Saving Seafood

NEW YORK: Stonington fishermen say wind farm developer not responding to their concerns

October 23, 2019 — Local fishermen say they’ve been waiting for months for Ørsted to respond to a host of concerns they’ve presented  about a proposed 75-turbine wind farm about a dozen miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard.

Joe Gilbert, who has a fleet of four commercial boats based at the Stonington Town Dock, said he met with John O’Keefe, head of marine operations for Ørsted, in March to discuss the “vast” concerns that he and other fishermen have ranging from potential environmental impacts to spacing in between turbines. The meeting, which lasted several hours, was productive with O’Keefe taking copious notes, Gilbert said.

“I thought it was the beginning of an open dialogue between the wind developer and the fishermen,” Gilbert said. “I understand we have to try and coexist, and these folks came down wanting to know what our issues were to hopefully work with us so we would all be good neighbors.”

Gilbert said he never heard back from O’Keefe about how Ørsted plans to address the issues, even after following up multiple times with him and other company officials. Eventually, he and a group of Stonington fishermen were offered a meeting in September with Matthew Morrissey, Ørsted’s head of New England markets.

They reiterated their concerns, including those that required more immediate attention, such as a close call earlier in the year between a survey vessel and a fishing vessel in the waters south of Martha’s Vineyard. Gilbert said the fishing vessel tried to communicate with the survey vessel to determine right of way, but the operators on the bridge of the survey vessel, which operates under the Marshall Islands flag, did not speak English.

Morrissey “promised a two-day response” to address their concerns, Gilbert said, but he and the others still haven’t heard back.

Read the full story at The Day

German utility sets sights on New York Bight offshore wind

October 23, 2019 — The EnBW Group, a German utility company and offshore wind developer, is preparing to bid on an anticipated next round of federal energy leases in the New York Bight, and joined a partnership with commercial fishing advocates.

Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, joined EnBW North America as its fisheries liaison, the company announced Wednesday.

Casoni is well known in the Northeast industry, where she has served on the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team, seafood marketing boards, and herring advisory panels to the New England Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Her job is to get fishermen’s input “on offshore wind related issues and developments and conveying to them timely information about EnBW North America’s offshore wind planning and future on-water activities,” according to a statement from the company. “Among other duties, Casoni will inform and develop best management practices and strategies that support the coexistence off offshore wind and fishing.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Competing for space on the increasingly crowded ocean

October 23, 2019 — Oceans cover nearly three-quarters of the Earth, and it’s getting crowded out on the water.

Energy, shipping, fishing and conservation groups all need space to operate on the world’s oceans, and are bumping up against each other more frequently. All agree the competition is going to increase in coming years.

A conference Tuesday at New Jersey’s Monmouth University brought together industry and environmental groups, who agreed that communication and coordination are essential to sharing the ocean.

“Ocean activity is on the rise, and it’s exponential,” said Timothy Gallaudet, deputy administration of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a retired rear admiral with the Navy. “There has been 400% growth in ocean activity over the last 25 years.”

Bethann Rooney, a deputy director with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, predicted that the combined port of New York and Newark, New Jersey, second in size only to Los Angeles, will see its cargo volume double or triple over the next 30 years.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Star Tribune

New York sues NOAA for bigger share of summer flounder quota

October 16, 2019 — The state of New York has filed a federal lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) looking to challenge the 2020-20201 quota allocated in relation to the commercial fluke (summer flounder) fishery.

In the lawsuit, filed Oct. 10 in the US Southern District of New York, Basil Seggos, commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, charges NMFS, NOAA and also the parent US agency, the Department of Commerce, with violating the Magnuson Stevens Act and Administrative Procedures Act.

New York’s lawsuit describes how New York’s annual fluke quota is based on a state-by-state allocation formula that was adopted by NMFS in 1993, using landings data from 1980-1989. In the 1980s, the fluke population had been fished to low levels and was centered south of its present location, the state says. The species’ population has since recovered and migrated northward due, in part, to rising water temperatures from climate change.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

New York Sues U.S. Dept. of Commerce Over Fluke Allocation

October 15, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — In the most recent salvo of a lengthy battle, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation sued the Department of Commerce for maintaining the annual allocation of summer flounder to the state, despite a well-documented stock migration from the mid-Atlantic to off the shores of NY’s Long Island.

“It is unjust that New York’s fishing communities continue to be subjected to outdated restrictions on a key source of their livelihoods, which is why we are challenging this quota,” said New York’s Attorney General Letitia James. “Previous years of limiting commercial fluke fishing have shown us that the federal government’s reliance on erroneous data violates federal fisheries law and stunts commercial growth in the state. My office will continue to fight for fair treatment of those who depend upon on our commercial fishing industry.”

The suit, filed on October 10, charges the DOC of violating the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) and the Administrative Procedures Act by not responding to the stocks northward migration over the years and instead relying on outdated allocation shares.

Summer flounder is co-managed by the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council and the Atlantic States Fisheries Commission for inshore and offshore waters in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.  Allocation to all 11 states has been based on historical catch data from 1980-89, data which New York’s DEC says are “obsolete.”

Allocation shares give 27.5% to North Carolina, 21.3% to Virginia, 16.7% to New Jersey, 15.7% to Rhode Island; 7.7% to New York, 6.8% to Massachusetts, with the remaining 5% to Connecticut, Maryland, Maine, Delaware, and New Hampshire.

That puts 5.6 mlbs of summer fluke landings at ports in North Carolina and Virginia while only .88mlbs at ports in New York, “even though the center of the biomass of summer flounder—and commercial fishing activity—is off Long Island,” states the suit.

“New York’s commercial fishing industry is a critical economic driver that has been held back by outdated federal restrictions for decades,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said. “After numerous attempts to work with the federal government to adjust this unfair quota, we’re forced to make our case through the courts to protect the hardworking men and women of this industry. We will not back down until these unreasonable limits on New York’s fishing industry are made right.”

“In the more than 30 years since those data were collected, the center of the summer flounder stock has shifted significantly northeast to the waters off New York’s coast,” wrote Plaintiff Basil Seggos, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

“Boats from North Carolina and Virginia—states which have significantly larger quotas than New York predicated on the now obsolete landings data derived from the vastly different fishery of the 1980s—routinely travel hundreds of miles to waters off Long Island, fish, and then return hundreds of miles back to land their catch.

“Long Island-based boats have a far shorter trip to the prime fishing grounds but are constrained by New York’s small allocation—based on the same obsolete data—to return with far fewer fish than their southern counterparts.  To eke out a living, some New York boats have had to purchase North Carolina or Virginia licenses, catch summer flounder off Long Island, then sail hundreds of miles south to land their catch.”

The suit claims the management actions taken by DOC are inconsistent with four National Standards in the MSA: National Standard 2, which calls for “best scientific information” to be used in management decisions; NS 4, which prohibits discrimination between residents of different states; and NS 5 and 7, which require efficiency in the use of fishery resources and to minimize costs where practicable.

The suit asks the court to partially vacate the 2020–2021 Specifications Rule by invalidating New York’s quota and partially vacate the 1993 Allocation Rule by invalidating New York’s allocation and remand the Rules to Commerce for further proceedings.

Commercial landings of summer flounder peaked in 1984 at 37.77 million pounds and reached a low of 5.83 million pounds in 2017. Total ex-vessel value in 2018 was $25.27 million, resulting in an average price per pound of $4.11

The Council and ASFMC recently approved increases in quota for all the states if the coastwide commercial quota exceeds 9.55mlbs. In that case, NY would get 12.375% of the additional quota, as would six other states. But the modification will not be effective, if approved, until January 1, 2021.

The stock for summer flounder spawning females is at 98 million pounds, but recruitment is low. In addition, annual removals are above what the stock can currently replace, so forecasts are for declining abundance.

Recent changes in accounting for sport landings have also increased those removals historically.

The next benchmark stock assessment is tentatively scheduled for 2021.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

NEW YORK: Long Island Offshore Wind Farm Moves Forward, Despite Local Opposition

October 4, 2019 — New York inches closer to its first offshore wind farm as developers reached a lease option agreement with a Montauk fishing cooperative.

Orsted, the Denmark-based developer, announced the agreement to build an operations and maintenance facility for the South Fork Wind Farm on property owned by Inlet Seafood in Montauk.

