Saving Seafood

Environmental groups seek injunction on air gun blasting until lawsuit decided

February 20, 2019 — Eight environmental firms filed for an injunction against the federal government on Wednesday, 20 February, in an attempt to block five companies from conducting seismic air gun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean until a lawsuit on the matter can be settled.

The request comes as the federal government could issue permits for the blasting as soon as 1 March, after NOAA announced in December that five permits could be issued for blasting in the Atlantic Ocean. That would enable companies to begin work, as part of a survey for potential oil and gas drilling, by the end of March.

Last December, the groups filed the lawsuit in a South Carolina federal court seeking to stop the blasting in an area ranging from New Jersey to central Florida. A month later, 16 South Carolina coastal cities, a chamber of commerce and the state’s attorney general filed their own lawsuit to block the permits, claiming the blasting could “destroy coastal fishing industries” in the state.

The two cases have since been combined.

In Wednesday’s filing, lawyers for the environmental groups said they could not reach an agreement that would keep the blasting from starting while the lawsuit worked its way through the court system.

“The harm Plaintiffs seek to prevent will begin as soon as seismic blasting does,” the document stated.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Virginia’s Democrats in Congress call to stop seismic testing off coast

February 12, 2019 — In the latest effort to remove Virginia from offshore drilling plans, the state’s Democratic representatives in Congress are pushing federal officials to revoke seismic testing permits that include the waters off Hampton Roads.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the heads of the departments of Commerce and the Interior, the Virginia delegation said the Trump administration’s draft five-year energy plan “runs counter to the explicit wishes of coastal communities up and down the Atlantic that would be at risk from offshore drilling and exploration.”

The appeal was spearheaded by U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin of the 4th district, but the nine signatories include Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Hampton Roads Congress members Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, 3rd district, and Elaine G. Luria, 2nd district.

The letter calls on the administration to rescind five Incidental Harassment Authorization permits issued last November by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and to remove Virginia’s offshore area from the president’s controversial 2019-2024 offshore energy plan.

With IHA permits, energy companies can conduct seismic surveys to see where and how much oil and gas is buried in the seabed.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

New York lawmakers approve ban on offshore drilling

February 8, 2019 — State Senate Democrats approved what was described as historic legislation on Tuesday to ban offshore oil and natural gas drilling along the New York coast, a rebuke of the Trump administration’s plan to open ocean waters to energy companies.

The Democratically controlled Senate easily approved the measure, a day after the legislation passed the Assembly. Officials said that Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who supports the ban, is expected to sign the bill.

The expected passage of the legislation — sponsored by State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Democrat from Long Beach and chairman of the Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee — was announced last Sunday at a news conference on the boardwalk, where Kaminsky joined Senate leaders and Assembly Democrats, as well as local officials and environmentalists.

Lawmakers said the legislation would update decades-old laws regulating oil and natural gas drilling and prevent conveyances, leases and acquisitions of land for offshore oil and gas.

“The Senate majority will not stand by as the Trump administration plans to drill off Long Island shores,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. “Long Island’s natural resources and communities’ quality of life are under threat. The Senate Democratic majority will stand up for Long Island families and fight against any efforts to drill anywhere near New York’s coastlines.”

Read the full story at the Long Island Herald

GLOUCESTER DAILY TIMES: Unity in opposition to Georges Bank drilling

January 31, 2019 — The methods vary, but the message should be clear: Keep oil rigs off of Georges Bank.

For decades, the fossil fuel industry has been looking to set up drilling operations in the waters off the Massachusetts coast. And for years, a coalition of local interests — primarily fishermen, lawmakers and the environmental lobby —have worked long and hard to keep them out.

If fishermen and environmentalists are standing side-by-side on the issue, you know it’s important. While the latest effort to stave off exploration — in the form of proposed legislation filed on Beacon Hill last week — may not pan out officially, it sends a strong signal that the state is united in opposition to the expansion of drilling into its historic local waters.

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Daily Times

Court: No new offshore drilling work during federal shutdown

January 21, 2019 — A federal judge in South Carolina has turned back the Trump administration’s attempt to continue preparatory work for offshore drilling during the federal government’s partial shutdown, issuing a ruling in a federal lawsuit challenging the overall expansion plans.

In his order, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel halted federal agencies “from taking action to promulgate permits, otherwise approve, or take any other official action” for permits to conduct testing that’s needed before drilling work can begin.

The ruling comes a few days after President Donald Trump’s decision this week to recall workers at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management so they could continue to process testing permits for possible drilling off the Atlantic coastline. The recall drew an objection from the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee chairman, Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva (gri-HAWL-vah) of Arizona. He called on Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to reverse course or provide a briefing on the legal justification for the move.

Earlier this month, South Carolina joined a federal lawsuit opposing the administration’s plans to conduct offshore drilling tests using seismic air guns. Gergel is overseeing that case, initially filed by environmental groups and municipalities along the state’s coast.

