Saving Seafood

Second Circuit ends glass eel fishing season for Unkechaug Indian Nation

January 28, 2025 — A 17th century treaty does not grant a New York state-recognized Indigenous tribe unequivocal fishing and whaling rights, a Second Circuit panel ruled Tuesday.

The Unkechaug Indian Nation, which began harvesting baby eels in 2010, filed a complaint in 2018 against New York environmental regulators after facing criminal prosecution for harvesting critically overfished glass eels outside of their reservation.

The tribe’s argument relied on a treaty — which stems from an order issued in 1676 by New York’s colonial governor Sir Edmond Andros — that prevented interference in the tribe’s fishing practices out of fear the tribe would revolt against Long Island settlers.

But the Second Circuit panel said the treaty is not binding because it predates the formation of the United States and has not been ratified by Congress in the centuries since.

“It is undisputed that the Andros order was not made during the Confederal period,” U.S. Circuit Judge Sarah A.L. Merriam, a Joe Biden appointee, wrote for the panel. “Indeed, it predates the Confederation by nearly 100 years.”

The tribe said the treaty applies, despite being made under British rule, because of a constitutional clause that asserts all “debts and engagements” created before the adoption of the Constitution should be valid under U.S. law.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service 

NEW YORK: Environmentalists Outraged Over Hochul’s Horseshoe Crab Bill Veto

December 27, 2024 — Environmentalists are outraged over Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent decision to veto the Horseshoe Crab Protection Act, which prohibits the taking of horseshoe crabs from New York waters. The legislation would have allowed the populations to recover and ensured the survival of the important species, advocated said.

In her veto message, Hochul wrote: “This bill would prohibit the taking of horseshoe crabs for commercial or biomedical purposes and also extend the authority of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to manage crabs.”

She added: “DEC has significant rules and regulations regarding commercial and recreational fishing in the state and adheres to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission management plans to ensure healthy coastal fishery resources. DEC has already announced four lunar closures for the upcoming year to address concerns about overharvesting the horseshoe crab population.”

Also, Hochul said: “This bill could have unintended consequences on the management of other species such as whelk and eel, and could harm the commercial fishing industry and impair advancements in the biomedical field. While this bill is well-intentioned, the management of marine species is better left to the experts at DEC.”

She urged the legislature to restore DEC’s specific authority to regulate crabs, and said she was “directing DEC to evaluate and implement further administrative measures to protect this species pursuant to its broad authority to protect and regulate the state’s marine resources. Therefore, I am constrained to veto this bill.”

Read the full article at The Patch

NEW YORK: There May Be Hope Yet for Peconic Scallops

November 15, 2024 — Over the past five-plus years, Peconic Bay scallops have suffered mass die-offs blamed on an infectious parasite, but researchers at the Cornell Cooperate Extension have found a source of scientifically informed hope: genetic diversity.

Harrison Tobi, an aquaculture educator with the extension’s Bay Scallop Restoration Program, put it plainly for nonscientists: “Basically, they’re inbred in the Peconic.”

To understand the findings, Mr. Tobi discussed when the parasite was first identified in Argopecten irradians, or Peconic Bay scallops, in 2019: The “fishery collapsed by almost 99 percent,” resulting in losses of over $1 million annually since then.

“First off, it’s what we call a novel parasite, which means it was literally never discovered before,” Mr. Tobi said at the Southold laboratory. “Its genetics are brand-new to the scientific world.”

After the collapse, the Cornell Cooperative laboratory sent samples to Stony Brook University’s marine animal disease laboratory, led by Bassem Allam. “That is when we first discovered the parasite,” Mr. Tobi said.

There is no way to know how long it might have been present. “It’s like Schrodinger’s cat: We can’t really say it was or it wasn’t there because we didn’t test for it,” he said. Most likely, it had been present for some time, as it was also found in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

Read the full article at The East Hampton Star

US East Coast states select firms to run offshore wind development compensation fund for fishers

November 12, 2024 — A coalition of U.S. East Coast states have selected two firms to manage the Offshore Wind Fisheries Compensation Fund, a mitigation program built to compensate commercial and recreation for-hire fishers for revenue lost due to offshore wind developments.

The fund is a collaboration between the governments of 11 East Coast states – Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina – to provide financial compensation for economic loss caused by offshore wind projects along the Atlantic Coast. The states launched a competition earlier this year to select an administrator to run the new fund.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Coast Guard Seeks Public Comment Until Nov. 21 On Empire Wind 1

November 12, 2024 — The U.S. Coast Guard is currently seeking public comment regarding their installation of “temporary safety zones” for a wind farm off New York and New Jersey.

