Saving Seafood

On U.S. East Coast, Has Offshore Wind’s Moment Finally Arrived?

February 24, 2021 — About 60 miles east of New York’s Montauk Point, a 128,000-acre expanse of the Atlantic Ocean is expected to produce enough electricity to power around 850,000 homes when it’s populated with wind turbines and connected to the onshore grid in the next few years.

Fifteen miles off Atlantic City, New Jersey, another windy swath of ocean is due to start generating enough power for some 500,000 homes when a forest of 850-foot-high turbines start turning there in 2024.

And off the Virginia coast some 200 miles to the south, a utility-led offshore wind project is scheduled to produce carbon-free power equivalent to taking 1 million cars off the road when it is complete in 2026.

The fledgling U.S. offshore wind industry is finally poised to become a commercial reality off the northeast and mid-Atlantic coasts within the next five years, thanks to robust commitments to buy its power from seven coastal states, new support from the Biden administration, and billions of dollars in investment by an industry that sees a huge market for electric power in Eastern states.

New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maryland have together committed, through legislation or executive action, to buying about 30,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore electricity by 2035 — enough to power roughly 20 million homes, according to the American Clean Power Association (ACPA), which advocates for renewable energy. Projects totaling 11,000 MW have been awarded so far.

Read the full story at Yale Environment 360

NEW YORK: Today is Deadline for Comments on South Fork Wind Farm Environmental Report

February 22, 2021 — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which recently finished its draft environmental review of the South Fork Wind Farm, gave the public a chance to weigh in on the document at three virtual public hearings in mid-February, and is accepting further written public comment through midnight tonight.

While much of the focus on the wind farm locally over the past several years has been the local and New York State Public Service Commission review of the wind farm’s export cable, currently slated to come ashore at Beach Lane in Wainscott en route to a substation in East Hampton, the BOEM review focuses on the wind farm itself, 15 turbines slated to be placed in federal waters about 30 miles off the coast of Montauk.

At the series of virtual hearings on BOEM’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the wind farm, many labor union leaders spoke in favor of the wind farms, while many representatives of fishing communities in both Rhode Island and Montauk expressed concern not only about this wind farm, but about what the future development of the wind farm area surrounding the South Fork Wind Farm, which could be developed on a scale orders of magnitude greater than this wind farm.

Local environmentalists also weighed in on the project, expressing support both for the project and for robust environmental protections and review during the construction and operation of the wind farm.

Some commenters also weighed in with concerns about the reliability of wind turbines, especially in the wake of the disastrous blow that cold weather dealt to the Texas energy industry in mid-February, which some lawmakers blamed on frozen wind turbines, which played a small role in the energy grid shutdown there.

Read the full story at The East End Beacon

Acme Smoked Fish Co-Chairman Eric Caslow dies

February 19, 2021 — Acme Smoked Fish Co-Chairman Eric Caslow has died, the company said in a press release issued 18 February. The company did not announce the cause of death.

Along with his brother, Robert Caslow, who remains company co-chairman, Eric Caslow was the third generation of his family to run the Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.-based fish smoker, which was founded in 1906 and has grown into one of the largest fish-smoking companies in the United States.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NEW YORK: Cable Landing Simmers While Federal Wind Farm Review Is Just Heating Up

February 11, 2021 — While the public debate over the South Fork Wind Farm cable landing in Wainscott has shifted to court filings and the village incorporation effort, the public stage of the federal application for the wind farm itself is just getting started — and advocates for local fishermen say that the most important aspects of the project have yet to be settled.

Whether turbine foundations will be hammered into the heart of one of the most fabled fishing regions off Montauk and whether commercial fishermen will be compensated for lost fishing time or damaged fishing gear are both still up in the air as the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and a dozen other federal agencies continue their examination of the project as proposed by Danish wind farm developer Ørsted and it’s American domestic partner, Eversource.

