Saving Seafood

NEW YORK: Effort to salvage juvenile scallops called off for lack of candidates

November 22, 2019 — An unprecedented effort by conservationists, baymen and the state to save a vulnerable population of juvenile scallops by transferring them to deeper waters has been called off after only a day because of a lack of mollusks to move.

In response to a scallop die-off, the state Department of Environmental Conservation moved quickly last week to approve a new Scallop Salvage and Relay permit to allow vulnerable scallops in an area of water near Orient Harbor to be transferred to deeper, safer waters, with the hope they’d survive and spawn next summer.

Stephen Tettelbach, an ecologist at the Cornell Cooperative Extension’s marine program, worked with the state and lined up five commercial scallop fishermen to dredge the area for juveniles to move earlier this week.

“The baymen went out, they dredged for hours and hours and got very few,” said Tettelbach, adding the numbers were not enough to continue the program. “There were still a good number of scallops, but not as many as we saw a month ago.”

Read the full story at Newsday

Biologists suspect New York bay scallops are latest victim of warmer waters

November 20, 2019 — The famed bay scallops of eastern Long Island came back after their near-death experience of brown tides only after years of a dedicated restoration effort. Now biologists are worried the fishery may be at risk with increasing water temperatures.

New York baymen are seeing the worst Peconic Bays scallop season in years, after summer 2019 water temperatures that reached a sustained July peak of 84 degrees in some places.

The scallops were devastated by severe brown tides for more than a decade starting in 1984 and were nurtured back with many years of work by scientists, baymen, aquaculture experts and volunteers. The shellfish face other threats like being eaten by cownose rays and other predators. But biologists think this situation is different.

“I do believe this one in dues to high water temperatures and low dissolved oxygen that may have coincided with spawning,” Long Island University professor Steve Tettlebach who works with the Cornell Cooperative Extension told National Fisherman. “So, the combination of these stressors is the most plausible explanation for the die-off of adults.”

The damage became evident during the Cornell fall scallop survey when workers found thousands of empty shells, and baymen came home largely empty-handed from the fall season.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NEW YORK: A Hush-Hush Wind Powwow

November 15, 2019 — Details are scant, but a meeting between developers of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm and the New York State Public Service Commission to begin negotiations on a settlement took place on Friday morning at East Hampton Town Hall.

Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource Energy, which jointly plan to construct and operate the South Fork Wind Farm some 35 miles off Montauk, had filed notice with the Public Service Commission in September to begin settlement negotiations in the commission’s review of their application to install the wind farm’s export cable in state waters and on the subterranean path to a Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton.

A meeting scheduled to take place on Oct. 8 at the commission’s offices in Albany was canceled after East Hampton Town and state officials objected to its location and to what an attorney representing the town said was unreasonably short notice.

Among the 52 parties that had registered to attend the meeting were town officials, including Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and members of the town board, as well as members of the town trustees.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

PAUL STEIDLER: New York’s reckless gamble on offshore wind power

November 14, 2019 — Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s all-out push for offshore wind power to be a major electricity source for New York City and Long Island takes the region into uncharted waters, fraught with recurring blackouts and significantly higher electricity costs. This is bad for public safety and the economy.

In July, Cuomo said, “New York will lead the way in developing the largest source of offshore wind power in the nation.” Currently, America has just one offshore wind facility, generating 30 megawatts of power, enough for about 24,000 homes.

The governor, though, wants 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. This is 300 times what is currently in use nationwide and 38% of New York’s current downstate electricity generating capacity of 25,007 megawatts.

Read the full story at New York Business

NEW YORK: Likely Scallop Die-Off Raises Concerns On Long Island

November 11, 2019 — Scallop season started this week, but fisheries on eastern Long Island say scallops in the Peconic Bay may have died off over the summer.

Roger Tollefsen, former executive director of the New York Seafood Council, an industry group in the Hampton Bays, says scallops depend on nutrients in the water to survive.

Harmful algal blooms can diminish the population, but Tollefsen says that some algae can help create a healthier ecosystem.

“We should be nurturing the good algae in our bays as opposed to simply trying to eliminate the ones which we call harmful.”

Read the full story at WSHU

PSEG subsidiary contemplates bigger stake in offshore wind

November 7, 2019 — PSEG Long Island’s sister power company is contemplating a second major offshore wind initiative with Danish energy giant, Orsted, in which it could acquire a stake in a massive New Jersey project, even as the company works to help implement separate Orsted wind farms for the South Fork and New York State.

PSEG Power announced last week that it had begun to seek approvals and analyze the prospect of acquiring a 25% stake in a 1,100-megawatt offshore wind farm for New Jersey called Ocean Wind. PSEG Power already had already been working to support the project. And it has a partnership with Orsted predecessor Deepwater Wind for a separate project in waters off New Jersey south of the planned Ocean Wind farm.

Deepwater Wind is the company that successfully bid for an originally 90-megawatt wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts that will provide energy to the South Fork. The project was later expanded to 130 megawatts. PSEG Long Island’s power markets group provided the analysis that led to the recommendation of that project, which LIPA’s board approved in January 2017, after nods from town governments in East Hampton and Southampton.

Read the full story at Newsday

NEW YORK: Peconic Bay Scallop Season A Wash: ‘The Worst In 15 Years’

November 6, 2019 — Phones were ringing at seafood shops and restaurants across the North Fork and East End Monday with hungry diners hoping to celebrate the first day of Peconic Bay scallop season.