The suit challenges permits for the testing that precedes the drilling itself. It claims the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act in issuing the permits.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Offshore Oil Drilling in Florida Still Possible Despite Ban

January 16, 2019 — Floridians took a stand against offshore oil drilling Nov. 6 by voting their opposition into the state constitution, where it’s almost certain to stay for at least a generation.

The issue resonates with Alan Johnson, mayor of St. Pete Beach (population “pushing 10,000”), a 6-mile-long, sandy tourist magnet on Florida’s Gulf coast.

“The big problem that people relate to here is that they’ve been to Houston, where they can see the oil rigs offshore, and they complain about big balls of tar on the beaches. Everybody’s deathly afraid of that happening here,” Johnson says. “We’re the designated sunset capital of Florida and the last thing we want to do is ruin that.”

So did passage of Amendment 9, the new ban on drilling in Florida coastal waters, solve the problem?

Johnson is doubtful. “There was a lot of confusion as to what it really accomplished,” he says. “We’re at the mercy of what happens in Washington.”

State waters extend 3 nautical miles off the coast, but the states have no direct control over 200 miles of federal waters. And oil ignores man-made borders.

Read the full story at U.S. News and World Report

DAILY PRESS: Seismic blasting is too risky along Atlantic Coast

January 15, 2019 — Imagine the misery of living next to a rock quarry in a place where local laws did not inhibit the company’s use of explosives or the times they could blast.

That constant, annoying presence is what some environmental protection groups fear will happen to marine life if the Atlantic Coast is opened for underwater oil and gas exploration.

The Atlantic Ocean is a virtually untapped expanse for energy companies, and the Trump administration wants to open nearly 200,000 square miles from New Jersey to Florida for companies to seek out subsea oil and gas deposits as a way of shoring up the country’s energy independence.

The first step in that process is seismic blasting, a practice that environmental activists and coastal communities — including business groups that rely on seafood and marine tourism — are decrying as potentially harmful to their ways of life.

If allowed, boats would traverse Atlantic Ocean waters for months towing two to three dozen air guns that create underwater explosions of up to 180 decibels every 10 to 15 seconds.

Read the opinion piece at the Daily Press

US House Democrats file bills to stop offshore drilling, exploration

January 10, 2019 — House Democrats on Tuesday, 8 January, introduced a series of bills that would block the Trump administration from permitting offshore drilling in various regions of the U.S. exclusive economic zone.

Opponents of offshore drilling claim the practice could devastate both the environment and the economies of coastal communities, with the fishing industry particularly at risk.

“President Trump’s dangerous plans for offshore drilling will risk the livelihoods of millions on the Atlantic Coast and in New Jersey,” said U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., a New Jersey, U.S.A.-based Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “An oil spill anywhere along the Atlantic Coast would cause severe environmental damage to fisheries, popular beaches and wildlife. I will work with members of the New Jersey delegation and colleagues in Congress to pass the COAST Anti-Drilling Act and prevent the Trump administration from wreaking havoc on New Jersey’s coastal communities.”

The moves came as the administration plans to release its vision to explore for fuel deposits in U.S. waters. In late November, NOAA Fisheries authorized five companies to use seismic air guns to survey the Atlantic Ocean floor from New Jersey to Florida. The survey results would then be made available to oil and gas companies who would seek drilling permits.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Coastal Congress members move to ban offshore drilling

January 9, 2019 —  Seven members of the House of Representatives, including New Jersey’s Frank Pallone, D-6th, said Tuesday they will introduce legislation to block the Trump administration from expanding offshore drilling for gas and oil.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-2nd, said he has signed on as a co-sponsor to Pallone’s bill, which would permanently ban offshore oil and gas development in the Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Atlantic, Straits of Florida and Eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Van Drew expects the legislation to be introduced Wednesday.

“The bottom line is offshore drilling isn’t worth the risk,” said Van Drew, adding he still believes we need to rely on fossil fuels for a time.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

Public Aquariums Join in Opposition to Seismic Blasting Along Atlantic Coast

December 21, 2018 — A coalition of major public aquariums have announced that they are opposed to the federal government’s pending issuance of permits allowing for repeated seismic blasting along the East Coast in search of offshore oil and gas.

The New England Aquarium says that marine scientists are concerned that the prolonged and extreme noise pollution introduced into already highly stressed ocean environments will disturb marine life from tiny plankton to commercially valuable fish stocks to giant whales.

The Boston-based marine conservation organization has joined the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, the North Carolina Aquariums and the New York Aquarium and parent Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in opposition to NOAA’s recent affirmation of the sound blasting program from Delaware to Florida.

“We do know that there are a range of effects from severe lethal mortality in a number of species as well as sub-lethal effects that effect the ability of animals to communicate with each other and find prey, which can essentially result in larger ecosystem effects,” said Mystic Aquarium’s Senior Researcher, Peter Auster.

“This is ultimately a decision about balancing the desire for exploration and finding new oil and gas deposits with our obligation as stewards of the environment. We just think that the decision that was made doesn’t consider all the risks and we hope that this garners greater scrutiny of the decision and then potentially other decisions down the road.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com