The federal regulators on Tuesday held the first of three public comment sessions on the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement, the 800-plus-page main outline of the project and the various considerations for its design. The will be additional comment sessions on February 11 and 16. The meetings are being held via Zoom and registration and the full details of the project are available at www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/south-fork-wind-farm-virtual-meetings.

Read the full story at the Sag Harbor Express

Atlantic surf clams: With restaurant sales down, processors focus on retail

February 8, 2021 — Consumer demand for Atlantic surf clams and ocean quahogs has shifted in the past six months. Most of the fleet is centered around Point Pleasant Beach and Atlantic City, N.J.; Oceanview, N.Y.; Hyannis, Mass. (surf clams only); and New Bedford and Fairhaven, Mass. There is also a quahog fishery in Maine. 

Chris Shriver, general manager of Atlantic Capes Fisheries, a large processor headquartered in Massachusetts, says covid-19 has affected markets.

“A lot of our product does sell to the restaurant sector, wholesale, and to chains. All were impacted, due to the closures and limited seatings.” Shriver says some states are starting to open up a little, and that clam products from Rhode Island were still able to be sold locally in fry shacks and take-out establishments.

“But we’re all fearful for the next shoe to drop,” Shriver says. While Atlantic Capes does not produce canned products, they have substantial retail and soup manufacturing markets. The upshot is “there has definitely been an uptick in the retail sector.” But, adds Shriver, it is difficult to make up for the lost restaurant markets. 

Landings for surf clams, ocean quahog and Maine quahog are short of what they were at this time last year. By mid-September 2020, 32.5 percent of the surf clam quota (3.4 million bushels) and 25.5 percent of ocean quahog quota (5.33 million bushels) was harvested. Maine’s quahog fishery had harvested 10 percent of the 100,000-bushel quota for the state.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Northeast scup: With abundant biomass, fishermen look to expand market post-pandemic

February 8, 2021 — Commercial scup, or porgy, landings peaked in 1981 at 21.73 million pounds but dipped to 2.66 million pounds by 2000. In recent years, commercial fishermen have not landed the commercial quota, and there have been industry-wide efforts focused on closing the gap.

The commercial fishery is year-round, and mostly in federal waters during the winter and state waters during the summer. A coastwide commercial quota is allocated between three quota periods: winter I, summer and winter II. Total ex-vessel value in 2018 was $9.70 million, resulting in an average price per pound of $0.73. NOAA data shows landings from October to the end of December 2020 are below last year’s landings.

Despite being highly abundant, and not considered overfished, the industry has grappled with achieving a harvest of the full quota every year, in part because commercial fishermen often do not fish for scup when the dock price is depressed. If market demand were increased, prices and opportunities for fleets to harvest the fish would follow. 

Dave Aripotch, a commercial scup commercial fisherman in Montauk, N.Y., says 2020 was decent, but that he pulled in less volume than previous years.

“A lot of times with scup, if you catch them, you catch a lot of them. This year, there were a lot of small and mediums around, and this means the market gets plugged even for jumbo.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Black sea bass more abundant in Long Island Sound as water warms

January 29, 2021 — Scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Milford Laboratory in Connecticut documented a distinct shift in Long Island Sound fish abundance, with black sea bass showing up in increasing numbers while winter flounder declined.

The findings recently published in Fishery Bulletin are another confirmation of the steady spread northward of black sea bass – now extending into the Gulf of Maine – as waters warm off the Northeast coast.

According to a narrative issued Thursday by the National Marine Fisheries Service, two warm-adapted species: black sea bass, a commercially and recreationally important fish, and oyster toadfish became more abundant in recent samples.

Oyster toadfish prefer rocky habitats and are not often captured by trawl surveys. Meanwhile, cold-adapted species, including cunner and grubby, declined in numbers over the course of the study.

Winter flounder, also a commercial species, and rock gunnel were notably absent in more recent years. Long-term trawl data collected by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection suggests winter flounder abundance has been declining in the Sound for 20 years. The scientists found no consistent trend in the abundance of tautog and scup, two temperate residents of Long Island Sound. The species are often captured on video by our GoPro Aquaculture Project.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NEW YORK: Town and Trustees Sign Off on Wind Farm Pact

January 29, 2021 — After several years of discussion, debate, and public comment, the proposed South Fork Wind farm has come closer to reality. Both the East Hampton Town Board and the town trustees have voted to execute agreements with the developers allowing the wind farm’s export cable to make landfall in the town and travel below ground, along town roads, to a Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton.

Over the objections of one member and after a contentious discussion, the town board voted on the agreement last Thursday. Separately, the trustees, who have jurisdiction over the Wainscott beach where the cable would come ashore, voted 9-to-0 on Monday to execute the “host community” agreement, a lease agreement, an agreement concerning dredging of Georgica Pond, and a revenue-sharing agreement with the town.

The wind farm developers propose to install up to 15 turbines in a federal lease area some 35 miles east of Montauk Point. The wind farm remains the subject of furious opposition, particularly in an effort to create an incorporated village of Wainscott. The export cable would make landfall there, at the end of Beach Lane.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

NEW YORK: East Hampton Town Okays Offshore Wind Farm Agreement

January 22, 2021 — Over the objections of one member and after a contentious discussion, the East Hampton Town Board voted on Thursday to execute an easement and host-community agreement with the developers of the proposed South Fork Wind farm.

Thursday’s vote followed several years of discussion, debate, and public comment on the proposal that would see an installation of up to 15 turbines in a federal lease area approximately 35 miles off Montauk Point. The offshore installation remains the subject of furious opposition, most visibly manifest in an effort to create an incorporated village of Wainscott, where the wind farm’s export cable would make landfall at the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane.

Four of the board’s five members voted in favor of a resolution authorizing Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc to execute the easement agreement with South Fork Wind, L.L.C., for the construction, installation, maintenance, repair, replacement, removal, and decommissioning of the wind farm’s export cable and related facilities for the wind farm, within town road rights-of-way, to connect the wind farm to a Long Island Power Authority substation off Cove Hollow Road in East Hampton. The resolution is subject to permissive referendum, meaning if enough signatures were collected opponents could force a public vote on the project.

The board also voted 4 to 0 to execute the host-community agreement that would see the developers, Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource Energy, making direct payments to the town totaling almost $29 million over the installation’s 25-year lifetime.

Councilman Jeff Bragman abstained from voting on both resolutions, repeating his assertions that the town would maintain leverage and therefore its ability to influence the project by waiting until state and federal reviews are complete, and that many pertinent questions as to environmental review and the installation’s potential impact on the commercial fishing industry remain unanswered.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

NY award will more than double the number of wind turbines planned for South Shore

January 20, 2021 — New York State’s decision last week to award two “massive” offshore wind power contracts to Norwegian energy giant Equinor will more than double the size of a planned wind farm off the coast of Long Island. It also promises “substantial” upgrades to a section of the electric grid at Oceanside.

The plan, announced by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo last week as part of an expansive post-COVID-19 green economy, would bring the number the number of turbines expected to be spinning off the South Shore by 2027 to around 170, encompassing some 80,000 acres from Jones Beach to Islip, the company said. New York has a stated goal of some 9,000 megawatts of wind power by 2035, to displace carbon-belching conventional plants.

The state awarded the projects to Norwegian energy giant Equinor, which in 2019 was awarded a separate contract for 816 megawatts in a project called Empire Wind 1, some 15 miles off Jones Beach. That project will be constructed by 2024 directly adjacent to the newly awarded Empire Wind 2 and will be “built as one project, in sequence,” said Siri Espedal Kindem, president of Equinor’s U.S. Wind division. Empire Wind 2 is expected to be comprised of some 90 turbines.

She said the company is interested in bidding for new lease areas off the coast of Long Island, a process currently stalled under the Trump Administration.

Read the full story at Newsday