Saving Seafood

Hilcorp delays Cook Inlet seismic work

April 11, 2019 — Hilcorp will delay a planned seismic survey in Lower Cook Inlet this summer until after the peak of the summer season.

The Houston-based company had planned to conduct a 3-D seismic survey in federal waters off Homer, where it holds leases on 14 federal oil and gas lease tracts. The seismic survey would have covered eight of the lease blocks, according to a survey plan the company submitted to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

However, a number of snags held up the process. The company says the delay is in part due to holdups during the lengthy partial federal government shutdown, which spanned the new year and lasted more than a month.

Hilcorp also says it will delay its planned work until after the height of the fishing and tourist season. Those two industries are primary drivers of the economy in Homer and the surrounding area. Homer attracts tourists from all over the world each summer, many of whom come to fish for the region’s famously abundant Pacific halibut. A large commercial fleet based in Homer and the surrounding communities also fishes for halibut between March and November and for Pacific salmon during the summer season.

Hilcorp external affairs manager Lori Nelson did not give a precise date when the company plans to take up the seismic work again, but that the company understands that “the waters of Lower Cook Inlet are a shared resource.”

“We are actively engaged in discussions with our contractor to delay the survey,” she said in an email. “Our commitment to keep the community’s interests and concerns at the forefront will continue as we work to revise our schedule and work plan.”

Read the full story at Anchorage Daily News

NEFMC April 16-18, 2019, Mystic, CT, Listen Live, View Documents

April 9, 2019 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a three-day meeting from Tuesday, April 16 through Thursday, April 18, 2019. The public is invited to listen-in via webinar or telephone. Here are the details.

MEETING LOCATION: Hilton Hotel, 20 Coogan Boulevard, Mystic, CT 06355; Hilton Mystic.

START TIME: The webinar will be activated at 8:00 a.m. each day. However, please note that the meeting is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday and 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. The webinar will end at approximately 6:00 p.m. EST or shortly after the Council adjourns each day.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION: Online access to the meeting is available at Listen Live. There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

CALL-IN OPTION: To listen by telephone, dial +1 (415) 655-0052. The access code is 470-718-207. Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA: The agenda and all meeting materials are available on the Council’s website at April 16-18, 2019 NEFMC Mystic, CT. Additional documents will be posted as they become available.

EBFM: The Council’s Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management (EBFM) Committee will meet Monday, April 15, 2019 at the Radisson Airport Hotel in Warwick, RI to conduct business that will be discussed on Wednesday, April 17 during the full New England Council meeting in Mystic. More information will be available shortly at EBFM Committee, April 15 meeting.

SPECIAL SESSION – OFFSHORE WIND: The Council has organized a special session titled “Offshore Wind in the Northeast Region” that will begin at roughly 9 a.m. on Thursday, April 18. The purpose of the session is to better inform Council members and stakeholders about regional offshore wind development activities and the wide range of issues involved. The session will cover four primary subject areas:

  • The total scope of planned offshore wind energy development in the region with emphasis on projects off New England and New York;
  • The players involved and their roles in the process with emphasis on NOAA Fisheries consultations with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM);
  • Research and monitoring issues, including current efforts, implications for fishery independent surveys, and regional coordination initiatives; and
  • Updates on the timing and status of specific projects with an opportunity for developers to share pertinent information.

THREE MEETING OUTLOOK: A copy of the New England Council’s Three Meeting Outlook is available HERE.

COUNCIL MEETING QUESTIONS: Anyone with questions prior to or during the Council meeting should contact Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

Responsible Offshore Science Alliance forms to advance regional research on fisheries and offshore wind

April 8, 2019 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Science Alliance:

Today, the Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA) launches.

After many years of discussion and recognition of the need for a regional science body to address fisheries and wind development, ROSA has formed. It will provide for and advance regional research and monitoring of fisheries and offshore wind interactions in federal waters. It is a collaborative effort among fishing industry representatives, offshore wind developers, and state and federal government agencies.

ROSA’s goals are to collect and disseminate salient and credible data on fisheries and wind development, and to increase the understanding of the effects and potential impacts of wind energy development on fisheries and the ocean ecosystems on which they depend. It will further seek to address broader aspects of the ocean environment that offshore fisheries and wind energy activities occupy, including pre-facility baseline activity and resource status, ecosystem-based fishery management, socioeconomic effects, cumulative impacts, and other relevant science. It will be structured with an Executive Council, Research Council, and topic-and geographic specific subcommittees comprised of scientific and technical experts of diverse affiliations.

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) was a key partner in forming ROSA, and will ensure continual, comprehensive fishing industry representation in ROSA’s efforts.

“So much is poorly understood regarding the impacts of large-scale offshore wind energy development to fisheries and fish stocks, and studies that have been performed lack regional coordination,” said Annie Hawkins, Executive Director of RODA. “This forum will be immensely helpful to the fishing industry so that it may provide leadership in study prioritization, methodology, and execution through cooperative research.”

