Saving Seafood

Federal agency to assess oil and gas development’s impact on endangered species in the Gulf

July 29, 2019 — A federal lawsuit filed last year calling on the National Marine Fisheries Service to assess the impacts of oil and gas development on federally protected species and critical habitat in the Gulf of Mexico ended last week with a settlement agreement under which the service agreed to finish an assessment by November.

Under the Endangered Species Act, the fisheries service is required to gauge the impacts of federally authorized oil and gas operations on species listed as threatened and endangered, as well as habitat designated as critical.

It has been 12 years since the fisheries service did such an analysis of energy development in the Gulf, called a “biological opinion.” That opinion was intended to cover the five-year period from 2007 to 2012.

After the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in 2010, the Department of Interior requested that the fisheries service update its 2007 opinion, taking the huge resulting oil spill into consideration. The assessment process began in 2013, but an updated opinion still hasn’t been issued.

Read the full story at NOLA.com

Trump offshore drilling plan frightens NJ business, environmentalists

July 3, 2019 — Environmentalists and business advocates, who are often divided over issues affecting the Jersey Shore, joined together Tuesday to oppose the Trump administration’s efforts to allow drilling for oil and gas in the Atlantic Ocean.

Standing on the Pier Village boardwalk overlooking a stretch of sand filled with sunbathers and beach umbrellas, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., said New Jersey residents must continue to fight efforts to open this region to oil and gas exploration.

The issue has divided President Donald J. Trump’s administration and politicians in coastal states.

Pallone said such activity would threaten $700 billion worth of coastal property in the Garden State and the half-million jobs that depend on a healthy tourism industry.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

Retired Oil Rigs off the California Coast Could Find New Lives as Artificial Reefs

May 17, 2019 — Offshore oil and gas drilling has been a contentious issue in California for 50 years, ever since a rig ruptured and spilled 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil off Santa Barbara in 1969. Today it’s spurring a new debate: whether to completely dismantle 27 oil and gas platforms scattered along the southern California coast as they end their working lives, or convert the underwater sections into permanent artificial reefs for marine life.

We know that here and elsewhere, many thousands of fishes and millions of invertebrates use offshore rigs as marine habitat. Working with state fisheries agencies, energy companies have converted decommissioned oil and gas platforms into manmade reefs in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Brunei and Malaysia.

Californians prize their spectacular coastline, and there are disagreements over the rigs-to-reefs concept. Some conservation groups assert that abandoned oil rigs could release toxic chemicals into the water and create underwater hazards. In contrast, supporters say the submerged sections have become productive reefs that should be left in place.

We are a former research scientist for the U.S. Department of the Interior and a scholar focusing on the fishes of the Pacific coast. In a recent study, we reviewed the history of rigs-to-reefs conversions and decades of published scientific research monitoring the effects of these projects. Based on this record, we conclude that reefing the habitat under decommissioned oil and gas platforms is a viable option for California. It also could serve as a model for decommissioning some of the 7,500 other offshore platforms operating around the world.

Read the full story at EcoWatch

Interior: Nine seismic testing permits in process

May 16, 2019 — Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management remains working on seismic airgun testing permits — a key prerequisite to offshore oil and gas drilling — while issues regarding the legality of the Trump administration’s offshore leasing plan work their way through the federal court system.

In late March, a federal district judge in Alaska ruled Executive Order 13795, and subsequent efforts by the Trump administration to open up offshore drilling access in waters off Alaska and the Atlantic Coast, were illegal in attempting to repeal former President Barack Obama’s withdrawal of unleased lands in those areas under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

Since that point, there’s been some confusion about what the Interior Department will and won’t do. Attorneys for the federal government stated in a May 9 status report — in the seismic testing lawsuit in federal court in Charleston, S.C. — that neither the department nor Bernhardt made any announcement that Interior “may wait until the resolution of any potential appeal” of that ruling before making decisions on authorizing offshore activities.

Read the full story at The Brunswick News

Opponents of offshore drilling at New Jersey Shore are breathing sigh of relief

May 13, 2019 — The federal government has stopped pushing for offshore oil drilling off the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to Florida. And that’s good news for critics of the plan in South Jersey.

The Secretary of the Interior announced recently that plans to allow offshore drilling of oil and gas were postponed indefinitely. Opponents of seismic testing in South Jersey are relieved but say it’s not over yet.

“It’s very good news,” said Vicki Clark, president of the Cape May Chamber of Commerce. “But unless they say it is permanently abandoned, we still feel as though we have to continue to, continue on with our education about why this is not something we want to have anywhere along the Atlantic.”

Read the full story at KYW

OIL DRILLING RISKS NORTH CAROLINA COASTAL ECONOMY, MAYORS WORRY

May 9, 2019 — Mayors from along the North Carolina coast are discussing the costs of offshore oil drilling if something goes wrong.

About a dozen mayors from Duck to Topsail Beach are meeting Wednesday in Manteo to discuss their worries about offshore oil and gas exploration. Opponents say that one future oil spill could destroy the state’s $4 billion fishing business and badly dent the state’s $20 billion tourism industry.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WWAY

All New England Senators Renew Push To Ban Offshore Drilling Off Region

May 3, 2019 — All 10 U.S. senators in coastal New England reintroduced a proposal Friday to bar oil and gas drilling from the region’s shores.

The group said President Trump’s administration was stalling on the release of a new draft of its five-year offshore leasing plan. The group of senators, led by Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, said that means the Atlantic continental shelf off New England is still at risk of being opened up to drilling.

The senators said drilling off New England would be bad for the economy, tourism, wildlife and the environment. New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan said the region’s coast needs to be “off limits.”

The senators said tourism, fishing and recreation generate more than $17 billion for New England annually, according to the National Ocean Economic Program, and it would harm the five coastal states to jeopardize that revenue with drilling.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WBUR

NORTH CAROLINA: Offshore drilling suspended on NC coast, fishing industry has mixed reactions

April 29, 2019 — The Trump administration has put a suspension on plans to expand offshore drilling off the North Carolina coast, leading to mixed reactions from the state fishing industry.

Randy Robinson, a representative of Brunswick County on the N.C. Fisheries Association Board of Directors thinks that the presence of offshore drilling “isn’t necessarily a bad idea.“ He considers that offshore drilling could play a role in increasing the net amount of jobs for North Carolinians.

Additionally, Robinson blames the N.C. Wildlife Federation for causing more damage than offshore drilling would do. He explains that the organization’s push to reduce trawls and limit the length of nets for fishing shrimp has negatively affected commercial fishing across the state’s coast.

Read the full story at WECT

Offshore drilling plans postponed, including off Georgia coast

April 26, 2019 — The Trump administration is suspending plans to expand offshore drilling, including plans to drill off Georgia after a recent court ruling blocked drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told the Wall Street Journal.

Bernhardt said the agency would delay indefinitely its five-year plan for oil and gas drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf as the case goes through the appeals process.

“By the time the court rules, that may be discombobulating to our plan,” Bernhardt told the Wall Street Journal in a report published Thursday. The plans had been expected to be released in the near future.

Read the full story at Savannah Morning News

North Carolina coastal panel opposes offshore drilling

April 22, 2019 — North Carolina’s coastal regulatory board says risks associated with offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling off the Atlantic coast aren’t worth threats to the tourism and fishing economies and the environment.

The state Coastal Resources Commission approved a resolution this week opposing the idea.

President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing permits to allow testing for possible drilling sites off the Atlantic coast.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Connecticut Post