Saving Seafood

NEW YORK: Five State Agencies Sign On to Wind Farm Plan

October 16, 2020 — The joint proposal that the developers of the South Fork Wind farm filed with the New York State Public Service Commission last month in support of their application for a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need under Article VII of the Public Service Law received prominent backing last week with the addition of five state agencies.

The Department of Public Service, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Transportation, the Department of State, and the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation signed the joint proposal, a list of conditions on which stakeholders have reached consensus over 10 months of negotiations. Stakeholders include East Hampton Town and the town trustees, and groups and individuals advocating for and against the wind farm.

The Department of Public Service is the staff of the Public Service Commission. Under the Public Service Law, the commission “shall designate such members of its staff as may be desirable to represent the public interest in such proceedings.” As such, it is an interested party in the Article VII proceeding.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

US restaurant industry decries end to negotiations on additional federal aid package

October 14, 2020 — Increased dining room restrictions in certain COVID-19 hotspots across the U.S. are further hampering restaurant sales across the country.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently released a plan to shut down non-essential businesses like restaurants in parts of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, where spikes in COVID-19 cases have occurred, Eater New York reported.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NEW YORK: Trustees on Board With Offshore Wind Plan

October 2, 2020 — The East Hampton Town Trustees unanimously approved signing on to the joint proposal submitted two weeks ago by Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource Energy to the New York State Public Service Commission in support of the proposed South Fork Wind farm, to be situated approximate-ly 35 miles off Montauk Point.

Before the vote during their virtual meeting on Monday, the trustees, in consultation with outside counsel retained for navigating their role in the wind farm proposal, emphasized that the approval they were codifying supports “only those provisions that address the public need for the project and the construction, operation, maintenance, repair, and decommissioning of those portions of the project that are proposed to be located within” trustee jurisdiction, specifically the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott, where the developers intend to land the wind farm’s export cable.

By signing on to the joint proposal, which details elements of the project from construction to its decommissioning 25 years later, the trustees are not addressing issues such as the wind farm’s impact on utility rates, for example, said Daniel Spitzer of Hodgson Russ L.L.C., counsel to the trustees. “You’re not offering an opinion that New York State needs this particular wind farm,” he said. That determination, rather, is the role of the Public Service Commission, which in order for the project to proceed must issue a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need under Article VII of the Public Service Law.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

She’s got the scoop: Bonnie Brady of Montauk, New York

October 2, 2020 — “I picked up the chalk,” says Bonnie Brady. “That was the end of my life.” Twenty years later, Brady, 57, recalls the meeting that changed the course of her life and put a scrappy journalist on her path as a doggedly determined advocate for fishermen and ocean habitat.

“I had never really paid attention to the fishing thing,” Brady adds. She came to fishing through marriage after landing in Montauk, N.Y., an iconic Long Island fishing town.

Like many community fisheries advocates, she recalls that time of her life via council proceedings: “It was around 2000, Amendment 13” to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan.

“Dave was out fishing, and he said, ‘Can you go to this meeting and find out what happens?’” Brady adds that once she got to the fishermen’s forum hosted by the Cornell Cooperative Extension, the room was awash with a range of complaints from a crowd of fishermen. She stood up, grabbed the chalk and started to ask questions. “If you were to list the top five problems, what are they? I put myself in the middle. Being a reporter, I wanted to see what the main points were. It was obvious these guys had real issues. I had never paid attention to any of that before I met Dave.”

Brady married Montauk fisherman Dave Aripotch in 1998. “He’s a trawler — fluke, scup, black sea bass, squid, whiting. He used to groundfish, but he leases his quota now,” Brady says. “He started going offshore gillnetting when he was 15. He would sneak off unbeknownst to his parents. He would take off for a couple of weeks!”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NEW YORK: Wind Farm Benefits Package Totals $29 Million for East Hampton Town

September 11, 2020 — The Town of East Hampton and the town trustees will share a community benefits package worth almost $29 million in exchange for easements allowing Orsted U.S Offshore Wind and Eversource, partners developing the proposed 15-turbine South Fork Wind project, to land the installation’s export cable and bury it on a path to the Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton.

Tuesday’s town board work session made clear that the board and trustees have agreed — although not unanimously — with the developers that the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott is the export cable’s most suitable landfall location. A town announcement on Thursday that a draft agreement had been reached made this official.

“Wainscott is the most appropriate landing site for the terrestrial portion,” Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said during the long discussion.