NOAA Fisheries supports the development of a regional science and monitoring framework through ROSA. As the federal agency charged with stewardship of living marine resources, including fisheries and associated fishing communities, NOAA also has an interest in the responsible planning, siting, and evaluation of offshore wind power activities. “America’s offshore wind energy future is dependent on scientists, fishermen, and energy officials uniting under a common goal: safeguarding our invaluable marine resources,” said Chris Oliver, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “NOAA Fisheries is pleased to be a part of this scientific endeavor to ensure our fisheries and fishing communities continue to thrive.”

Several developers including EDF Renewables, Ørsted, Shell New Energies, and Equinor Wind US have expressed support for ROSA.

“ROSA’s research and monitoring efforts will provide a collaborative approach to science in order to facilitate successful dialogue between the growing offshore wind industry and our long-standing fishing community,” said CEO of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind and President of Ørsted North America Thomas Brostrøm. “As the first offshore wind developer to partner with RODA, Ørsted believes in the need to strengthen dialogue in the communities where we work and deepen our understanding of the marine environment down the North American East Coast.”

“EDF Renewables is in full support of efforts to deepen the understanding of the effects of offshore wind development,” said Chris Hart, Head of U.S. Offshore Wind for EDF Renewables. “The ocean ecosystem and fisheries are of paramount importance as we move forward to build an energy industry in our oceans. ROSA, through a research-based approach will provide credible data to inform decisions and importantly the research will be cooperative bringing together the various stakeholders along with scientific and technical experts.”

“Offshore wind is one of the newest and fastest growing industries within the U.S., and as projects progress, it will be important to understand any potential cumulative impacts to ensure offshore wind projects effectively co-exist with the marine environment,” said John Hartnett, Shell Business Opportunity Manager for U.S. offshore wind. “We believe this collaboration with some of the industry’s key players will help to bolster research and monitoring efforts, which will ultimately allow us to make more informed decisions as we seek to responsibly develop our projects.”

ROSA’s funding is derived from annual contributors, including wind energy lease holders, with support from federal and state partners and other contributors interested in advancing ROSA’s mission. More information about ROSA can be found here. To inquire about becoming a ROSA supporter, please contact: info@rodafisheries.org.

Vineyard Wind commits to fisheries monitoring

April 8, 2019 — Vineyard Wind has announced that it will adopt research measures recommended by a local university to monitor the effects on fisheries of the 84-turbine offshore wind farm, which when operational could be the first industrial-sized installation in the country.

The company, which intends to begin construction later this year of an 84-turbine wind farm south of Martha’s Vineyard, entered into a multi-faceted agreement in 2017 with the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology. Part of the agreement was for the school to design an approach to research that would be capable of monitoring the effects on fisheries of the one-time construction of the wind farm. The approach also needed to be capable of handling longer-term, regional studies.

“The fishing industry has raised important questions about the impacts of offshore wind development on the marine environment and on sea life,” the company said in a statement released Friday.

While Rhode Island fishermen in February approved a mitigation package that includes $4.2 million in payments over 30 years for direct impacts to commercial fishermen as a result of the wind farm, as well as the creation of a $12.5-million trust set up over five years that could be used to cover additional costs to fishermen resulting from the project, tensions continue to exist.

“It’s this industry against the world,” Lanny Dellinger, a leader in the Rhode Island commercial fishing community, said at a February meeting. “Look around and see what you’re up against. That’s what we had to weigh as a group. There is no choice here.”

The methodology the school is recommending is based on workshops held in November and December, and pilot projects. The procedures should encompass an array of fish species, and an integration of methods that can support additional and on-going fisheries research; the use of a “nested and modular” study design for both a relatively small construction site as well as a wider region; the creation of a standing committee of commercial fishermen to review findings and make recommendations; and the use of local fishermen to provide vessels to support the studies.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

SMAST studies on wind and fisheries poised to begin

April 8, 2019 — Fisheries scientists at the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology will begin a series of studies this spring to evaluate the effects of large-scale offshore wind farms on fish populations and habitat.

As part of an agreement with a wind farm developer, Vineyard Wind, SMAST scientists will monitor commercially fished species during construction of the company’s 84-turbine project south of Martha’s Vineyard. The school will also launch longer-term research to evaluate the regional fishery implications of offshore wind.

The research will begin later this spring, according to Vineyard Wind. SMAST has already conducted a Vineyard Wind-funded trial of video trawling in the wind energy area.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

First ever high-seas conservation treaty would protect life in international waters

April 4, 2019 — No flag can claim the high seas, but many nations exploit them. As a result, life in the two-thirds of the oceans beyond any country’s territorial waters faces many threats that are largely unregulated, including overfishing and the emerging deep-sea mining industry.

Now, nations are negotiating the first-ever high-seas conservation treaty, which the United Nations expects to finalize next year. As delegates met this week at U.N. headquarters in New York City to hash out the details, marine scientists moved to influence the outcome. One research group unveiled the results of a global mapping effort that envisions expansive new marine reserves to protect key high-seas ecosystems. Other teams are working on maps of their own using powerful modeling tools to weigh a reserve’s potential for achieving key conservation goals, such as protecting important feeding grounds or helping sea life adapt to warming seas, against its economic costs.