The proposed wind farm is Empire Wind 1, which would be located about 13 miles south of Long Island and 19.5 miles off Long Branch. It is highly unlikely that Empire Wind’s turbines will be seen from the shore; the proposed wind farm is located too far out.

The Coast Guard says they are required to set up temporary safety zones during construction. They propose establishing 55 temporary safety zones during the development of the Empire Wind 1 Wind Farm project area.

Read the full article at the Patch

Richmond firm to oversee fishermen compensation related to offshore wind farms

November 6, 2024 — Richmond claims resolution firm BrownGreer PLC and London’s The Carbon Trust have been tapped to design and roll out a regional fisheries mitigation program on the East Coast.

The program is aimed at providing financial compensation to the commercial and recreational for-hire fishing industries related to the impacts of new offshore wind farms.

BrownGreer and The Carbon Trust will work with 11 East Coast states and their respective fishing industry communities on the program. The groups have established a design oversight committee and a for-hire committee to provide advice and guidance from respective parties on the program.

The involved states include Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

Read the full article at Richmond Inno

Environmentalists sue New York, New Jersey and Delaware over endangered sturgeon

October 25, 2024 — New York, New Jersey and Delaware were accused in federal lawsuits Thursday of improperly allowing Atlantic sturgeon to be killed by commercial fishing operations even as the prehistoric fish is on the brink of disappearing.

The three parallel lawsuits filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Hudson Riverkeeper accuse the states of violating the Endangered Species Act by not obtaining necessary permits that allow commercial fisheries to catch and kill Atlantic sturgeon while they fish for other species such as striped bass and summer flounder. The environmentalists say the once thriving fish’s recovery is threatened because they are unintentionally caught in commercial nets as “bycatch.”

Atlantic Sturgeon in the Delaware River and Hudson River were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2012.

“The Atlantic sturgeon of our two rivers are at risk from being wiped from the face of this earth within our lifetime,” Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum said during an online news conference.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

NEW YORK: RWE and National Grid Propose New York’s Largest Offshore Wind Project

October 23, 2024 – German utility RWE and New York power company National Grid have announced a proposal to build a 2.8 GW wind park off Long Island, the largest offshore wind power plan yet submitted to New York state energy regulator NYSERDA. It is the second time that it has submitted its Community Offshore Wind project for NYSERDA’s approval: the previous bid was awarded, then canceled when the economic viability of first-generation U.S. offshore wind projects soured.

RWE and National Grid won a lease area in the New York Bight at auction in 2022, one of several awarded that year. The site has the potential for up to 3 GW of nameplate capacity, about a third of New York’s 2030 target of 9 GW.

The developers pitched a 1.3 GW phase 1 project to NYSERDA under the name of “Community Offshore Wind,” and in October 2023, they won a provisional offtake award greenlighting the project. The subsea power cable from the farm would land in Brooklyn, and Community Offshore Wind put heavy emphasis on a community benefits package totaling more than $500 million in wages and benefits for Brooklyn’s disadvantaged communities.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Big offshore wind project proposed for New York as other sites are evaluated in 3 states

October 23, 2024 — Offshore wind energy projects in New York, New Jersey and Maryland are moving forward, as federal regulators examine the proposals and opponents escalate their legal challenges to the work.

A large offshore wind farm is being proposed in the waters off New York as federal agencies are pressing ahead with reviews of seven other ocean sites.

Community Offshore Wind, a partnership between Essen, Germany-based RWE and New York-based National Grid, on Friday proposed a wind farm that would generate 2.8 gigawatts of electricity, or enough to power 1 million homes.

The company also has an active proposal to build a separate project in New Jersey off the coast of Long Beach Island.

Read the full article at ABC News

BOEM Completes First Region Environmental Review for Offshore Wind

October 22, 2024 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) completed its first regional environmental assessment as part of its continuing effort to accelerate the development of offshore wind energy power generation. The Final Programmatic Environmental Impact States for the New York Bight will be released later this week as a key step to move forward with the six large lease areas from the record February 2022 auction.

“We believe our regional approach will provide a solid baseline for future environmental reviews for any proposed offshore wind projects in the New York Bight,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. It is the next key step in the Biden-Harris administration’s goal to have 30 GW offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. They note that the U.S. surpassed approval for 15 GW of offshore wind energy capacity earlier this year.

BOEM reports it received 1,568 unique comments from 560 submissions which informed this stage of the development project which was designed to set a structure for the environmental review of the six projects.  The six wind lease areas in the NY Bight cover over 488,000 acres offshore New York and New Jersey with BOEM estimating it has a capacity to generate up to 7 GW of offshore wind energy, enough to power up to two million homes.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive