Saving Seafood

New York City seeks private support to keep crucial food distributors afloat

April 16, 2020 — New York City is seeking philanthropic support for its food distributors, raising some concerns about the viability of the merchants that sell fruit, vegetables and meat to groceries and bodegas in the epicenter of the United States coronavirus epidemic.

Food distributors are facing such “a significant liquidity issue,” that City Hall has asked the philanthropic and financial sectors to create a fund to support the merchants, according to a confidential memo acquired by POLITICO. While philanthropic dollars have been devoted to meals for the poor and vulnerable, the city is asking for donations to bolster a private industry crucial to the food supply of more than 8.6 million people.

“We’re completely dependent on the food distribution network,” said Kathryn Garcia, who serves as both the city’s Covid-19 food czar and its sanitation commissioner, in an interview Wednesday. “That’s how we eat. We need them to be resilient. We need them to be healthy.”

Read the full story at Politico

One month into coronavirus shutdowns, New Jersey fishermen search for new customers

April 9, 2020 — Weeks after the New York region’s fresh seafood market suddenly froze with government-mandated restaurant closings to control coronavirus, fishermen, docks and dealers are slowly finding new ways to get fresh fish to consumers.

“It’s a sustainable, natural, healthy resource,” said Richard Brecka, who owns the Shore Fresh Seafood Market at the Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. “We’ve got 13,000 pounds for tomorrow.”

Brecka’s crew was busily cutting black sea bass Wednesday afternoon, preparing for another open-air seafood sale near the dock, which was hit hard by the late March collapse of New York market prices. The first event April 4 attracted enough of a crowd – maintaining the required 6-foot social distancing among customers – to sell out 300 pounds of scallops in an hour.

“It’s coming back up” as retail customers seek out sources for local seafood, said Brecka. But the retail shop can handle only a portion of what the Point Pleasant fishermen can land during good weather, he added.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Tensions build over menhaden fishing off coast of New York’s Long Island

April 7, 2020 — The timing of a recent crackdown on the use of purse seiners to catch menhaden off the coast of the state of New York’s Long Island is being questioned, the local newspaper News Day reports.

Some fishermen, who launched their boats from a ramp in Riverhead, were reportedly greeted Wednesday morning by Travis Wooten, a constable, who said they would be cited for using seine nets that stretch beyond the town’s 50-foot limit. Wooten said his stakeout was the result of complaints by residents who are concerned the fishing boats are damaging the bay bottom, depleting it of companion species such as striped bass.

The harvesters, who previously worked in cooperation with the town to prevent large die-offs of the menhaden, also known as bunkers, said they were surprised by the move.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

NEW YORK: Fishermen See Market Dry Out

March 27, 2020 — Unable to sell a 1,000-pound catch of fluke last week, Capt. Chuck Morici of the dragger Act 1 spent three days filleting the fish at Montauk commercial dock and offering it for free straight from his boat. On Saturday morning, he gave it away from the back of his pickup truck in downtown Montauk, a big handwritten sign announcing, “Free Fish.”

In a normal year, the religious period of Lent, when many people give up eating meat, tends to drive up seafood demand and prices. But the global COVID-19 pandemic has thrown normal to the wind.

In addition to the closure of most domestic restaurants, foreign markets such as Spain and Italy, which before the pandemic were historically large buyers of squid landed on the East End, for example, have stopped all imports. As a result, many fish buyers have implored fishermen to stay ashore.

Prices have fallen dramatically, said Bonnie Brady of Montauk, the executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. “Everyone is frustrated that the buyers are not buying fish, but at the same time the restaurant market has dried up, and New York has always been beholden to the fresh fish market because we haven’t had processing to help us.”

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

East Coast fishing crippled by coronavirus crisis, restaurant shutdowns

March 25, 2020 — Escalating coronavirus closures in Northeast cities have left seafood unsold and boats tied up, threatening to inflict lasting damage on the U.S. fishing fleet.

State governments ordering restaurants to close and people to stay in their homes brought business to a screeching halt at major seafood hubs like Boston and the New Fulton Fish Market in New York City’s sprawling Hunts Point food terminal.

“It’s really serious here. Some buyers have not given us a price, and in some cases, they still have the fish,” said Jim Lovgren, a longtime trawler captain with the Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.

“The issue here is the restaurants. The average American doesn’t cook fish at home,” said Lovgren. Restaurant and food service buyers account for the vast majority of demand in the fresh fish market, but state orders limiting restaurants to offering take-out service only immediately evaporated those sales, he said.

The crisis hit amid a growing economy and a relatively mild winter with good fishing in the New York Bight. Jumbo fluke that had been bringing $4 a pound at the dock plummeted to 75 cents, meaning “50 cents to the boat,” said Lovgren.

“So, the market is upside down,” he added. Co-op members have even discussed whether they may need to close the dock if those conditions persist.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

JIM LOVGREN: Congress must act to save U.S. fishing industry

March 25, 2020 — With the coronavirus being spread around the world and nations reacting to this threat in many different ways — from doing nothing, to closing the borders and full quarantines — the unintended effects of such government actions have yet to be fully felt.

Granted the stock market has lost 30 percent in value in just three weeks’ time, the average American really doesn’t feel that unless he is living on his investment returns.

With the closing of schools, and restaurants and any places of public gatherings, an enormous crisis is being created. Many people are being put out of work, and some of them may not have a business to come back to when the crisis is over. The coronavirus may topple an empire if we let it.

How? By exposing our self-inflicted dependence on foreign imports by every major industry in our country.

Years ago, the problem was our dependence on imported oil from the Middle East. That problem was based on cost of production — it was cheaper to import oil than to produce our own oil. As oil prices rose, and fracking technology advanced, we have reached a point where we have energy independence — although it is based on fossil fuel, and not fissionable fuel.

In regard to almost every other industrial production, be it agricultural, pharmaceutical, manufacturing or whatever, our own companies have sold their soul to short-term profits. We are at the mercy of foreign companies and governments for many of our essential items, and it was our politicians of both parties that sold us out.

Read the full opinion piece at National Fisherman

US restaurant industry seeks relief as outbreak threatens millions of jobs

March 18, 2020 — Restaurants are calling on the U.S. government to provide aid in the wake of closures and limited-capacity requirements for foodservice in most states due to coronavirus.

More than nine million jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector are threatened, while 3,634 jobs have already been cut due to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an executive outplacement firm.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Wholesale fish prices drop as restaurants cut back

March 17, 2020 — Prices for lobsters and other fish are seeing sharp drops as export markets see declines and restaurants have cut back on orders as customers hunker down amid the coronavirus outbreak, Long Island fish dealers say.

Meanwhile, the decision to limit restaurants and bars to delivery and takeout only is rippling across the wholesale fish market, leading one large East End fish seller to tell local baymen to stop fishing altogether until demand catches up with supply.

The wholesale price for lobsters, normally anywhere from $12 to $15 a pound this time of year, have fallen under $8, dealers say. Other normally pricey fish such as tuna and swordfish are also taking a dive, as restaurants in New York City cut back on orders because of stay-at-home customers, or city residents who have left to summer homes in the Hamptons.

If there’s any silver lining right now, said Nino Locascio, co-owner of Mastic Seafood in Mastic, it’s the walk-in retail market in Suffolk, where business has remained brisk. He also sells wholesale to local restaurants, and that business is down “dramatically,” he said.

Read the full story at Newsday

N.Y.’s plan to fast-track renewables could get ‘ugly’

February 26, 2020 — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to speed up approvals of renewable energy projects is launching the state’s climate ambitions into a new phase that could cause an uproar in rural communities.

The legislation, presented as an amendment to the Democratic governor’s budget on Friday, could be a bellwether for officials in other states looking to fast-track costly and often controversial energy developments to meet their own carbon-cutting goals.

At the heart of the New York bill is a plan to remove wind and solar power from the state’s traditional energy permitting process, developed for natural gas plants and approved by Cuomo almost a decade ago.

Wind and solar projects would no longer face scrutiny from the state’s environmental and utility regulators, instead receiving permits from a new office housed within an economic development agency.

But by trying to pave the way for developers, the governor’s overhaul could incense locals in several rural counties, many of them located near the shores of lakes Erie and Ontario or along the border of Pennsylvania. The bill must still pass both chambers of the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

Last week, county officials near Niagara Falls were considering ways to block vast new wind turbine projects, with one legislator lamenting that the state’s incentives for wind and solar were “destroying our communities,” according to Niagara Frontier Publications.

Read the full story at E&E News

Orsted updates South Fork wind farm plan amid concerns about delays

February 19, 2020 — Danish energy giant Orsted has filed an update to the construction and operation plan for its proposed South Fork wind farm, amid doubts by opponents and a state lawmaker that it will hit its contracted December 2022 completion date.

The proposed South Fork Wind Farm, a joint venture of Orsted USA and Eversource, last year announced plans to update its construction and operations plan for the project, which would be located in federal waters 30 miles from Montauk Point. Despite the filing last Friday, a federal website lists the project review status as “paused.”

It’s uncertain how comprehensive the revised construction plan is, or specifically what’s in it. Asked for details, Orsted spokeswoman Meaghan Wims would say only that the updated plan includes wider turbine spacing of “1 nautical mile by 1 nautical mile.”

Nor would she say whether the update would impact permitting or construction timelines. Delays in a federal review of a separate project by rival developer Vineyard Wind have pushed its scheduled completion beyond its planned date in 2022.

“We continue to monitor developments at the federal level,” Wims said in a statement. “While it is too early to say the exact impact that those delays may have on our timeline, we are watching the federal permitting process closely.”

Read the full story at Newsday