But for those who’ve waited months for that much-heralded first taste of sweet goodness, the news was grim: This year’s season is, quite simply, a bust.

Scallop fisherman Kevin Mellenburg, out on opening day, reflected on the turn of events. “This is the worst harvest season we’ve seen in the last decade,” he said. With so few scallops to be had, he said, “Prices will be through the roof.” He got about three bushels Monday, he said, and his take was one of the top three highest on Peconic Bay, he said.

Kathie Cibulski and her fiance Henry Romanowski of Laurel confirmed the bad news after a day out on the water. “There are a lot of dead shells out there. It’s not like it usually is.” On Monday, she said, Romanowski brought in about 3.5 bushes. “Usually on opening day he can get up to about 10 or so,” she said.

Read the full story at Patch

When a Right Whale Dies

November 4, 2019 — Around 3 p.m. on September 16, 2019, Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (AMSEAS) received a call about a very decomposed whale carcass. It was floating about 4 miles south of Fire Island Inlet of Long Island, New York. Dead whales floating in the waters off Long Island have been a fairly common occurrence over the last few years, mostly humpback and minke whales. When AMSEAS reported the call to us at NOAA Fisheries, we were prepared to assist with what has now sadly become somewhat routine response planning.

Day 1: Mobilizing the Response

Response planning involves a series of coordination calls. We need to:

  • Make arrangements to tow the carcass to a beach (usually public but not crowded).

  • Arrange heavy equipment (front loaders, backhoes) to help position the carcass.

  • Secure the carcass from tides and possible souvenir hunters.

  • Assemble a team to take measurements and samples (necropsy team).

  • Handle media and bystander inquiries.

  • Plan for the disposal of the carcass—usually deep beach burial, but sometimes other options are considered.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries 

Patrick C. Keliher Elected ASMFC Chair

October 30, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Today, member states of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) thanked James Gilmore of New York for an effective two-year term as Chair and elected Commissioner Patrick C. Keliher of Maine to succeed him.

“It is both a great honor and huge responsibility to be trusted to lead the Commission for the next two years. I am humbled by my fellow Commissioners’ confidence in me,” said Mr. Keliher. “While my obligation to the great State of Maine will always come first and foremost, I also recognize that Maine sits on boards for just 10 of the 27 species managed by the Commission. As Chair, I will be working with ASMFC leadership to shape the course of interstate fisheries management for more than just the Pine Tree State and will ensure substantial resources are devoted to issues of equal importance in the fisheries of the Mid- and South Atlantic states. I look forward to bolstering the Commission’s relationship with NOAA Fisheries and Congress to ensure mutual cooperation. I’d like to thank Jim Gilmore for his superb leadership over the past two years. I learned a great deal from him and will use the knowledge gained to work with newly elected Vice-chair Spud Woodward to advance the Commission’s vision of Cooperative and Sustainable Management of Atlantic Coastal Fisheries.”

Under Mr. Gilmore’s chairmanship, the Commission made important strides in furthering its strategic goals. Management accomplishment’s during the past two years include approval of plan amendments for Atlantic cobia and summer flounder, protections for spawning Atlantic herring, and approval of an addendum to end overfishing of Atlantic striped bass. The Commission’s Science Program completed benchmark assessments and peer reviews for horseshoe crab, Atlantic striped bass and northern shrimp, and made significant progress on the benchmark assessments for American lobster, American shad, and Atlantic menhaden (including the establishment of ecological reference points).

The Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP) continued to successfully implement state conduct of the Marine Recreational Information Program’s Access-Point Angler Intercept Survey. ACCSP also made significant advancements in technological innovations, including tablet and mobile data entry apps for dealers, commercial fishermen and the for-hire industry. During his chairmanship, Mr. Gilmore oversaw the selection of a new ACCSP Program Director, Geoff White.

The Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership funded restoration projects in six states to conserve a total of 40 acres of fish habitat and provide access to over 29 river miles and 3,900 acres of spawning habitat. It also launched a redesigned website, created an online query tool for the Species-Habitat Matrix, and completed a research project to understand black sea bass habitat use in the Mid-Atlantic Bight.

A Gardiner native, Mr.  Keliher has spent much of his life in the woods and on the waters of Maine.  His experiences as a youth, fishing and lobstering with family in Casco Bay, instilled in him early on an appreciation for the importance and value of our natural resources. He has been Commissioner of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources since January 2012.

The Commission also elected Spud Woodward, Georgia’s Governor Appointee to the Commission, as its Vice-Chair.

NEW YORK: Bonnie Brady: A Diversity of Experience

October 25, 2019 — “What you see is what you get,” is how Bonnie Brady, a longtime Montauk resident and EH Fusion Party candidate for East Hampton Town Board, described herself in an interview with Star staff this week. “I’d like to think of myself as a fair, honest person, someone who would work their butt off” for constituents.

As executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, Ms. Brady has long been a proponent of that industry’s interests, which in recent years means she is also a vocal opponent of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, which fishermen fear will disrupt or destroy their livelihood.

But Ms. Brady’s résumé illustrates a diversity of experience that may have few equals among East Hampton candidates past and present. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina and worked as a reporter for The Star in the early 1990s. Living in Washington, D.C., she worked for then-Senator Bill Bradley, a Democrat from New Jersey. While living in the nation’s capital, she applied to the Peace Corps, and in 1991 went to Cameroon, in West Africa, where she coordinated primary health care for pre- and postnatal women and their infant children.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star