“The policy opportunity this represents is much rarer than once in a lifetime,” says marine ecologist Douglas McCauley of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Nations are asking “how we should protect two-thirds of the world’s oceans, [and] it’s the first time in human history that this has ever been asked.”

Read the full story at Science Magazine

North Carolina bill wants to ban wind power near the coast. ‘You do need to make choices.’

March 29, 2019 — North Carolina could permanently ban big wind-power projects from the most energy intensive parts of the state’s Atlantic coast, but a state senator said Wednesday the move is necessary to prevent hindering military training flights.

Legislation introduced by Republican Sen. Harry Brown would prohibit building, expanding or operating sky-scraping wind turbines within about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the coast. The bill would apply to the area that stretches from the Virginia border to south of the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base.

“It would have a major impact to the areas of North Carolina with potential for wind energy development,” said Brent Summerville, who teaches about wind energy in Appalachian State University’s sustainable technology program.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The News & Observer

Coast Guard study of travel routes underway

March 29, 2019 — The Coast Guard has begun a study of vessel traffic in and around the seven offshore energy lease areas south of the Islands to determine if any new vessel travel routes are necessary to improve navigational safety, according to Tuesday’s notice in the Federal Register.

“Vineyard Wind appreciates the Coast Guard’s efforts to address the important question of transit lanes through the formal PARS process,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “The study’s future results will provide important information for orderly development of the New England offshore wind area in a way that ensures safe navigation for all mariners.”

While Vineyard Wind is the only leaseholder south of the Islands with a contract to sell electricity from what is expected to be an 84-turbine wind farm, there potentially will be several distinct wind farm installations, across what is close to 1 million acres, each with a unique number of turbines, turbine sizes and turbine layout.

Last year, two competing proposals for navigation routes were announced by stakeholders following forums held in southeastern New England. Vessels that could be affected might be traveling between Georges Bank and and New Bedford, Point Judith, Rhode Island, or Montauk, New York, according to the Federal Register notice.

A vessel transit layout announced in September was from a Massachusetts state government-organized fisheries working group on offshore wind, with one east-west route, one north-south route and one diagonal route. But in early December, Rhode Island commercial fishermen said they needed wider corridors, in the range of 4-miles wide, to safely maneuver their vessels.

Read the full story from the Cape Cod Times at the New Bedford Standard-Times

VICKI CLARK: Seismic blasts hurt marine life and are a harbinger of future problems, the Shore community says

March 29, 2019 — Business leaders, elected officials, students, environment organizations, and members of the community gathered in Cape May last week for a rallying cry against the expansion of offshore oil and gas activities. We denounced the Trump administration’s plans to lock our beautiful Atlantic Coast into a future of dangerous oil exploration and dirty spilling. The message from the Jersey beachfront crowd rang clear: our oceans are not for sale.

In November of last year, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) authorized five companies to harm marine life, like dolphins and whales, while blasting the Atlantic in pursuit of oil and gas. These companies will use seismic airguns to look for oil in a stretch of the Atlantic that’s double the size of California – all the while producing some of the loudest manmade sounds in our oceans. This extremely pervasive noise is so loud it can be heard underwater up to 2,500 miles away.

Companies are poised to repeatedly blast their airguns from the mouth of the Delaware Bay – off our very own Cape May – down south to Cape Canaveral, Florida. Since sound from these airguns is so intense and travels so efficiently underwater, ecosystems up the entire Jersey Coast will feel the effects.

For many marine animals, sound is their most important sense. They use it to find food, avoid predators, look for mates, navigate, and communicate – essentially every function necessary for survival. It’s no wonder that noise from the exploration activities authorized by NMFS will cause harm to marine life throughout the Atlantic.

Read the full story at NJ.com

Fisheries alliance signs pact with NMFS and BOEM

March 29, 2019 — The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance has signed a 10-year collaborative agreement with NMFS and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management regarding the development of offshore wind energy projects off the East Coast.

The Washington-based alliance represents the seafood and fishing industries and has been working to voice and amplify the concerns of the maritime trades as offshore wind projects are being fast-tracked for approval.

“The fishing industry has expressed its concern about the potential impacts of rapid, large-scale wind energy development to coastal communities and sustainable fishing practices,” said Annie Hawkins, executive director of the alliance. “This agreement paves a way forward for fishing communities to give meaningful input to federal regulators in determining the future of our ocean resources.”

The agreement states that the federal agencies will seek to engage local and regional fishing communities in areas where offshore wind projects are being considered and work together to ensure decisions are made using the best available science. They will also determine how to incorporate industry knowledge into the offshore wind development process.

“Of course, any development on the Outer Continental Shelf must consider how these activities can affect current ocean users and the marine environment,” said BOEM’s Acting Director Walter Cruickshank. “That is why working with federal, state and local agencies, fishing communities, and the public in our process is such an essential part of our renewable energy program. We look forward to working with NOAA and RODA to balance the needs of all ocean users through extensive and continuous engagement.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman