Saving Seafood

New York utility poised to approve ambitious offshore wind project

July 15, 2016 — UNIONDALE, N.Y. – A New York utility plans to approve a wind farm off eastern Long Island that it says would be the nation’s largest offshore wind energy project built to date.

The project would be the first phase of a more ambitious effort to construct hundreds of electricity-producing turbines in the Atlantic Ocean in the coming years.

The announcement that the Long Island Power Authority plans to approve a proposed 90-megawatt, 15-turbine wind farm in U.S. waters east of Montauk at a meeting next week was greeted enthusiastically by energy experts, elected officials and environmentalists.

“This is obviously an important development,” said Jeffrey Firestone, a professor at the University of Delaware and an expert on offshore wind. “Hopefully, this will be something toward facilitating a more regional approach to the need for offshore wind energy.”

The U.S. lags behind Europe and others in development of offshore wind energy because of regulatory hurdles and opposition from fossil fuel and fishing interests, among other challenges. Many wind farms in Europe are already producing hundreds of megawatts of power.

Read the full story from the Associated Press in the Portland Press Herald

New York Wind Farm Part of Larger Offshore Energy Ambitions

July 14, 2016 — UNIONDALE, N.Y. — A New York utility plans to approve a wind farm off eastern Long Island that it says would be the nation’s largest offshore wind energy project built to date.

The project would be the first phase of a more ambitious effort to construct hundreds of electricity-producing turbines in the Atlantic Ocean in the coming years.

The announcement that the Long Island Power Authority plans to approve a proposed 90-megawatt, 15-turbine wind farm in U.S. waters east of Montauk at a meeting next week was greeted enthusiastically by energy experts, elected officials and environmentalists.

“This is obviously an important development,” said Jeffrey Firestone, a professor at the University of Delaware and an expert on offshore wind. “Hopefully, this will be something toward facilitating a more regional approach to the need for offshore wind energy.”

The U.S. lags behind Europe and others in development of offshore wind energy because of regulatory hurdles and opposition from fossil fuel and fishing interests, among other challenges. Many wind farms in Europe are already producing hundreds of megawatts of power.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has issued several leases for wind projects along the Atlantic coast, but none have come to fruition yet. LIPA said its project would be the next one built after one opens near Block Island, Rhode Island, later this year.

A scallop industry trade organization, the Fisheries Survival Fund, has raised concerns about some wind farm proposals, but not this one. Important scallop areas were removed from the possible lease areas for this wind farm, said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for the fund. He cautioned that other commercial fishermen could raise objections.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

Now Available: BOEM Provides New Resource for Atlantic Fishing Industry

July 14, 2016 — The following was released by the Bureau of Ocean Managment:

BOEM is pleased to announce that we have recently added a new webpage for the commercial fishing industry to serve as a single point of entry for updates on Atlantic offshore renewable energy planning and leasing efforts.

http://www.boem.gov/Atlantic-Fishing/

The webpage will provide users with status updates, charts and maps, and project-specific developer contact information for fisheries liaisons and fishery representatives.

Please bookmark this link to find the latest information. We encourage and welcome feedback on how we can further enhance this resource. Please send your comments to the email address below.

Public invited to Open Houses on Draft Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan

July 5, 2016 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean:

WHAT: The Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body (RPB) invites ocean stakeholders and the interested public to attend a series of Open Houses to be held across the region on the Draft Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan. The Draft Plan outlines a series of actions on how federal and state agencies, tribes and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council may better collaborate to ensure healthy, productive, and resilient marine ecosystems and sustainable ocean uses in the Mid-Atlantic, including state and federal waters off Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. An opportunity to provide public comment on the Draft Plan will be provided.

Prior to the Open Houses, the draft Plan will be available at:

http://www.boem.gov/Ocean-Action-Plan/

WHO: The Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body (MidA RPB) is made up of representatives from Federal, State, and Tribal entities and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. It was established in 2013 to implement and advance ocean planning through improved inter- governmental coordination and stronger engagement of stakeholders, the general public, and scientific, business and technical experts to identify and address issues of importance to the region. The Open Houses will be hosted by MARCO1 on behalf of the MidA RPB.

LEARN MORE: www.MidAtlanticOcean.org/YourOceanPlan\

WHEN and WHERE:

Virginia Open House

Tuesday, July 12, 2016. 6-8pm

Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center
717 General Booth Blvd, Virginia Beach, VA 23451

New Jersey Open House

Thursday, July 14, 2016. 6-8pm

See the full advisory here

China Fishery, Pacific Andes file bankruptcy in US

July 1, 2016 — Pacific Andes International Holding (PAIH) and its subsidiary China Fishery Group have filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported.

The Hong Kong and Singapore-listed companies submitted the filing June 30, in the southern district of New York, along with more than 15 affiliates.

The Journal said four affiliates including Pacific Andes Resources Development (PARD), the Hong Kong-based parent company of China Fishery, have filed for chapter 15, a part of the bankruptcy code which covers international insolvencies.

The newspaper adds the filing will allow the company to benefit from US bankruptcy law, including protections that prevent creditors from seizing assets.

Citing court papers, the Journal writes that China Fishery officials said they filed for bankruptcy to protect the company’s business from the possibility of “hostile and aggressive action” from certain creditors.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News 

Predators coming closer to Brooklyn beaches, experts say

June 28, 2016 — The sharks are circling!

A bumper crop of bunker fish churning along the coast is drawing the ocean’s greatest predator closer than ever to Brooklyn’s beaches, anglers and naturalists say.

“That population (bunker) is very high along our shore, and that is bringing sharks and whales much closer to shore, bringing the predators much closer to the beach,” said captain John Calamia of Whatta Catch.

Read the full story at Brooklyn Daily

Eat fish, lower your risk of deadly heart attack

June 28, 2016 — NEW YORK — Fish used to be called “brain food”, but it may be heart food instead.

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, when obtained through foods in the diet, appear to reduce the risk of fatal heart attack, death due to coronary artery disease (CAD), and sudden cardiac death by about 10 percent, according to new research.

The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, looked at the three forms of these fatty acids: α-linolenic acid (ALA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which have all shown beneficial effects on things like blood pressure and oxygen demand by heart muscle cells.

Some may reduce the likelihood of the dangerous heart rhythms during a period of reduced blood flow to heart muscle cells (what happens during heart attacks).

Researchers at Stanford and Tufts University studied data on 45,637 patients from more than 15 countries who had not had previous coronary artery disease.

Read the full story at WTOP

Long Island Sound Fishing Entangled In Conflicting Multi-State Regulations

June 22, 2016 — WESTBROOK, Conn. — There’s a joke among Connecticut anglers that the first thing you really need for a Long Island Sound fishing trip is a lawyer: Catching the wrong fish at the wrong time in the wrong waters could land you in a tangle of legal trouble.

Let’s say you were fishing in the Sound in early June, believing you were in Connecticut waters where the black bass season began on May 1. If you hooked a good one but had drifted over the mid-Sound state line into New York’s jurisdiction, you’d have been in violation. New York’s black bass season doesn’t start until June 27.

“You move 100 feet this way, and you could be over the line,” Jack Conway Jr., a longtime Connecticut fisherman who has frequently served on state and regional fishing regulatory panels, explained last week.

Conway and his 81-year-old father, Jack Conway Sr., had just returned from a successful black sea bass fishing trip into the Sound with Bill Kokis, owner of Westbrook’s Marshview Marina.

Read the full story at the Hartford Courant

Proposed wind farm off the New Jersey coast concerns local fisherman

June 21, 2016 — LONG BRANCH, N.J. — A proposal to build a wind farm off the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey is concerning some local fisheries, which say that the farm could hurt their livelihood.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held its first of four public meeting in Long Branch Monday night to education the public on what environmental impacts a wind farm in the ocean could have.

Local fisherman Arthur Osche says that the proposed building site for the farm is right where he usually fishes for scallops. Scallops make up about 40 percent of his fishery business.

“My boat typically does about $3 million a year, so it would be like $1.2 million,” he says.

Osche says that although he does support renewable energy sources, he does not want to see them build where he and other fisheries fish.

Read and watch the full story at News 12 The Bronx

Fishermen worry about plan for wind farm off New York coast

June 20, 2016 — MINEOLA, N.Y. — A long-stalled plan to build a forest of power-producing windmills off the coast of New York may finally be gathering momentum, and that is sparking concern among commercial fishermen who fear the giant turbines will ruin an area rich with scallops and other sea life.

Federal officials announced earlier this month that they would auction off the rights to build the wind power farm on a 127-square-mile wedge of the Atlantic Ocean.

The tip of the wedge begins about 11 miles south of Long Island’s popular Jones Beach and spreads out across an area, sandwiched between major shipping lanes, where trawlers harvest at least $3.3 million worth of sea scallops each year, as well as smaller amounts of mackerel, squid and other species, according to a study commissioned by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“There’s got to be a better place,” said Eric Hansen, a scallop fisherman based in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Groups including the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and the Fisheries Survival Fund and a seafood company in Rhode Island have already voiced objections about damage to the fishing ground and potential navigation hazards for vessels traversing the area.

“We’ll fight it every step of the way,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney representing the Fisheries Survival Fund, although he stopped short of threatening legal action. He said scallop fishermen don’t object to all wind farms, but are angry the New York site was chosen without their input.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Times Union