October 2, 2017 — While commercial fishing goes back to the late 17th Century in Cape May, it has been based in Montauk on the very eastern tip of Long Island for nearly that long. Montauk is the largest commercial fishing port in New York State today. WBGO’s Jon Kalish recently went out with a commercial fishing vessel to see what the work is like.
NEW YORK: Strained Fluke Quotas, Hurricanes and Safe Harbor
Case of fisherman bound for North Carolina caught in José’s rough seas highlights inadequacies in interstate fishing regulations
September 29, 2017 — Less than a month after a bill granting vessels safe harbor in New York was signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a fishing vessel bound for North Carolina carrying 6,000 pounds of fluke has tested the new policy, straining New York’s federally designated fluke quotas.
The F/V Rianda S., which has long been a part of the Montauk fleet, was in transit to land its fish in North Carolina, where it has fishing licenses, on Sept. 17 after fishing in federal waters when it encountered the rough seas generated by Hurricane José and requested safe harbor in Montauk.
New York’s fluke fishery is closed for the month of September, due to banner fluke landings this summer that strained the state’s already low federally mandated quotas.
The law granting safe harbor, sponsored by South Fork State Assemblyman Fred Thiele and East End State Senator Kenneth LaValle, allowed vessels fishing with licenses from other states immunity from prosecution for violations of state fishing regulations if they seek safe harbor under certain emergency situations, including weather, mechanical breakdown, medical emergencies and loss of essential gear that renders vessels unable to remain at sea.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) guidelines for safe harbor were drawn with input from commercial fishermen after an incident in January 2015, when the arrival of bad weather forced a commercial fisherman with New Jersey fishing permits to land his fish in Hampton Bays instead of continuing on to New Jersey.
IUU Fishing off Montauk Exposed as NY Fines Party Boat Taking Illegal Sea Bass and Dumping Fish
September 20, 2017 — State marine enforcement officers issued eight tickets and 22 warnings last month after people aboard a party boat were spotted throwing “hundreds of pounds” of illegal fish overboard in Montauk Harbor, authorities said.
The boat was later found to have hundreds more undersized and over-the-limit fish — a combined 1,000 fish in all, authorities said last week.
The Department of Environmental Conservation, in an email, said a marine enforcement unit was patrolling Montauk Harbor Aug. 31 when officers confronted fishermen on the boat, Fin Chaser, who were tossing fish overboard. Anglers ignored orders to stop, the DEC said
Once at the Star Island Yacht Club dock in Montauk, officers discovered 500 fish in 17 coolers. They issued tickets and warnings for possession of undersized black sea bass and fluke, excess possession of sea bass and scup, failure to stop dumping on command and an incomplete vessel trip report.
Fishing Groups and Communities Move Forward with Suit Against NY Wind Farm
WASHINGTON — September 19, 2017 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:
A group of fishing organizations, businesses, and communities, led by the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), has moved forward with its lawsuit to halt the leasing of a planned wind farm off the coast of New York. The suit, filed against the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is seeking summary judgment and requesting the court to invalidate the lease, which was awarded to the Norwegian firm Statoil to develop the New York Wind Energy Area (NY WEA).
BOEM’s process for awarding the lease failed to properly consider the planned wind farm’s impact on area fish populations and habitats, shoreside communities, safety, and navigation. This violates the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires an assessment of these impacts before issuing the lease, in conjunction with a full Environmental Impact Statement and an evaluation of alternative locations for any proposal.
BOEM’s failure to consider the impacts to fisheries, safety, navigation and other natural resources in the NY WEA prior to moving forward with the leasing process also violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), which charges BOEM with considering and providing for existing ocean users. And BOEM’s actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act, which prohibits agencies from acting in ways that are arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law.
The site for the proposed wind farm includes key scallop, squid, and other Atlantic fishing grounds, as well as ocean habitats that are crucial for species such as loggerhead sea turtles, right whales, black sea bass and summer flounder. Because of how BOEM’s leasing process unfolds, the wind farm’s expected impacts on natural resources and those who rely on them will not be examined until the project is nearing completion.