That decision has infuriated many residents of that hamlet, as well as most commercial fishermen in the town, though the site has equally impassioned support of other Wainscott residents, one of whom called in twice to Tuesday’s virtual meeting.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

How This Seafood ‘Sourcerer’ Runs New York City’s Lobster Game

September 2, 2020 — “Selling lobsters is definitely a complicated process,” says Steven Wong, owner of Aqua Best Seafood Market in New York City. “I’ve eaten so much lobster in my life I can actually taste the difference in where they caught it.” Wong and his family have been selling and shipping diverse seafood to customers, many of whom are restaurateurs for some of NYC’s best restaurants, for over 30 years. In that time, Wong has become known for his sourcing of high-grade lobster, so much so that he earned the nickname “the lobster ‘sourcerer’”

“A lobster’s not just a lobster. A lobster is just like a diamond,” says Wong of the many different types of lobsters he sources from all over the country. “There are different cuts, different grades, different sizes, there are different areas from where you catch lobster that have different qualities.”

Before COVID-19, the shop went through an average 60 to 80 thousand pounds of lobster per week, and during the holidays that number could be up to 150 thousand pounds. Wong’s company sells lobster and other fish to 175 restaurants in the northeast, and they ship anywhere in the world in under 24 hours; “even in Singapore,” he notes, “which has the longest flight, like 19 hours.”

Read the full story at Eater

Coordinated New York offshore grid ‘could save $500m’

August 7, 2020 — A multi-user, planned transmission system for offshore wind in New York could achieve grid cost savings of over $500m, according to a new study produced by the Brattle Group.

Other benefits include “significantly reduced” environmental impacts and project risks if a multi-user, planned transmission system can be developed.

The report, Offshore Wind Transmission: An Analysis of Options for New York, evaluates the challenges of connecting each wind farm to shore individually in comparison to a planned approach.

Such an approach would comprise a high-capacity offshore wind transmission system serving multiple wind farms, reducing marine cabling, and optimising onshore landing points and substations.

The study found that planned offshore transmission “significantly” reduces seabed marine cabling by almost 60%, avoiding over 800km of seabed disturbance and reducing impact on fisheries and marine ecosystems.

Read the full story at ReNews

Scientist: Increase In Seal Population Likely Attracting More Sharks To Maine Waters

July 29, 2020 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources has identified Julie Dimperio Holowach, of New York City, as the victim of a shark attack near Bailey Island yesterday. She was pronounced dead after being helped to the shore following the attack.

It may be the first recorded encounter of its kind in Maine and has sparked beach closures in parts of the state.

Dr. Nick Whitney, senior scientist and chair of the Fisheries Science and Emerging Technologies Program with the New England Aquarium in Boston, spoke with Maine Public’s Nora Flaherty about why there might be more sharks in Maine now than there have been in the past.

Dr. Whitney: I think it’s generally accepted that the increase in number of seals is leading to more white sharks coming closer to shore during some months. Other than that, I’m not sure if there’s been any major changes in migration patterns. Sharks have probably been using these waters for decades or longer.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Success of NY Offshore Wind Industry Depends on Collaboration with Scallop Fishery

July 14, 2020 — Offshore wind is considered one of the most promising forms of renewable energy to expand this decade. According to the nonprofit World Forum Offshore Wind, technological advancements, global government support, and cost reductions have allowed the industry to play a greater role in electricity generation. Offshore wind is currently most prevalent in Western Europe, but this source of energy production is rapidly growing in countries such as China and the United States.

In New York State, Governor Cuomo’s 2018 Offshore Wind Master Plan outlines steps for offshore wind development until 2030. A first-of-its-kind document in the United States, the plan delineated a study area known as the New York Bight Call Area for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the agency responsible for energy projects in federal water, to consider for future projects. BOEM has recommended several areas of interest (see map below), and the oil and gas company Equinor secured an approximately $3 billion lease next to the area for its Empire Wind project.

While the Offshore Wind Master Plan can help New York secure 2.4 gigawatts of carbon-free electricity by 2020 (enough to power 1.2 million homes), the projects could also potentially compete with other activities, such as fishing, vessel traffic, conservation, and ocean science research. In the NY-NJ Bight, scallopers are concerned about offshore wind projects negatively impacting fisheries. Examining the spatial proximity between the region’s scallop fishery and offshore wind industry highlights the need for wind development companies to take fishermen’s concerns more seriously, so that both parties can coexist successfully.

Read the full story at State of the Planet