Saving Seafood

Zinke calls for more wind energy proposals off LI

April 6, 2018 — PRINCETON, N.J. — U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke issued a powerful endorsement for offshore wind energy at a symposium here Friday, and announced a call for new proposals for a wind energy area off Long Island.

Zinke said wind energy was a key part of the Trump administration’s plan for greater energy independence, saying it was “morally the right thing to do” in place of seeking resources in conflict-ridden areas.

He called the offshore wind industry a virtual “blank slate” with “enormous potential.”

His speech included announcement of a formal “call for information and nominations” from companies interested in potential wind energy areas for the New York Bight off Long Island’s South Shore.

Fishermen have sued to block a lease already issued to Statoil in that area, which they consider a vital scallop and squid ground.

Zinke emphasized the importance of protecting fisheries and the fishing industry, saying they’ll be important stakeholders in a five-year plan being developed by the department.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

Seafood restaurants squeezed by climate change, growing appetites

April 6, 2018 — Ziggy Gruber took a knife to the cardboard boxes, cracking them open to reveal 400 pounds of smoked fish.

The third-generation deli man sifted through the fresh delivery of nova salmon, sable and whitefish, flown in weekly from his supplier in Brooklyn. Gruber, the owner of Kenny & Ziggy’s in the Galleria area, is one of the largest purveyors of smoked fish outside of New York City, selling more than 1,000 pounds of lox and whitefish a week.

Looking over his fish order, Gruber noted he requested 20 pieces of sturgeon this week, but only three showed up. The sturgeon shortage has nearly doubled prices over the past two years, to $38 per pound from around $20, Gruber said.

“I see less and less,” Gruber said. “There’s only so much fish to go around.”

The consequences of a growing global appetite for seafood and warming seas are being felt in the kitchens of some of Houston’s most prominent seafood restaurants. Chefs are dealing with shifts in the seasonal availability of some fish, while dwindling supply of other fish are causing prices to climb.

The situation has become so dire at times that when Gruber’s fish supplier, Acme Smoked Fish, informed him four years ago that there might be a shortage of smoked fish over Yom Kippur — the Jewish deli’s busiest day — Gruber took the first flight to New York to plead with Acme to find some way to ship some 3,000 pounds of smoked fish for the holiday.

The order came through, but ever since, Gruber said, he keeps his fingers crossed around Yom Kippur.

“I’m concerned about the sustainability of these fish,” he said. “The combination of climate change and overfishing has turned an item that people consumed on a daily basis into a luxury item. And that’s sad.”

Manabu “Hori” Horiuchi of Kata Robata, a sushi restaurant in Upper Kirby, is one of a few chefs in the U.S. certified in preparing fugu, or blowfish, a popular delicacy among daring customers.

Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle

 

New York Lawmakers Go To Bat Over Fisheries Cutbacks

April 5, 2018 — The federal government is proposing a 12 percent reduction for the recreational black sea bass fishery in 2018,  despite the fact that scientists say the black sea bass fishery has been rebuilt to two-and-a-half times what regulators consider to be sustainable, and New York State is fighting back.

State Senator Ken LaValle and State Assemblyman Fred Thiele agree with DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos that “non-compliance is a legitimate remedy” for this cutback, stating that “this action discriminates against the State of New York. It would have a significant adverse effect on the Long Island economy” in a joint statement issued Monday.

“This has not been an isolated case of discrimination against New York State,” they added. “Unfortunately, this is part of a long history of federal action that has strangled the fishing industry in New York to the benefit of other states. DEC advocacy for our fishing industry is long overdue.”

New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut filed an appeal with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission over the catch reduction on March 16, and Mr. Seggos expects an answer by late April or early May. He has told the press he plans to litigate the matter if the state does not win the appeal.

“The State of New York should utilize every legal and administrative tool at its disposal to overturn this ill-considered federal proposal,” said Mr. Thiele and Mr. LaValle. “New York should not be at a disadvantage with other states on the East Coast. Again and again, we have seen politics replace science to the detriment of New York State fishermen, whether they are recreational anglers, charter boat captains, or commercial fishermen. When the federal government is arbitrary and capricious, the state must say “no.”

In late March, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced they had filed an appeal over commercial summer flounder (fluke) quotas set by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council of the National Marine Fisheries Service, and were also looking into taking action on New York’s quotas on black sea bass and bluefish.

For 2018, New York commercial fishing daily trip limits for fluke were set at 50 pounds. New York commercial fishermen are allowed to take just 7.6 percent of the fluke allocated among the mid-Atlantic states. These tight restrictions, compounded by monthly limits aimed at keeping the landings in check throughout the year, led to a closure of commercial fluke fishing here last fall.

Read the full story at the East End Beacon

 

State files petition with federal bodies that set commercial fluke fishing quotas

April 3, 2018 — Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned the U.S. Secretary of Commerce in October that if changes weren’t made to fluke quotas to be fair to New York’s economy and commercial fishing families, the state would take legal action.

Last week, that threat became more real as the governor and state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the filing of a petition with the federal government to establish fair quota allocations for the state’s commercial harvest of fluke, or summer flounder.

In a March 23 statement, Mr. Cuomo said the federal government can’t rely on “decades-old data to uphold the fluke quotas, which put New York at a disadvantage compared to other states.”

“New York’s commercial fishing industry has been held back by archaic federal restrictions for too long, and by taking action to defend fair treatment of our fishers, we will help this valuable industry reach its full potential,” he said.

The state Department of Conservation petitioned for revised allocations with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

“New York’s commercial fishing industry deserves a fair shake — not the back of the hand — from the federal government,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “Federal law requires that our nation’s marine fisheries be managed according to the best available science, and in a fair, efficient, and safe way. Simply put, perpetuating New York’s undersized, outdated share of the commercial summer flounder fishery does not meet the requirements of the law.”

Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner Basil Seggos also said changes need to be made.

Local fishermen have long felt they’re left short-changed while other East Coast states have higher quotas. Some are skeptical of what will come next, as they’ve dealt with restrictions on fluke fishing since 1992, which state officials and fishermen say were based on inaccurate or outdated data on the fish population.

Read the full story at the Suffolk Times

 

Pressure mounting to reject quota cuts for black sea bass

April 2, 2018 — With the fishing season approaching, state fisheries officials are under greater pressure than ever to reject mandates from federal and coastal fisheries regulators to limit New York’s quota for abundant black sea bass.

New York’s top fisheries regulator said Thursday, the state was reviewing a range of tools to push back against the quota, including even noncompliance with the federal rules if a recently filed appeal or a lawsuit fails to change reductions in the fishery.

“I’m prepared to go to the bear cage on this if it means having to take more drastic action,” state Environmental Conservation commissioner Basil Seggos said in an interview. Noncompliance is “an option that’s on the table for us. We have to approach that carefully and understand the full implications of that and exhaust all the other options” before considering it, he said. In any case, he said, “I don’t want to see our fishermen take a cut this year or next year.”

New York recreational anglers and boat captains face a 12 percent reduction for black sea bass this year, which would translate into a shorter season and fewer keeper fish each day. Black sea bass are a particularly vital species for recreational boats, in part because the fish are so plentiful. The black sea-bass fishery has been restored to more than 2 1⁄2 times the levels that regulators consider sufficiently rebuilt.

At a sometimes-raucous meeting last Tuesday, held by the DEC at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences, hundreds of fishermen and women packed a hall to demand the state bring quotas into line with New Jersey and other states that are allotted larger shares.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

New York: Long Island outrage over reduced black sea bass limit reduction

March 30, 2018 — On Tuesday evening, the New York State DEC held a meeting to discuss regulatory options for the 2018 black sea bass season that must conform to federal guidelines.

All of the proposals called for a 12 percent reduction in harvest from last year. The reduction comes despite the sea bass population standing an astonishing 240 percent above the federal target biomass for the species. The percentage comes from a cooperative effort between the states and federal authorities.

The DEC’s Division of Marine Resources director, Jim Gilmore, started the meeting by saying he has heard the outrage of anglers, for-hire captains and industry stakeholders, and agrees something must be done.

He announced that New York has joined the other states in the black sea bass northern regulatory zone — Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts — in appealing a decision by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) that allowed the five states in the southern sector, plus New Jersey, to liberalize their sea bass regulations while the northern states must reduce. New Jersey is a stand-alone region in terms of sea bass management.

If the appeal is successful, New York should get 6 percent added to its harvest allocation — but that would still be a 6 percent reduction from 2017. As sea bass stocks have swelled, New York has taken a catch reduction in six of the past seven years.

The response from the standing room only crowd of more than 200 was swift and overwhelming.

“No reduction is acceptable!” said Capt. Joe Tangle, skipper of the Center Moriches charter vessel King Cod. “In my entire lifetime sea bass have never been this numerous but we keep getting cuts. It’s ridiculous.”

Capt. Jamie Quaresimo, who along with Tangle suggested New York go out of compliance (ignore federally mandated regulations, which could result in closure of both the recreational and commercial sea bass seasons,) said after the meeting that sea bass are so thick at Montauk he has to find areas to avoid catching them while fluke fishing.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

NY threatens suit over federal limits on black sea bass

March  28, 2018 — New York State will file suit against the federal government if it loses an appeal in opposition to current restrictions on the recreational black sea bass fishery, which for 2018 mandates a 12 percent reduction in fishing, a top state commissioner said Tuesday night.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is holding a meeting Tuesday night to discuss options for the black sea bass season for 2018, and by all indications it will be contentious. Fishing boat captains on Facebook have urged anglers to attend the meeting to protest the 12 percent reduction, which would drastically shorten the season and the number of fish anglers can take. The DEC moved the location to a larger venue to accommodate more people.

“Please get on top of this situation and get the people of New York on equal footing with the rest of the boats and businesses on the East Coast,” Huntington fishing boat captain James Schneider said, noting charter and partyboats face a 30 percent reduction in their business. “Our people should not be punished.”

In an interview Tuesday night in advance of the meeting, Basil Seggos, DEC commissioner, said he’s been directed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to make sure state fishermen don’t suffer as a result of federal regulations that seek to limit a fishery that’s considered healthy.

“Black sea bass populations have increased substantially,” he said. “Nonetheless, we’re stuck with the prospect of cuts, which never made sense to me, never made sense to the governor, or to our fisheries managers.”

New York joined with Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut in filing an appeal on March 16 of the 12 percent quota reduction for black sea bass this year. If the appeal with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is not successful, he said, the state will file an appeal with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division. “If they are not prepared to rule favorably, then we’d pursue the litigation route,” said Seggos. “We think the science is with us” showing an abundance of black sea bass in the region.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

Federal Agency To Study Effects Of Electric Pulses From Proposed Wind Farm On Fish

March 28, 2018 — Federal officials say they are looking at new studies of fish species that migrate off the coast of Long Island and their potential reactions to electric pulses from the transmission cables of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, in response to concerns raised by fishermen and the East Hampton Town Trustees.

Concerns about how fish might react to the electric magnetic field, or EMF, given off by the wind farm’s foot-thick power cable when it comes ashore have become the main objection from the East Hampton Town Trustees and the South Fork’s commercial baymen.

Fishermen rely on the annual migrations of fish through the relatively shallow waters within a couple of miles of the shore on their way to summer haunts in the bays. They worry that even if the EMF pulses given off by the sort of cable that would connect to the wind farm were minor—as studies suggest—the subtle impulses could be enough to divert fish in their migrations and away from the near-shore areas.

In the earliest discussions of the issue over the last several months, representatives of Deepwater Wind have presented the results of studies conducted at the existing wind farm off Block Island and by scientists around the giant offshore wind farms in Europe, as well as laboratory tests that show the effects of EMF on migrating fish to be inconsequential.

But fishermen and their supporters have said those studies are of little reassurance to them, since they involve different scales, different types of sea floor or different species of fish than those that are of the utmost importance to local baymen.

“What they tested in Europe is not that relevant. What they tested at Block Island, with a cable one-quarter the size of this, is not that relevant,” said Gary Cobb, an East Hampton man who has been reviewing the work done thus far on EMF and other details of offshore wind development on behalf of fishermen. “And you need several years of data for any of it to be useful.”

Earlier this winter, the Town Trustees issued a call for more studies—along with an aggressive demand for financial support from Deepwater for fishermen who are impacted by the project—to examine the effects of EMF on fishes that migrate to Long Island in summer.

Read the full story at 27 East

 

New York State petitions feds demanding more equitable fluke quota

March 23, 2018 — New York State on Friday filed a petition with the federal government to demand a more equitable distribution of the commercial fluke quota, saying current rules put “unreasonable limits” on the state industry.

The petition, filed with a U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is a first step, officials said, toward changing a decades-old quota that leaves New York fishermen with just 7.6 percent of a catchable annual allocation for fluke up and down the East Coast. Other states such as North Carolina and Virginia get more than 20 percent each of the coastal quota, and often travel to New York waters to catch it.

Local fishermen who have complained of the low quota for decades had been expecting a lawsuit, after state officials visiting Long Island in November vowed to make good on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo promised litigation in a visit to Montauk in 2013.

But delays by an interstate fisheries commission addressing quota inequities until the fall forced the state to file the petition as a necessary first step toward litigation, officials said.

“Quite frankly, we lost patience,” Basil Seggos, commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said in an interview. His staff worked with New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman’s office to file the petition.

“The stringent limits on commercial landings of [fluke] in New York ports have made [fluke] fishing no longer an economically viable choice” for New York fishermen, because the “limited revenue generated by a trip often cannot offset the costs, including fuel, time, and vessel wear-and-tear.”

One longtime critic of the governor’s protections for commercial fishermen called the petition effort “weak.”

Daniel Rodgers, a Southampton lawyer and director for New York Fish, a fishermen’s advocacy group, expressed concern that the petition will only further delay action that fishermen need now.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

New York: Rep. Zeldin Slams ASMFC Black Sea Bass Allocation, Calls for Equitable Fishing Quotas

March 22, 2018 — LONG ISLAND, N.Y. — Congressman Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1) issued the following statement following the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) proposed allocation for black sea bass for the 2018 season, which would unfairly cut New York State’s share by up to 12%, while other states will see their allocations grow:

“With the vast majority of Long Island fishing taking place in waters shared with New Jersey and Connecticut, such as the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound, it is unfair that New York anglers are, once again, being penalized with smaller fishing quotas than neighboring states. For my constituents, who are both fishermen and small business owners trying to attract customers, the ASFMC’s decision to, once again, cut New York off from its fair share while allowing New Jersey’s allocation to grow, is unacceptable. Two boats fishing next to each other with one allowed to catch up to double the amount of the other because they are landing the fish in New Jersey instead of New York is ridiculous and inequitable.

“That is why, when it comes to fishing quotas, tri-state parity is so important. At the state level, New York’s representatives must fight more aggressively within these regional bodies to advocate for New York’s anglers who rely on fishing as a way of life that supports so much of our local economy. If our state representatives on the ASMFC– who supported this terrible proposal and failed to fully advocate for New York– aren’t willing to fight for our anglers, then they should step aside.

“I call on all levels of government in our state to work together as one team to fight this unfair allocation and, if necessary, appeal this all the way to the Secretary of Commerce. Going into non-compliance is never the first option, but it may be the only one in taking a stand for New York anglers who year after year continue to get screwed.”

Read the full story at Long Island