Saving Seafood

NEW YORK: Governor Andrew Cuomo’s preposterous renewable-energy plan threatens Long Island’s fishing industry.

August 28, 2017 — Nat Miller and Jim Bennett didn’t have much time to chat. It was about 8:45 on a sunny Sunday morning in early May, and they were loading their gear onto two boats—a 20-foot skiff with a 115-horsepower outboard, and an 18-foot sharpie with a 50-horse outboard—at Lazy Point, on the southern edge of Napeague Bay, on the South Fork of Long Island. “We are working against the wind and the tide,” Miller said as he shook my hand.

The men had already caught a fluke the size of a doormat and were eager for more. Miller and Bennett are Bonackers, a name for a small group of families who were among eastern Long Island’s earliest Anglo settlers. The Bonackers are some of America’s most storied fishermen. They’ve been profiled several times, most vividly by Peter Matthiessen in his 1986 book Men’s Lives. Miller’s roots in the area go back 13 generations, Bennett’s 14. That morning, Miller and Bennett and five fellow fishermen were heading east to tend their “pound traps,” an ancient method of fishing in shallow water that uses staked enclosures to capture fish as they migrate along the shore. Miller and Bennett were likely to catch scup, bass, porgies, and other species.

If Governor Andrew Cuomo gets his way, though, they and other commercial fishermen on the South Fork may need to look for a new line of work. An avid promoter of renewable energy, Cuomo hopes to install some 2,400 megawatts of wind turbines off New York’s coast, covering several hundred square miles of ocean; a bunch of those turbines will go smack on top of some of the best fisheries on the Eastern Seaboard. One of the projects, led by a Manhattan-based firm, Deepwater Wind, could require plowing the bottom of Napeague Bay to make way for a high-voltage undersea cable connecting the proposed 90-megawatt South Fork wind project to the grid. The proposed 50-mile cable would come ashore near the Devon Yacht Club, a few miles west of the beach on which we were standing. “I have 11 traps, and all of them run parallel to where that cable is proposed to be run,” Miller says. “My grandfather had traps here,” he adds before shoving his skiff into the water. “I want no part of this at all.”

The mounting opposition to the development of offshore wind in Long Island’s waters is the latest example of the growing conflict between renewable-energy promoters and rural residents. Cuomo and climate-change activists love the idea of wind energy, but they’re not the ones having 500-, 600-, or even 700-foot-high wind turbines built in their neighborhoods or on top of their prime fishing spots. The backlash against Big Wind is evident in the numbers: since 2015, about 160 government entities, from Maine to California, have rejected or restricted wind projects. One recent example: on May 2, voters in three Michigan counties went to the polls to vote on wind-related ballot initiatives. Big Wind lost on every initiative.

Few states demonstrate the backlash better than New York. On May 10, the town of Clayton, in northern New York’s Jefferson County, passed an amendment to its zoning ordinance that bans all commercial wind projects. On Lake Ontario, a 200-megawatt project called Lighthouse Wind, headed by Charlottesville, Virginia–based Apex Clean Energy, faces opposition from three counties—Erie, Niagara, and Orleans—as well as the towns of Yates and Somerset. An analysis of media stories shows that, over the past decade or so, about 40 New York communities have shot down or curbed wind projects.

Read the full story at the City Journal

NEW YORK: State, Fishermen Map Out Possible Conflicts At Sea To Help Clear Way For Future Wind Turbines

August 23, 2017 — Commercial fishermen from throughout the South Fork last week pored over nautical charts showing the broad swaths of ocean south of Long Island being considered for future wind energy development by New York State—and saw a lot of the area where they harvest a living.

But the state officials who hosted two open-house discussions with fishermen last week, one at Shinnecock Inlet and the other in Montauk, said that is exactly what they wanted the fishermen to point out to them—so they can work to reduce the impact.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, is nearing the end of the research phase of its offshore wind master plan, due to be released next year. The state’s experts say they wanted to hear from fishermen which areas are most critical to their industry, and how the development of offshore wind farms could be coordinated to have the least impact on the fishing industry as possible.

“What we’re trying to understand from the fishermen is where they fish in these areas, how often they fish in what spots, what type of fishing they do in each area, and … we want to understand how the gear works,” said Greg Matzat, a wind energy expert for the Research and Development Authority. “If we can find areas where there is no fishing, or less fishing, happening, that’s where we want to go. If it makes sense that we would align the turbines along a depth contour, so that fishermen can fish alongside them and don’t have to criss-cross through them, we can do that, too.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo last year set a goal for the state to draw half of its energy supply from renewable sources by the year 2030. A large portion of that is expected to come from offshore wind developments—some 2,400 megawatts from 250 wind turbines, enough to power more than one million homes.

As part of its master plan development, the state is looking at more than 16,000 square miles of ocean, from the full length of Long Island coastline out to the continental shelf, to find the conditions right for potential development sites for offshore wind farms.

Read the full story at 27east

Scientists to Meet Fishers of Cod, Sole About Future of Fish

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Fishery regulators are meeting with commercial and recreational fishermen around New England and New York to talk about upcoming assessments of key fish stocks.

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center has scheduled the “port outreach meetings” to talk about the assessments of 20 groundfish stocks. Groundfish are commercially significant fish species such as cod, haddock and sole that live near the ocean floor.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News and World Report

Reminder: August 2017 Mid-Atlantic Council Meeting in Philadelphia, PA

August 4, 2017 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

Tuesday, August 8, 2017 – Thursday, August 10, 2017

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will meet next week, August 8-10, 2017, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The meeting will be held at the Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown, 21 North Juniper St., Philadelphia, PA 19107, Telephone 215-496-3200.

The meeting will be broadcast live via webinar. For access to the webinar, go to http://mafmc.adobeconnect.com/august2017 and select “enter as guest”.

New York Offshore Wind Open Houses:

During the Council meeting, representatives from the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) will hold public open houses to provide fisheries stakeholders with an opportunity to learn about and provide input to the New York State Offshore Wind Master Plan.

NYSERDA representatives will be available for discussion at the following times:

  • Tuesday, August 8, 11:00am‐7:00pm
  • Wednesday, August 9, 8:00am‐7:00pm

The open houses will be held in the same hotel as the Council meeting (Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown) in the PHJ Library on the first floor.

Click here for additional information.

No new rules for declining southern New England lobstering

August 2, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — An interstate panel that manages fisheries voted on Tuesday against a plan to try to preserve the declining southern New England lobster population with new fishing restrictions.

The New England lobster fishery is based largely in Maine, where the catch has soared to new heights in recent years. But the population has collapsed off Connecticut, Rhode Island, southern Massachusetts and New York’s Long Island as waters have warmed in those areas.

An arm of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission considered a host of new restrictions about lobster fishing in southern New England on Tuesday and chose to shoot the plan down.

Restrictions could have included changes to legal harvesting size, reductions in the number of traps fishermen can use and closures to areas where lobsters are harvested. But members of the commission’s lobster board said they feared the proposed restrictions wouldn’t do enough to stem the loss of lobsters.

Board members agreed to try to figure out a new strategy to try to help the crustaceans, which have risen in value in recent years as Asian markets have opened up.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle

REP. LEE ZELDIN: Long Island fishermen in real need of relief

July 31, 2017 — On Long Island, so much of our economy and way of life are connected to the water around us. Fishing is a treasured part of our identities as Long Islanders. Yet today, the current flaws in the management of our fisheries isn’t just raising costs for commercial fishermen and charter boat captains- it also hurts all the small businesses in the coastal economy, including restaurants, bait & tackle shops, hotels, and gas stations. Quite candidly, it is also making this pastime just nowhere near as much fun as it used to be either. As the Representative for New York’s First Congressional District, which is almost entirely surrounded by water, I am committed to supporting our fishermen and ensuring this tradition is preserved for generations to come.

The current management of our fisheries has created a web of unnecessary restrictions on our local anglers. For example, just recently, regulators gave final approval to a confusing set of requirements that call for a one inch difference in the size limit for fluke, 18 inches for New Jersey anglers, but 19 inches for New York. There is also a proposed regulation that would create two separate sets of rules for blackfish, one for the North Shore, and one for the South Shore. Current rules in our state also limit anglers to only one striped bass and weakfish per day. A rule like this is very damaging to the fishing industry. Many people just aren’t going to spend all the money it costs to go out on a charter boat if they can only catch and keep one fish.

Using flawed, outdated data to justify that bad rule makes even less sense. New York representatives on regional councils have to do much more to fight for our fishermen because we continue to get rolled at the table by other coastal states that take a much more proactive role within these councils, getting better quotas for their states while New York anglers do not get their fair share.

Read the full opinion piece at Long Island Business News

Dave Goethel takes case to US Supreme Court

July 13, 2017 — After losing a lawsuit alleging a federal agency has imposed unfair regulations, Hampton fisherman David Goethel is taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cause of Action Institute, which is representing Goethel and a group of other fishermen pro bono, filed a petition to be taken up by the Supreme Court Tuesday. The suit was originally filed in U.S. District Court against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Department of Commerce in 2015. It alleges NOAA unfairly requires commercial groundfishermen to fund at-sea monitors to join them on fishing trips and observe their compliance with regulations. Groundfish include popular New England fishing species like cod and haddock.

