Saving Seafood

President’s windmill hatred is a worry for booming industry

October 1, 2019 — The winds are blowing fair for America’s wind power industry, making it one of the fastest-growing U.S. energy sources.

Land-based turbines are rising by the thousands across America, from the remote Texas plains to farm towns of Iowa. And the U.S. wind boom now is expanding offshore, with big corporations planning $70 billion in investment for the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind farms.

“We have been blessed to have it,” says Polly McMahon, a 13th-generation resident of Block Island, where a pioneering offshore wind farm replaced the island’s dirty and erratic diesel-fired power plant in 2016. “I hope other people are blessed too.”

But there’s an issue. And it’s a big one. President Donald Trump hates wind turbines.

He’s called them “disgusting” and “ugly” and “stupid,” denouncing them in hundreds of anti-wind tweets and public comments dating back more than a decade, when he tried and failed to block a wind farm near his Scottish golf course.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Offshore wind developers building Northeast supply chain

September 27, 2019 — Offshore wind energy developers are moving to set up their first U.S. manufacturing and support bases, sensing momentum in the market with New York and New Jersey seeking a combined 12 gigawatts of new energy by 2030.

A daylong conference at the State University of New York Maritime College on Thursday brought together wind companies, state officials and the maritime industry to talk about the industry’s coming workforce needs and potential for job growth.

The world’s biggest wind company, Denmark-based Ørsted, has an agreement with a German steelmaker to set up a manufacturing hub in southern New Jersey to finish turbine foundations for its Ocean Wind project off Atlantic City, said Fred Zalcman, who heads market development for its U.S. division.

Another winner could be upstate New York, where Ørsted and Equinor are looking to the Hudson River ports of Coeymans and Albany as bases for manufacturing, floating massive turbine components downriver for eventual transport to assembly at sea on the companies’ federal energy leases.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Landmark climate report paints dim picture of ocean health

September 26, 2019 — Rising sea levels threaten New York and other major cites, the world’s glaciers are melting at alarming rates and global fisheries are shrinking. These are just some of the impacts that emissions of greenhouse gases have already triggered across the planet, according to a new landmark report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

More than 100 authors from 36 countries assessed the latest scientific literature related to the ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate for the report, referencing about 7,000 scientific publications for the report titled — “Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.” It is the last of three special reports from the IPCC following on climate change.

“The open sea, the Arctic, the Antarctic and the high mountains may seem far away to many people,” said Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC. “But we depend on them and are influenced by them directly and indirectly in many ways – for weather and climate, for food and water, for energy, trade, transport, recreation and tourism, for health and wellbeing, for culture and identity.”

Read the full story at IntraFish

NEW YORK: Changes on the horizon to reduce striped bass fishing mortality

September 20, 2019 — The Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board of the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has issued proposed changes to Amendment 6 of the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic striped bass.

The proposed changes — formally flagged as Addendum VI — were the subject of  comments at a public hearing Sept. 12 in New Paltz, at the Region 3 Headquarters of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

While the abundance of striped bass is declining along the entire Atlantic Coast, according to ASMFC studies, most of the people attending the hearing were honed in on what the changes would mean to the Hudson River’s striped bass fishery.

Read the full story at the Poughkeepsie Journal

Dead whale found in LI waters was last seen caught in fishing line, NOAA says

September 20, 2019 — The North Atlantic right whale whose decomposed body was found floating in the waters off Fire Island earlier this week was seen alive last month caught up in fishing line, officials said.

Wounds likely inflicted by plastic rope confirmed he was the rare leviathan seen in the August video. Scientists had previously named him “Snake Eyes” for the twin eye-shaped scars on his head, said Philip Hamilton, a research scientist at Anderson Cabot for Ocean Life at Boston’s New England Aquarium.

The fishing line that may have ended the whale’s life — after he had swum in the Atlantic for more than four decades — ran through his mouth and possibly anchored his tail to the sea bed, Hamilton said.

