Saving Seafood

Fishermen Protest Upcoming Bid for Wind Farms in New York Bight

August 11, 2021 — With the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management preparing to open more lease areas on the Continental Shelf to wind farm developers by the end of the month, the fourth and last meeting between fishermen and BOEM officials took place Aug. 6 in New Bedford, Mass. with fishermen calling for a halt to leasing until more science on potential environmental impacts could be completed.

The comment period on the proposed sale of six lease areas in the New York Bight ends Aug. 13; then the BOEM will take some time to prepare the auction details before holding an auction late this year.

The New York Bight is a triangle in the ocean between Montauk Point at the end of Long Island and Cape May at the southern tip of New Jersey. A total of eight leases will be for sale there. The larger portion of the lease area is located 35 miles off New Jersey and can’t be seen from shore, but it does pose hazards for fishing ships transiting the area and impacts the quahog, surf clam, squid and scallop fisheries.

BOEM representatives included Director Amanda Lefton, New York Bight Project Coordinator Luke Feinberg and marine biologist Brian Hooker.

Patrick Field, managing director of Consensus Building Institute, was the moderator and led off with what BOEM has heard from the fishing community so far: offshore wind energy is happening at an accelerated pace; commercial fishermen are concerned for their livelihood and the ecosystem; there’s a need for corridors for fishing within wind farms, as well as a semi-annual report on progress plus a way for commercial fishermen to voice concerns during the development of the wind farms; and finally, there needs to be accountability of BOEM and the developers.

Blair Bailey, an attorney for the Port of New Bedford, Mass., said, “Engagement is an important feature, but it can’t be based on the premise that there is no opposition. We have continually said that it is difficult for the scallop industry to fish within wind farms, and we feel we’ve been completely ignored. … Look around the world – there is not one place where you see scallop fishing in wind farms. It’s different fishing gear. Developers should be prepared for real conflicts.”

Annie Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, said the federal government has done nothing to address the safety of fishermen transiting the proposed wind farms or to protect key habitats of clams, scallops and squid. “Collaboration between fishermen and government agencies has been futile. … The process must be driven by fishermen.”

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

Offshore turbines could be a windfall for the US steel industry

August 10, 2021 — The Biden administration frames addressing the climate crisis as the greatest opportunity to create jobs in generations. It’s a claim that many of the workers watching the number of well-paid, unionized jobs in fossil fuels diminish are skeptical of. But an announcement made last week offers a preview of what’s in store if the energy transition is fueled by Made-in-America technologies.

US Wind, a developer of offshore wind farms, announced plans to expand its in-development 22-turbine project off the coast of Maryland, adding up to 82 more turbines that will make the facility capable of powering half-a-million homes. In conjunction with the expansion, US Wind has also proposed constructing a new wind turbine manufacturing facility just outside Baltimore.

The plant, called Sparrows Point Steel, will fabricate monopiles, the steel foundations that anchor giant wind turbines to the seafloor. It will sit on the site of the former Bethlehem Steel Corp. mill and shipyard, which during its heyday produced steel for World War II ships and the Golden Gate Bridge, according to E&E News.

Read the full story at Grist

Offshore wind plans court disaster, fishermen warn

August 9, 2021 — The government’s plunge toward creating more offshore wind energy areas in the New York Bight is looking like a repeat of its mistakes in planning southern New England projects and needs to be braked, fishermen said in a meeting Aug. 6 in New Bedford, Mass.

“It’s going to be responsible for the destruction of a centuries-old industry that’s only been feeding people,” Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, told officials of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“If you really want to do that right thing, stop everything” until wind energy areas can be better assessed to accommodate power generation while maintaining fisheries, said Brady.

Speaking with fishermen via a Zoom online link, BOEM Director Amanda Lefton opened the meeting by saying the agency has learned from experience and is working to engage better with the fishing industry and head off conflicts.

“We have to improve our engagement with the fishing industry,” said Lefton. “We are doing our best to makes changes.”

Some changes are coming in how BOEM will review plans for the New York Bight – the arm of the Atlantic between Long Island and New Jersey, adjacent to the voracious New York regional energy market and already targeted for major offshore wind projects.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Jurisdictional question revived in suits over coastal loss

August 6, 2021 — The question of whether lawsuits blaming big oil companies for loss of vulnerable Louisiana coastal wetlands will be tried in state courts, as local parish governments want, or in federal courts, as the oil companies want, has been revived by a federal appeals panel.

Thursday’s ruling at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was a partial victory for the oil companies and a partial reversal of a decision the same court made a year ago. But a lead attorney for parishes suing the oil companies claimed victory, too, saying the decision effectively means at least 15 of the 42 lawsuits still face state trials — and the remainder could, too, pending more federal court review.

“The decision is in our favor,” lawyer John Carmouche said.

In August 2020, a panel of three 5th Circuit judges upheld federal district judges’ rulings keeping the issue in state court, where coastal parishes’ attorneys want them tried. But the oil companies pressed for reconsideration. Arguments were heard in October, and Judge James Ho, author of the 2020 opinion, wrote Thursday that the district courts should take another look.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Coast Guard Hosting NY Bight Port Study Public Meetings

August 6, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

From June 29, 2020, through June 28, 2021, the Coast Guard conducted the Northern New York Bight Port Access Route Study (NNYBPARS) and is requesting public comments on a draft version of the study report. The goal of the study is to evaluate the adequacy of existing vessel routing measures and determine whether additional vessel routing measures are necessary for port approaches to New York and New Jersey and international and domestic transit areas in the First District area of responsibility.

