Saving Seafood

2nd Interior lease sale boosts N.C. offshore wind

May 13, 2022 — Developers bet big on the prospect of offshore wind in North Carolina yesterday in an auction that accelerates the momentum of the Biden administration’s offshore wind thrust — and proves the industry aims to grow its footprint in the southern Atlantic.

After an all-day bidding war, French oil giant TotalEnergies SE and southern utility Duke Energy Corp. pledged a combined $315 million for the right to raise turbines in the sea off the state’s coast.

The two lease areas sold yesterday by the Interior Department could support an estimated 1.3 gigawatts of wind power between them and total 110,000 acres in federal waters roughly 20 miles south of North Carolina’s Bald Head Island. That’s enough to potentially power a half-million homes (Energywire, March 25).

The sale is part of the Biden administration’s push to raise hundreds of offshore wind turbines — 30 gigawatts of clean energy — on the outer continental shelf by 2030. Offshore wind is a critical lever in the White House’s larger climate ambitions, to decarbonize the nation’s grid by 2035 and zero out emissions economywide by midcentury.

But the robust sale that closed after 17 rounds of bidding was widely seen also as a success for the industry’s regional prospects and the sector’s growing potential footprint in the U.S. energy mix.

Read the full story at E&E News

Duke Energy wins with $155M bid to run wind farm off South, North Carolina coasts

May 12, 2022 — Duke Energy is one of two provisional winners to win a bid to run an offshore wind farm in the Carolina Long Bay area, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced Wednesday afternoon.

Duke Energy Renewables Wind, LLC, submitted a $155 million bid for 55,154 acres. TotalEnergies Renewables USA,LLC, submitted a $160 million winning bid for 54,937 acres.

The Carolina Long Bay area is off the shore of northern South Carolina and southern North Carolina.

Read the full story at WBTW

 

N.C. Court of Appeals hears arguments from OAG, CCA-NC

May 10, 2022 — A decision from three N.C. Court of Appeals judges will determine whether a civil suit between the Coastal Conservation Association’s North Carolina branch and state fisheries managers is going forward or is dead in the water.

Appellate Court Judges Hunter Murphy, Tobias Hampson and April Wood received arguments April 26 from attorneys for CCA-NC and from the N.C. Office of the Attorney General. The OAG is appealing a Wade County Superior Court decision to deny a motion to dismiss the civil suit against state fisheries managers. The appellate judges with announce their decision at a date to be determined.

Read the full story at the Carteret County News-Times

Scallop leasing on the table? New England council starts scoping meetings

April 21, 2022 — The possibility of allowing leasing in the Atlantic scallop fishery will be explored by the New England Fishery Management Council in the coming weeks.

A preceding publicity campaign aims to get everyone in the industry out to comment in public meetings. It’s a first step for the council to investigate whether a days-at-sea and access area leasing program is needed in the limited access component of the scallop fishery.

Depending on what they learn, council members could vote to initiate a leasing amendment to the scallop management plan when they meet Sept. 27-29 in Gloucester, Mass.

Leasing has been suggested by some scallop operators, and the council approved a scoping plan at its April 12-14 meeting in Mystic, Conn. It calls for public meetings from Gloucester to New Bern, N.C., starting April 27, plus two online webinars in June, to gauge opinions.

The proposal could have broad effects, so the council is looking to go in depth.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NEFMC Approves Scallop Leasing Scoping Document; Readies for Seven In-Person Meetings and Two Webinars

April 19, 2022 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council: 

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold seven in-person scoping meetings and two webinars over the next two months to solicit public input on whether a leasing program is needed in the limited access component of the Atlantic sea scallop fishery.

The Council approved the scoping document during its April 12-14, 2022 hybrid meeting, which was held in Mystic, CT. In addition, the Council received short updates on:

Scoping Meetings Kick Off April 27th in Gloucester

The first scoping meeting for limited access leasing will be held on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 in Gloucester, Massachusetts at the Cruiseport beginning at 5:00 p.m.

Other in-person meeting locations run from New Bedford down to New Bern, North Carolina. The in-person meetings will not have a remote participation option, but two separate webinar scoping meetings are scheduled for June 17 and June 24, 2022.

Read the full release from the NEFMC

UNC Researchers: Climate change causing fish migration

March 30, 2022 — The University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences says climate change is threatening the fishing industry, which contributes close to $300 million to the economy in North Carolina.

Marine researchers say climate change is continuing to impact the environment along the coast and is now impacting the amount of fish in the water here in the east.

University of North Carolina’s Marine Sciences college in Morehead City has conducted research into the decrease in the number of fish.

Dr. Janet Nye, Associate Professor at the Institute of Marine Sciences, has been studying water temperatures and how it impacts fish along North Carolina’s Coast.

Nye says the increase in temperatures has caused flounder and grouper numbers to decrease.

Read the full story at WITN

Recruitment Announcement: Citizen Science Project Coordinator

March 28, 2022 — The following was released by The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) is seeking a Citizen Science Project Coordinator that will support the Council’s Citizen Science Program and help coordinate individual citizen science projects. The Council, headquartered in North Charleston, SC, is responsible for the conservation and management of fish stocks within the federal 200-mile limit of the Atlantic off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and east Florida to Key West. The Council’s Citizen Science Program aims to work with fishermen and scientists to facilitate and support the development of projects to address Council-specific research needs.

The Citizen Science Project Coordinator is a full-time, time-limited contract position that will work closely with the Citizen Science Program Manager. The position will primarily focus on coordinating the SAFMC Release project and the continued development of the SciFish customizable citizen science mobile application. The SAFMC Release project works with commercial, recreational, and for-hire fishermen to collect information on released fish via a mobile app. SciFish is being developed to serve as an umbrella mobile application that would support data collection for different fishery-related citizen science projects developed by partners along the Atlantic coast.

See the complete recruitment announcement available from the Council’s website for additional information and application instructions. Applications must be received by April 20, 2022.

NORTH CAROLINA: NCDMF Distributes $4.3M in CARES Funds to Commercial Fishing and Seafood Industry Participants

March 4, 2022 — Commercial fishermen and seafood dealers in Carteret County and elsewhere in North Carolina are getting $4.3 million in federal assistance for income losses due to COVID-19.

The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries announced Feb. 17 more than $4.3 million in financial relief is on its way to eligible members of the fishing industries who sustained income losses from March to December of 2020, during the ongoing pandemic.

During the week of Feb. 14-18, the division issued funds to 265 commercial fishermen and marine aquaculture operations, for-hire fishing operations, seafood dealers and processors deemed eligible for relief from the federal North Carolina Consolidated Appropriations Act Fisheries Relief Program, or CARES Act II.

According to DMF, in Carteret County, $612,763.33 in CARES funding was sent to 67 recipients. Of these recipients, 53 were commercial fishermen or aquaculture operations, three were for-hire fishermen and 11 were seafood dealers or processors.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Access to red snapper in South Carolina waters could improve with new legislation

February 23, 2022 — Nearly 13 years ago, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) determined the South Atlantic red snapper stock was overfished and undergoing overfishing. The fishery was closed in 2010 with a 35-year rebuilding plan put in place.

Ever since, red snapper have been virtually inaccessible for recreational anglers in South Atlantic waters which stretch from North Carolina southward through the east coast of Florida.

Save for occasional mini-seasons ranging from three to nine days in some, but not all, of those years, anglers have been forced to release red snapper.

As the numbers and size of red snapper have increased over the past dozen years, so has frustration among recreational anglers not only in South Carolina but throughout the South Atlantic Region.

Red snapper are almost exclusively caught in federal waters (3-200 miles offshore), typically in depths of about 60-120 feet off South Carolina. The reef species is very susceptible to barotrauma, which occurs when the rapid change in pressure as fish are reeled in causes the gases in the fish’s body to expand.

Read the full story at The State