August 13, 2025 — A court in the U.S. state of New York has ruled in favor of the Town of Oyster Bay on Long Island, New York, dismissing a long-term aquaculture leaseholder’s complaint that the town didn’t renew its lease for 1,800 acres of shellfish harvesting area.
“A reading of the town code makes it clear that the town was not required to renew the lease,” Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Gregg Roth said in his decision dismissing the former leaseholder’s claims.
August 13, 2025 –If you were hoping to catch and keep a bluefin tuna off the coast of Long Island this summer, you’re out of luck. A new federal shutdown of the bluefin tuna fishery for recreational and charter anglers is now in effect — and it’s already having a ripple effect across the local fishing industry.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ordered the closure, citing the need to stay within international conservation limits.
“This inseason action is needed to ensure the United States Atlantic bluefin tuna quota is not exceeded and is consistent with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) requirements,” a NOAA spokesperson said in a statement.
While commercial bluefin fishing can continue, the shutdown applies to all recreational and charter boat fishing. That means charter captains like Greg Gargiulo, of Patty Ann Charters based at the Captree Boat Basin, will have to drastically shift their business model by targeting yellowfin tuna instead, which are farther off shore.
July 30, 2025 — New York State’s Public Service Commission is withdrawing plans for a transmission line supporting offshore wind.
The line would have connected New York City with numerous offshore wind farms. But states are now facing federal pushback on developing wind power.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration attempted to stop development of New York’s Empire Wind Farm. Christopher Casey, New York utility regulatory director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the federal roadblocks make it harder to bolster this industry.
“There are permits and regulatory decisions that need to be made at both the state and the federal level,” said Casey. “If the federal government is putting up roadblocks wherever it can, then it is very difficult to move these projects – and ultimately, nothing can go forward.”
July 18, 2025 — Bronx, New York City, USA-based Fulton Fish Market Cooperative held an emergency rally on 16 July to urge U.S. President Donald Trump to halt the Empire Wind offshore wind project that seafood industry stakeholders claim will put their livelihoods at risk.
Seafood industry stakeholders gathered at the event – many of whom were unionized employees of the market – said the project threatens their livelihoods and those in New York’s seafood industry. Fulton Fish Market Cooperative CEO Nicole Ackerina said the project will heavily damage the industry and push it out of the region.
July 16, 2025 — The Fulton Fish Market Cooperative hosted a July 15 rally at its Hunts Point facility in the Bronx to protest the Empire Wind energy project, now under construction around traditional fishing grounds off New York.
“Offshore wind is not a supplement to our industry, it is a direct replacement,” Nicole Ackerina, CEO of the Fulton cooperative, said in a joint statement after the rally with union workers, commercial fishermen from New York and New Jersey, and coastal advocates.
“These projects will eliminate access to vital fishing grounds, destabilize our seafood infrastructure, and trade American jobs for short-term foreign-backed construction contracts.”
Fulton employs 1,200 full-time workers, including 500 Bronx residents, most of them union members, said Ackerina.
“Our industry feeds America. NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) reported that in 2022, New York’s seafood industry supported nearly 70,000 jobs and over $9.2 billion in sales. New Jersey supported more than 72,000 jobs and $12.9 billion in sales. This is not expendable.”
July 16, 2025 — Commercial fishing workers pleaded with President Trump to again maroon a wind project off the Long Island shore – arguing Tuesday the green energy initiative could throw the industry into disarray.
Business and environmental organizations gathered at the Fulton Fish Market Cooperative in the Bronx early Tuesday to emphasize the devastating effects the Empire Wind One project could have on fishermen’s jobs and marine life.
The Trump administration temporarily paused the project in April while it was already under construction, launching a review of the permits issued during former President Joe Biden’s administration. The stop was lifted a month later.
July 16, 2025 — The head of the Fulton Fish Market Cooperative rallied alongside local fishermen and joined a decade-long fight to stop an offshore wind farm now under construction off Long Island’s coast.
Construction on the wind project began in April and was soon halted by a Trump Administration stop-work order. That order was lifted in May, and the project continues despite the ongoing lawsuit from the fishing industry.
July 11, 2025 — The Fulton Fish Market Cooperative in New York, the nation’s largest seafood market, has signed onto a federal lawsuit brought by commercial fishermen and coastal activists opposing Equinor’s ongoing Empire Wind offshore energy project.
Operators of the Fulton market, including 23 member companies that move more than 5 million tons of seafood through their Bronx location weekly, are the newest plaintiffs in an amended complaint filed July 4 with the U.S. District Court for New Jersey.
With the Trump administration allowing Equinor to proceed with construction, it’s clear “that this administration is aware offshore wind is nothing but a greenwashing shell game that will industrialize our oceans and kill longstanding American port communities and economies,” Fulton CEO Nicole Ackerina said in a joint statement July 9 with other plaintiffs.
July 9, 2025 — They’re in uncharted waters.
In a rare move, businesses and environmentalists have joined forces in court to furiously fight New York’s Empire Wind One offshore project, saying that it will devastate both the commercial fishing industry and marine life in local waters.
“A decade ago, we said it would affect fishermen, fisheries, and guess what? The state didn’t care,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.
“We are collateral damage — even though we feed people.”
The decade-long planned energy initiative, which began construction last April off the coasts of New York and New Jersey, faces a growing lawsuit from stakeholders in the tri-state area.
The Bronx’s massive Fulton Fish Market Cooperative, which employs around 1,200, and Nassau County’s Point Lookout Fishing Club, and the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association are some of the groups joining a legal action brought by environmentalists in the area.
Read the full article at The New York Post
July 2, 2025 — The next offshore service operation vessel (SOV), ECO Liberty, was christened to officially enter the U.S. fleet in support of the offshore wind sector. The vessel, which was completed in May, has been in jeopardy after the Trump administration suspended work on the Empire Wind project, but with work back underway, the vessel was named in New Orleans, Louisiana on June 28 by Louisiana’s First Lady Sharon Landry.
The 262-foot (80-meter) hybrid-powered ECO Liberty will be homeported at New York’s South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, where more than 2,000 workers are constructing the staging facility, O&M base, and control center for Empire Wind. The ECO Liberty will be deployed to support ongoing marine construction in the lease area and eventually serve as the floating home for Empire Wind’s skilled workers when stationed offshore.
The vessel is 5,700 GT. It provides accommodations for up to 60 workers and is designed to remain offshore at the site to support the construction and later maintenance operations.
The vessel was built by Edison Chouset Offshore, which continues to own the vessel through its offshore division. It will be operating on a long-term charter to Empire Wind, which is being developed by Equinor. Empire Wind is located 15 to 30 miles southeast of New York’s Long Island and spans 80,000 acres, with water depths of between approximately 75 and 135 feet. Offshore work started this spring for the project, which will have a capacity for 810 MW when completed.