“The plaintiffs in this case believe sensible wind energy development and fishing can co-exist,” said David Frulla, who is representing FSF and the other plaintiffs in the case. “But any offshore energy project must first meaningfully consider the impact on the habitats, marine species, and economic interests that may be harmed before selecting a wind farm site and issuing a lease to a private developer.”
FSF and the other plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction against the $42.5 million lease before it was awarded in December 2016. While the judge presiding over the case stated that “the proper time for the agency to consider these environmental impacts may be at the present stage,” the request for a preliminary injunction was denied, as the judge did not believe it met the high standard of causing immediate harm that could not later be undone by a subsequent decision on the lease.
Following the plaintiffs’ filing last week, the federal government and Statoil are due to file their own cross-motions for summary judgment, and responses to the plaintiffs’ brief, in the coming months. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will then make a decision on the merits.
The Fisheries Survival Fund is the lead plaintiff in the case. The organizations and businesses that have joined the suit are the Garden State Seafood Association and the Fishermen’s Dock Co-Operative in New Jersey; the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association in New York; and the Narragansett Chamber of Commerce, Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance, SeaFreeze Shoreside, Sea Fresh USA, and The Town Dock in Rhode Island.
Municipalities that have joined the suit are the City of New Bedford, Mass.; the Borough of Barnegat Light, N.J.; and the Town of Narragansett, R.I.
October 2017 Mid-Atlantic Council Meeting in Riverhead, NY
September 19, 2017 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
Tuesday, October 10, 2017 – Thursday, October 12, 2017
Hyatt Long Island East End
451 East Main Street
Riverhead, NY 11901
Telephone 631-208-0002
The public is invited to attend the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s October 2017 meeting to be held October 10-12, 2017 in Riverhead, NY. The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Long Island East End, 451 East Main Street, Riverhead, NY 11901, Telephone 631-208-0002.
Meeting Materials: Briefing documents will be posted at http://ww.mafmc.org/briefing/october-2017 as they become available.
Public Comments: Written comments must be received by Wednesday, September 27, 2017 to be included in the Council meeting briefing book. Comments received after this deadline but before close of business on Thursday, October 5, 2017 will be posted as “supplemental materials” on the Council meeting web page. After that date, all comments must be submitted using an online comment form available at available at http://www.mafmc.org/public-comment. Comments submitted via the online form will be automatically posted to the website and available for Council consideration.
Webinar: For online access to the meeting, enter as a guest at: http://mafmc.adobeconnect.com/october2017.
Agenda
Tuesday, October 10th
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Executive Committee Meeting
- Review 2017 and proposed 2018 implementation plans
- Develop recommendations for 2018 priorities
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. Council Convenes
1:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Swearing In of New and Reappointed Council Members
1:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Election of Officers
1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Surfclam and Ocean Quahog Goals and Objectives Workshop
- Review results from Fisheries Forum project
- Review Fishery Management Action Team recommendations
- Identify and approve revised goals and objectives for public hearing document
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Golden Tilefish Individual Transferable Quota Program Review
Review and approve final report
4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Regional Planning Body – Draft Vessel Monitoring System, Communities at Sea, and Ecologically Rich Areas Data Presentation, Nick Napoli – MARCO
Wednesday, October 11th
9:00 a.m. Council Convenes
9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Lobster Standardized Bycatch Reporting Methodology Framework – Meeting 2, GARFO
- Final action on preferred alternatives
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Spiny Dogfish Specifications
- Review previously set specifications for 2018 and consider any modifications
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management Risk Assessment
- Finalize and adopt EAFM Based Risk Assessment
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Commercial Accountability Measure Framework – Meeting 1
- Review background, issues, and draft alternatives
2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. 2018 Recreational Black Sea Bass Wave 1 Fishery
- Consider a potential February 2018 opening of the recreational Wave 1 fishery
3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Law Enforcement Report
- NOAA Office of Law Enforcement
- U.S. Coast Guard
3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. 2019 – 2023 Strategic Plan
- Review plan for the development of the Strategic Plan
Thursday, October 12th
9:00 a.m. Council Convenes
9:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Business Session
- Committee Reports
- Executive Director’s Report, Chris Moore
- Science Report, Rich Seagraves
- Organization Reports
- NMFS Greater Atlantic Regional Office
- NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center
- NOAA Office of General Counsel
- Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
- Liaison Reports
- New England Council
- South Atlantic Council
- Regional Planning Body
- Continuing and New Business
NEW YORK: Commercial fishers reeling from shutdown of fluke fishery
September 6, 2017 — It was the busy Labor Day Weekend, and Southold Fish Market owner Charlie Manwaring had been forced to stock his popular East End restaurant and market with out-of-state fluke for the first time in recent memory.