The wind farm’s employees will use the facility to dock their vessels and transfer personnel to and from the turbines.

Dave Aripotch is a commercial fisherman and a co-owner of Inlet Seafood. His wife, Bonnie Brady, is with the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. Brady says Aripotch didn’t sign the agreement and will refuse any profits from it.

Read the full story at WSHU

Advocates advance ways for safeguarding East Coast whales

October 4, 2019 — Humpback whales are dying all along the East Coast, though advocates say “smart” buoys, slower ship speeds and fishing gear that breaks apart might have saved them.

Ships and entanglements are two of the most clearly identified killers, scientists say.

“You’d be surprised at how many animals are out there with propeller scars,” said Arthur H. Kopelman, president, Coastal Research & Education Society of Long Island, a West Sayville nonprofit that conducts research and offers whale-watching.

Humpbacks and fin whales “come right up under the bow” of whale-watching ships, he says, luckily when the engines are in neutral, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requires.

Read the full story at Newsday

NEW YORK: Orsted Wind Plans Montauk Operations Site

October 3, 2019 — An operations and maintenance facility for the proposed South Fork Wind Farm will be sited adjacent to Inlet Seafood, just inside Montauk Harbor, the wind farm’s developers announced last week. But whether the facility represents a meeting of the minds or merely a business arrangement depends on whom you ask.

Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource, partners in the 15-turbine installation that would be constructed approximately 35 miles off Montauk, announced on Sept. 25 that they had reached a lease option agreement with Inlet Seafood to locate the facility adjacent to the latter’s commercial fishing and packing operation off East Lake Drive.

Orsted-Eversource crew transfer vessels will be based at Inlet Seafood and used to transport the wind farm’s maintenance crew to and from the wind farm, the developers said. The facility is being designed to ensure that the vessels do not impact the existing commercial fishing fleet or packing operations there, the Sept. 25 announcement said.

“We are pleased to be locating an operations and maintenance facility in Montauk to service our South Fork Wind Farm and bring additional jobs to the area,” Thomas Brostrom, chief executive officer of Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and President of Orsted North America, said in the Sept. 25 announcement.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

NEW YORK: Press Sessions In East Hampton Focuses On The Future Of Wind Farms

October 3, 2019 — Offshore wind farms have been pitched as a critical cog in the drive to reduce the use of fossil fuels to power American life, while trying to fend off the worst effects of climate change.

But will the environmental and economic problems the construction and operation of the giant wind turbines cause be outweighed by the long-term benefits? And are state and federal regulators, or the wind farm developers themselves, doing enough to offset or protect against those problems?

These were the questions put to the panel of experts at the first “Press Session” event held in East Hampton last Thursday afternoon, September 26, at Rowdy Hall. Representatives of the fishing and offshore wind industry, environmental and renewable energy advocates, and local government officials each shared their perspective.

Last week’s Press Session panel included Dr. Francine Kershaw, a large marine mammals expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council; Bonnie Brady, a commercial fishing advocate; Gordian Raacke, a renewable energy advocate; Jennifer Garvey, Long Island development coordinator for Ørsted, the company proposing to build the South Fork Wind Farm; East Hampton Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby; and State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.

Read the full story at the Sag Harbor Express

Northeast ports aim for offshore wind business

October 2, 2019 — With a dozen offshore wind energy projects planned on the East Coast, New York port interests are in high gear pitching their state as the industry’s logical future base.

“A few years ago, we would have had trouble filling this room. But as you can see things are moving quickly,” said Michael Stamatis, president of Red Hook Terminals in New York City, at the State University of New York Maritime College’s offshore wind energy conference Sept. 26.

“There is no better place to be in for offshore wind than New York and New Jersey,” said Stamatis.

“This is going to be in the middle,” declared Boone Davis, president of Atlantic Offshore Terminals, whose company aims to develop a new offshore wind energy port facility on Staten Island, N.Y., well clear of the city’s bridges and other limits on moving massive wind turbines by ship.

But New York has plenty of competition. From New Bedford, Mass., to Norfolk, Va., port operators and their allies in business, labor and politics are working to snag a share of the business.

Read the full story at WorkBoat