The First Coast Guard District will host three in-person public meetings starting next week and invites the public to provide oral comments.

  • U.S. Coast Guard Station Point Judith Boathouse, Narraganset, RI
    August 10 at 4 p.m. EST
  • Montauk Fire District, Montauk, NY
    August 24 at 4 p.m. EST
  • Portuguese Holy Ghost Society, Stonington, CT
    August 25 at 4 p.m. EST

Meeting details can be accessed here.

Comments on Study Due August 30, 2021

The First Coast Guard District will consider all comments and material received on or before August 30, 2021. To submit your comment online, go to this link on Regulations.Gov and then click “Comment.”

Questions?

Contact Craig Lapiejko, Waterways Management at the First Coast Guard District, (617) 223-8351

New buoy could help scientists protect whales from wind farm construction off the coast of Ocean City

August 5, 2021 — Each day, they appear as colorful blips on a black graph. The dispatches from a new buoy 23 miles off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland, could be nothing more than noise from passing ships or rough waves. But they could be whales.

It’s up to researchers at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science to tell the difference.

In groups of three, the small sound waves might be sei whales. A symphonic pattern of notes could be humpbacks — the “songbirds of the sea,” said Amber Fandel, a faculty research assistant with the center’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.

The buoy’s algorithm, developed by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, often thinks it’s discovered passing baleens. But the discerning eye of a researcher knows best. The hydrophone aboard the bright yellow and blue buoy, with brethren up and down the East Coast, hasn’t tracked a whale since it was plopped in the water in late May, though some are expected as the fall draws closer, Fandel said.

Lately, the scientists’ work has taken on fresh urgency. The buoy is located in the 80,000-acre lease area carved out for the MarWin wind farm. Construction on the win farm is likely to start sometime in 2024, officials said, and could present dangers to marine mammals.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

Fisheries Joint Meeting on the NY Bight PSN

August 5, 2021 — The following was released by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management:

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is hosting its fifth virtual meeting regarding the New York Bight Proposed Sale Notice in an effort to continue gathering important input from commercial and recreational fishing communities.

Please note the following:

We look forward to the discussion tomorrow.

Apollo-Backed US Wind Seeks Approval for Turbines off Maryland

August 4, 2021 — US Wind Inc. has submitted a bid to Maryland regulators to build a massive wind farm off the state’s shoreline, the latest proposal for such projects off the East Coast and a potential step closer to the Biden administration’s goal of eliminating carbon emissions from power plants.

The Momentum Wind farm would include up to 82 turbines producing about 1.2 gigawatts of power at full capacity, the company said in a statement Tuesday. Baltimore, Maryland-based US Wind also plans a steel-fabrication facility near the port city to build the foundations for its offshore turbines.

State regulators are also weighing a competing bid from Denmark’s Orsted AS, the world’s biggest offshore wind power developer. Officials could award permission to build the entire 1,200 megawatts to one company or split the approval between them. Both are already building smaller projects in the area.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

New Bedford to host meeting on New York Bight offshore wind

August 4, 2021 — The Port of New Bedford is hosting an in-person meeting for fishermen and industry advocates in the city Aug. 6, with Bureau of Ocean Energy Management officials to discuss the impact of offshore wind development in the New York Bight.

BOEM representatives will attend the 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. session virtually, in a follow-up to a July 20 conference call with port officials and the Fisheries Survival Fund that discussed potential dangers for the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast scallop fishery.

Friday’s meeting at the Fairfield Inn and Suites at 185 MacArthur Drive, New Bedford, Mass., “will highlight fishing industry concerns over offshore wind development, particularly in relation to the valuable scallop fishery, which has helped make New Bedford the nation’s most valuable fishing port for 20 consecutive years,” according to an announcement from the port agency Tuesday.

“We want to focus on every fishery we have in the port,” said Blair Bailey, the port’s general counsel. It’s important to get fishermen together in person, so port officials are getting a meeting room with seats for about 50.

“This is the fishing industry, these people deal in person,” said Bailey. “At this time of year, it’s not easy for these captains to get the time” away from working at sea, he said.

A digital flyer is circulating around the fleet, encouraging attendance at the meeting.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

More endangered right whales using New England wind energy areas

August 4, 2021 — North Atlantic right whales, one of the most endangered species in the world, are spending more time in southern New England waters where immense offshore wind energy installations are to be built.

A new analysis, published in the July 29 edition of the journal Endangered Species Research, shows how measures to protect the whale population – estimated at only around 366 animals – will be crucial if the Biden administration’s drive to develop offshore wind is to succeed.

“We found that right whale use of the region increased during the last decade, and since 2017 whales have been sighted there nearly every month, with large aggregations occurring during the winter and spring,” said Tim Cole, lead of the whale aerial survey team at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and a co-author of the study, in a summary of the findings issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Marine mammal researchers at the New England Aquarium and colleagues at NEFSC and the Center for Coastal Studies examined aerial survey data collected between 2011–2015 and 2017–2019 to quantify right whale distribution, residency, demographics, and movements in the region.

The New England Aquarium used systematic aerial surveys, and NEFSC and the Center for Coastal Studies directed surveys conducted in areas where right whales were present, to document aggregations of right whales. Aerial photographs of individual right whales to help estimate the whales’ abundance and residency times, and the photos identify individual whales by distinctive patches of raised tissue on their head, lips, and chin, and by scars on their body.

Read the full story at National Fisherman