“This is my backyard, and on a holiday weekend I have no fluke,” he complained to Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) at a meeting Friday morning with two dozen angry Long Island fishermen and women at the Mattituck fishing dock. “I have to rely on Rhode Island and Jersey and Massachusetts and Carolina.”
Late last month, state regulators, working with a limited New York quota from a multistate fishery council, shut down the commercial fluke fishery for September.
As a result, Manwaring and other local shop owners will “pay more, the fish will cost customers more, and they’ll be older,” said Bob Hamilton, a trawler operator out of Greenport, who typically sells his fluke to Southold Fish Market. “It’s just people in fisheries management who have no understanding of running a business.”
“The fluke paid our bills,” said Cindy Kaminsky, who fishes commercially out of Mattituck. “It’s hard to be just put out of business, and it’s a month out of a short fishing period. We don’t fish in winter and every year it gets a little bit worse.”
States Schedule Hearings on Atlantic Menhaden Draft Amendment 3
August 17, 2017 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
August 31, 2017 — This press release revises the release distributed August 17th with the addition of Maryland’s public hearing information. All other information remains the same.
September 20, 2017 — This press release revises the release distributed on August 31st, rescheduling Florida’s hearing from September 26th to October 10th. Details on PRFC’s listen only webinar are also provided below.
The Atlantic coastal states of Maine through Florida have scheduled their hearings to gather public comment on Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. The details of those hearings follow.
Maine Dept. of Marine Resources
October 5, 2017; 6 PM
Yarmouth Town Hall
200 Main Street
Yarmouth, ME
Contact: Pat Keliher at 207.624.6553
New Hampshire Fish and Game Department
October 3, 2017; 7 PM
Urban Forestry Center
45 Elwyn Road
Portsmouth, NH
Contact: Cheri Patterson at 603.868.1095
Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries
October 2, 2017; 6 PM
Thayer Public Library, Logan Auditorium
798 Washington Street
Braintree, MA
Contact: Nichola Meserve at 617.626.1531
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October 5, 2017; 6 PM
Bourne Community Center, Room 2
239 Main Street
Buzzards Bay, MA
Contact: Nichola Meserve at 617.626.1531
Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife
October 4, 2017; 6 PM
University of Rhode Island Bay Campus
Corless Auditorium, South Ferry Road
Narragansett, RI
Contact: Robert Ballou at 401.222.4700 ext: 4420
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
September 11, 2017; 7 PM
CT DEEP Boating Education Center
333 Ferry Road
Old Lyme, CT
Contact: Mark Alexander at 860.447.4322
New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation
September 12, 2017; 6 PM
NYSDEC Division of Marine Resources
205 N. Belle Mead Road
East Setauket, NY
Contact: Jim Gilmore at 631.444.0430
New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife
September 13, 2017; 6 PM
Manahawkin (Stafford Township) Courtroom
260 East Bay Avenue
Manahawkin, NJ
Contact: Russ Allen at 609.748.2020
Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife
September 14, 2017; 6 PM
DNREC Auditorium
89 Kings Highway
Dover, DE 19901
Contact: John Clark at 302.739.9914
Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources
September 18, 2017; 6 PM
Anne Arundel Community College
Cade Center fr the Fine Arts – Room 219
101 College Parkway
Arnold, MD
Contact: Lynn Fegley at 410.260.8285
Potomac River Fisheries Commission
September 19, 2017; 6 PM
Carpenter Building
222 Taylor Street
Colonial Beach, VA
Contact: Martin Gary at 804.456.6935
Virginia Marine Resources Commission
September 20, 2017; 6 PM
Northumberland High School
201 Academic Lane
Heathsville, VA
Contact: Rob O’Reilly at 757.247.2247
–
September 21, 2017; 6 PM
2600 Washington Avenue, 4th Floor
Newport News, VA
Contact: Rob O’Reilly at 757.247.2247
North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries
September 27, 2017; 6 PM
Central District Office
5285 US Highway 70 West
Morehead City, NC
Contact: Michelle Duval at 252.808.8013
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
October 10, 2017; 6 PM
Town of Melbourne Beach Community Center
507 Ocean Avenue
Melbourne Beach, FL
Contact: Jim Estes at 850.617.9622
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Draft Amendment 3 seeks to manage the menhaden resource in a way that balances menhaden’s ecological role as a prey species with the needs of all user groups. To this end, the Draft Amendment considers the use of ecosystem reference points (ERPs) to manage the resource and changes to the allocation method. In addition, it presents a suite of management options for quota transfers, quota rollovers, incidental catch, the episodic events set aside program, and the Chesapeake Bay reduction fishery cap.
The 2015 Benchmark Stock Assessment Report identified the development of ERPs as a high priority for Atlantic menhaden management. Menhaden serve an important role in the marine ecosystem as prey for a variety of species including larger fish (e.g. weakfish, striped bass), birds (e.g. bald eagles, osprey), and marine mammals (e.g. humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins). As a result, changes in the abundance of menhaden may impact the abundance and diversity of predator populations, particularly if the availability of other prey is limited. ERPs provide a method to assess the status of menhaden within the broad ecosystem context. Draft Amendment 3 provides a variety of reference point options, including the continued development of menhaden-specific ERPs as well as the application of precautionary guidelines for forage fish species.
Draft Amendment 3 also considers changes to the allocation method given concerns that the current approach may not strike an appropriate balance between gear types and jurisdictions. Specifically, under the current allocation method, increases in the total allowable catch (TAC) result in limited benefits to small-scale fisheries, and to several states. Furthermore, the current method may not provide a balance between the present needs of the fishery and future growth opportunities. Draft Amendment 3 considers a range of allocation alternatives, including a dispositional quota (bait vs. reduction), fleet-capacity quota (quota divided by gear type), jurisdictional quota, including a fixed minimum quota for each state, and an allocation method based on the TAC. In addition, the document considers five allocation timeframes including 2009-2011, 2012-2016, 1985-2016, 1985-1995, and a weighted approached which considers both historic and recent landings.
The Draft Amendment is available here or on the Commission website, www.asmfc.org, under Public Input. Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Amendment either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on October 20, 2017 and should be forwarded to Megan Ware, FMP Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St, Suite A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (FAX) or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Draft Amd. 3). If your organization is planning to release an action alert in response to Draft Amendment 3, please contact Megan Ware at 703.842.0740, so she can work with you to develop a unique subject line to enable us to better organize and summarize incoming comments for Board review.
Final action on the Amendment, as well as specification of the 2018 TAC, is scheduled to occur on November 14th at the BWI Airport Marriott, 1743 West Nursery Road, Linthicum, MD. For more information, please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
Why whales are returning to New York City’s once polluted waters ‘by the ton’
August 29, 2017 — Growing up on his father’s boat off the Rockaways in Queens, New York, Tom Paladino was always on the lookout for whales.
“My father started a fishing business in 1945 when he came back from the service, so I never really had a job. I was just on the boat my whole life,” Paladino said as he steered his own boat, the American Princess, back to shore.
The giant animals rarely ventured into the city’s busy, dirty waterways, Paladino told ABC News, and “in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, we used to see one whale a year.”
But on a recent August Saturday, Paladino and Paul Sieswerda, the founder of the nonprofit Gotham Whale, spotted five humpbacks and more than 100 dolphins during a four-hour tour, just three miles off the Rockaways.
“People don’t really connect New York City with whales at all,” Sieswerda told ABC News. “I’ve been involved with wildlife all my life, and I am just so amazed it’s coming back by the ton — literally by the ton — with whales.”
In 2011, when Sieswerda, 75, started leading whale watching tours after retiring from his job at the New York Aquarium, the group logged just three sightings with a total of five whales, he said. More than one whale can be present at any given sighting, he added.
“We called it a whale watch ‘adventure,’ because it was an adventure, if we were going to see whales or not,” said Sieswerda.“Then in 2014, the number of whales we saw was more than the previous three years put together.”
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.
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.
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