Read the full story at Newsday

Right whale found dead this week identified as potentially ‘one of the great fathers of the population’

September 19, 2019 — The North Atlantic right whale found dead this week off Long Island, N.Y., has been identified as a 40-plus-year-old male who had been seen this summer entangled in fishing gear in Canadian waters.

The whale, known to researchers as “Snake Eyes,” was last seen entangled in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in August, after being seen there free of gear in July.

“This is his first sighting since the entanglement,” said Jennifer Goebel, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Scientists at the New England Aquarium called the whale Snake Eyes because of two bright white scars on the front of his head “that look like a pair of eyes when he swam towards you,” they said Wednesday.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Trump move to delay Mass. wind farm concerns NY officials

September 19, 2019 — New York State is “watching closely” the federal government’s decision to stall a Massachusetts offshore wind project to review environmental and fishing impacts, a top state official said Wednesday, adding there’s no sign yet that the scrutiny will affect New York’s ambitious offshore wind plans.

“That concern does exist,” Alicia Barton, president and chief executive of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, told business leaders at a Long Island Association meeting in Melville Wednesday. She called the federal review a “significant setback” in the permitting schedule for that project, called Vineyard Wind.

Vineyard Wind in August said it was “surprised and disappointed” by the federal Bureau of Energy Management’s decision to scrutinize the “cumulative impacts [of offshore wind] driven by rapid growth of the industry beyond our project.”

For now, Barton said she had “no reason to believe” New York projects, which are slated to be in service in 2024, would be affected by the federal review. Nor does it appear to delay her expectation that additional leasing areas off New York will be offered by the federal government soon.

Read the full story at Newsday

Dead right whale off New York raises toll — and pressure on NOAA

September 18, 2019 — A dead North Atlantic right whale found floating off New York’s Long Island Monday afternoon could raise the official death toll of the endangered species to 29 in the last two years, jacking up pressure on the U.S. and Canadian governments to slow those losses.

The latest find comes less than a week after Chris Oliver, NMFS administrator, said the agency will move ahead with rulemaking to reduce the risk of whale entanglements in fishing gear — despite a withdrawal of support for proposed measure by the Maine lobster industry.

“We intend to address the threats posed by gillnets and to humpback whales at future (Atlantic Large Whale) Take Reduction Team meetings,” Oliver said in a statement issued Sept. 11.

NMFS officials said the carcass was discovered 4 miles south of Fire Island Inlet, and was so decomposed that its age, sex and cause of death could not be determined immediately.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Striped Bass Recovery Debate Divides Fishermen

September 10, 2019 — A roiling debate over how to reduce the annual harvest of striped bass along the Atlantic Seaboard to allow the species to recover from years of overfishing has pitted various fishermen against each other and sparked heated exchanges in online venues — and, last week, in a public hearing with federal fisheries managers.

Hundreds packed into a meeting room at Bethpage State Park last week to offer their views on a battery of options that marine biologists have laid out; they say each would reduce the number of dead striped bass — one of the nation’s most economically important fish stocks — by up to 18 percent per year. The goal is to help the stock recover to what scientists say are necessary levels by 2023.

The battle over how to proceed has focused primarily on what restrictions should be placed on recreational fishermen, who account for about 90 percent of the striped bass harvest, though the extent to which commercial fishermen should share in the cuts also is on the table.

Read the full story at 27East

NEW YORK: Statement from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo on Dismissal of Case Regarding Fluke Quotas

September 3, 2019 — The following was released by The Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo (D-NY):

“New York’s commercial fishing industry is a critical driver of our economy that has been held back by outdated federal restrictions for decades. The hardworking men and women of this industry deserve equitable treatment so they can succeed and grow their businesses and continue to boost their local economies.

“New York will continue to challenge this unfair quota and explore every avenue to ensure that New York’s access to summer flounder is consistent with national standards and our state’s fishing industry can continue to thrive.”

Read the full release here