very late in the process, and changing the lease location at such a late date would be exceedingly difficult.

Since this litigation was filed, eight additional leasing areas have been proposed, all of which conflict with natural scallop habitat and historic scalloping grounds.

We will continue to work with BOEM to seek modified versions of several of the leasing areas due to their proximity to sensitive scallop areas. Under the current boundaries, historically important scallop areas will be directly next to wind turbines, and all of the negative environmental impacts they bring with them. By shifting the boundaries of some of these areas, and creating additional buffer zones between scallop areas and the turbines, BOEM can better ensure that scallop fishing will be unaffected, without diminishing the potential for wind power in the area.

New York advancing new rules for whelk harvesting; fishermen say slow down

May 20, 2021 — New York State is advancing a set of rules to limit the annual harvest off Long Island of sea snails known as whelk, but some fishermen say the restrictions aren’t needed.

Whelk, also known as conch, have become a vital species for Long Island fishermen who traditionally harvested lobsters, particularly in the Sound. But the lobster population has sharply dwindled in recent years, and fishing for them is banned for several months of the year.

Conch, which are harvested in traps that use the same hauling gear as lobster pots, are popular in ethnic food markets, including for scungilli and Asian specialty foods.

Read the full story at Newsday

Montauk Gosman fish dealer family members arraigned on conspiracy, obstruction charges

May 19, 2021 — Two fish dealers who are members of the Montauk-based Gosman family pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and obstruction charges in federal court in Central Islip Wednesday in a case alleging they dealt in illegally caught fluke and black sea bass.

Bryan and Asa Gosman entered not-guilty pleas before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Wicks to a two-count indictment alleging they conspired to defraud the government by submitting false fishing reports and obstructed justice by withholding documents or emails requested in a grand-jury subpoena. The men were released on $100,000 signature bonds with their travel restricted to the continental United States.

George Stamboulidis, an attorney for the Gosmans, declined to comment outside the courtroom. He had requested the men be released without the $100,00 bond, which Wicks denied.

Christoner Winkler, a Montauk fisherman who allegedly sold the Gosmans fish caught over the legal limits, was arraigned last week and pleaded not guilty to related conspiracy and obstruction charges, said his lawyer, Peter Smith of Northport, who declined to comment further.

The federal indictment unsealed last month charges Winkler, 61, Bryan Gosman, 48, and Asa Gosman, 45, with a conspiracy the government said took place between May 2014 and July 2016 involving more than $250,000 of over-quota fluke and black sea bass.

Read the full story at Newsday

Soon-to-be Vacated Seat on Fisheries Council Should Be Held By A New Yorker, Lawmakers Say

May 14, 2021 — A seat on an interstate fisheries council that manages fish allocations among mid-Atlantic states will be vacated this summer, and top New York lawmakers are urging the federal government to keep a New Yorker in the post, Newsday has learned.

In a May 7 letter, Sen. Chuck Schumer told Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo it was “crucial” that she appoint a New Yorker to soon-to-be vacated seat on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. The at-large seat is currently occupied by veteran sports fisherman and longtime council member Anthony DiLernia, whose term expires in August. Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said keeping a New Yorker in that seat is important because of “historically inequitable [council] rulings based on flawed science that have disproportionately harmed New York.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

NEW YORK: Energy giant to hold forum with fishermen over cross-Sound cable route

May 5, 2021 — A European energy giant on Wednesday will hold a forum for concerned North Shore fishermen to outline the plan for a power cable route that will extend across the Long Island Sound.

The meeting, which is closed to the media, will address concerns by some fishermen that the route could complicate trap and trawl fishing in the Sound and elsewhere, Newsday has confirmed.

The route, as proposed by Equinor, the Norwegian energy giant, will extend more than 150 miles from windmills in the waters off Massachusetts to an electrical station in Astoria, Queens, traversing the entire Long Island Sound. It will cross over or under a dozen other power or communication cables that have operated in the waters for decades with few problems, Equinor said. Some longtime fishermen acknowledged this, saying the buried cable is unlikely to pose problems. The cables will be buried 4 to 6 feet deep for the entire route, Equinor has said.

Read the full story at Newsday

$6.7M in COVID relief will be distributed to New York’s fishing industries

April 29, 2021 — Starting April 28, $6.7 million in relief aid is being distributed to New York’s seafood, marine commercial, and for-hire fishing industries after excessive losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. The State will distribute an additional $5.7 million in the coming months through the Marine Fisheries Relief Program.

The Program assists marine fishing industries and provides support for COVID-19 economic recovery. Eligible New York applicants from seafood, commercial fishing and marine recreational for-hire fishing businesses have been awarded relief based on reported economic loss experienced in 2020 compared to the previous five years.

Read the full story at ABC 10

The U.S. vs. Atlantic fisheries

April 28, 2021 — In its rush to burnish its green bona fides, the Biden administration is showering billions of dollars of subsidies onto European offshore wind developers, and in the process threatening both the environment and the livelihoods of Atlantic coast commercial fishermen.

The most recent example is the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) decision to fast-track offshore leases to wind energy companies in the New York Bight — a 16,000 square mile triangular area off the coast between Long Island and New Jersey, where Govs. Andrew Cuomo and Phil Murphy want to construct at least 18,000 MW of wind. All told, the Biden administration wants to construct 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2030, which would require erecting one 850-foot-tall wind turbine virtually every single day for the next decade.

The Atlantic coast contains some of the most productive fisheries in the world. BOEM is supposed to work with fisheries interests to ensure offshore wind development does not adversely affect habitat and the livelihood of fishermen. In fact, in December of last year, the Department of the Interior issued a detailed memo stating that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act prohibits offshore wind approvals if a project would interfere with fishing. But just a few weeks ago, the administration reversed those findings.

Read the full story at The Daily News

Offshore Wind Agenda Still Has Some Bight

April 27, 2021 — The Biden administration isn’t bowing to all local opposition to offshore wind development (“Railing Against the Wind,” Review & Outlook, April 21). Although the wealthy residents of the Hamptons succeeded in preventing offshore wind farms from spoiling their ocean views, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management intends to sink all opposition to development in the New York-New Jersey Bight, a roughly triangular area bordered by New Jersey and Long Island.

In December 2020, the Interior Department’s Office of the Solicitor issued a detailed ruling that commercial fisheries’ interests must be considered when siting offshore wind. But in March the Biden administration rescinded that ruling. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management intends to ignore fisheries’ interests, even though the Bight is home to some of the most productive fisheries in the world and is a migratory route for endangered right whales.

In the end, the fisheries industry and thousands of jobs at risk are no match for Big Wind’s lobbyists, whose European customers stand to reap billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars from the Biden administration’s new offshore wind-investment tax credit and the sky-high prices for the intermittent and unreliable power that regulators will force utility customers to buy.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal

Cornell To Survey Suffolk County Fishing Industry About Pandemic Recovery

April 27, 2021 — The Cornell Cooperative and Suffolk County will survey the commercial fishing industry on Long Island. They will recommend ways for fishermen to recover from the pandemic-related shut down of restaurants and seafood markets across the state.

“They work to be able to provide this food for the nation. And COVID, just basically — in New York, especially where 90% of our seafood market is New York City restaurants that were completely shuttered,” Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said.

In 2019, Long Island commercial fishermen landed over 19 million pounds of fish valued at over $27 million. Then, the pandemic cut market prices for fish in half. Commercial fishing is a more than $50 million industry on Long Island and employs more than 650 people.

Read the full story at WSHU

New York wholesaler indicted on seafood fraud charges

April 23, 2021 — A federal grand jury has indicted Montauk, New York-based seafood wholesaler Bob Gosman Co. on seafood fraud charges.

On 21 April, the grand jury unsealed the indictment in the seafood fraud case, which also charges fishing captain Christopher Winkler, Bob Gosman Co. managers Bryan Gosman and Asa Gosman, and an unnamed co-conspirator – a now-defunct company operating out of the New Fulton Fish Market – the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source