A First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Boston affirmed a ruling in favor of NOAA and the DOC this spring. According to Cause of Action’s petition, the lower court erred in dismissing the case based on the original suit being filed well after a 30-day deadline for challenging the regulation. Cause of Action is arguing the ruling prevented the court from addressing the merits of the suit’s argument – that fishermen believe it is unconstitutional for the government to force an industry to pay for its own policing.

Read the full story at the Portsmouth Herald

Lobster season slow, prices holding steady for seafood fans

July 13, 2017 — New England’s summer lobster season is off to a slow start, but consumers are paying a little bit less for the critters than they were a year ago.

The annual summer boom in lobster catch has yet to arrive, lobster fishermen and distributors said. Lobster catch typically picks up in the warm months when many lobsters shed their shells and reach legal harvesting size.

So far, supply is lower than recent years, but that hasn’t translated into higher prices for consumers. The wholesale price for 1¼-pound hard shell lobsters was $7.63 per pound in early July, business publisher Urner Barry reported. The price was a little more than $8 per pound at the same time last year.

Members of Maine’s lobster industry said they still expect a healthy catch this year, but it appears to be arriving somewhat late compared to recent years, when the catch has soared.

“It’s starting to trickle in. It has just been a slow start to the season. It’s reminiscent of an old-fashioned season,” said Bill Bruns, operations manager for The Lobster Co. in Arundel. “We’re starting to see some signs of life.”

American lobster, most of which comes ashore in Maine, has been booming in terms of volume of catch in recent years. Maine’s lobster catch exceeded 130 million pounds for the first time last year, and has surpassed 100 million pounds for six years in a row after previously rarely reaching 80 million.

The value of the crustaceans has also been high, and consumers and wholesalers have frequently been paying more for them, partly because of increased interest in U.S. lobster from China.

This year, stores in New England are selling them for $8 to $13 per pound depending on how large they are and whether they are hard shell or softshell. Hard shell lobsters tend to be more expensive. Those prices are about in line with recent years.

“When there is just a slow and steady delivery that is not too great and not too little, it leads to a much more stable sort of market,” said John Sackton, who publishes the SeafoodNews.com website.

The other coastal New England states, New York and New Jersey also have lobster fisheries, with Massachusetts having the second-largest lobster catch in the country. The crustacean is also the subject of a large fishery in Canada.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle

Use the whole fish: Japanese restaurant in New York limits waste

July 7, 2017 — Chef Yuji Haraguchi serves and stands by “Mottainai” – the Japanese concept of avoiding waste – and makes it known at his restaurant in New York by throwing away as little as possible.

Haraguchi, who emigrated from Japan to the United States in 2007, purchases his fish locally and uses the meat at his walk-in only restaurant, Okonomi, for breakfast and lunch.

“After working in the fish industry for so many years, I just realized that there are so many parts of fish that are not being utilized, which is the heads and the bones, mostly,” said Haraguchi, who opened the 12-seat restaurant in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn in May 2014.

“I was seeing it every day, and I wanted to find a way to utilize those underutilized parts of the fish and also the underutilized species of fish.”

At Okonomi, chefs simmer the head and bones of the fish for ramen stock, which they serve at dinner when the eatery transforms into Yuji Ramen with an a la carte menu of seafood-rich ramen.

After serving 69 breakfast meals and 59 bowls of ramen to roughly 130 people on a recent day, a staffer tossed out a single garbage bag when he closed the restaurant, according to Haraguchi.

Less than one-tenth of the food at Okonomi/Yuji Ramen is thrown away, according to Haraguchi.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says more food fills incinerators and landfills than any other material. Food makes up a fifth of the waste stream in the United States.

“Whatever comes in, we try to serve it,” Haraguchi said, adding that he avoids stockpiling food and mixes up the menu regularly to keep customers satisfied.

Read the full story at Reuters

Increased whale sightings in New York City waters a sign of cleaner waters

July 6, 2017 — New video shows a diver off the coast of Tasmania coming face to face with a whale recently in a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.

But you don’t have to travel to Australia to see these marine giants–they’re now in the waters off New York City.

Though the Hudson River was once a national symbol for pollution, humpback whales have become a more common sight around New York and New Jersey, reports CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor.

A whale sighting may look like an acrobatic display with its fluke set against the city’s skyscrapers, but they’re actually lunge feeding–attacking fish called menhaden.

“One of the things that brings everything together is this food chain,” said Paul Sieswerda, the president of the non-profit Gotham Whale. He says menhaden are thriving because the water is cleaner.

Read the full story at CBS This Morning