Saving Seafood

Millions pegged for salmon, steelhead recovery

September 25, 2023 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is recommending sending $106 million to 16 salmon and steelhead recovery efforts in five Western states.

NOAA and the Department of Commerce recommended grants to state agencies with salmon protection missions, tribes and tribal partnerships in Idaho, Alaska, Oregon, Washington and California.

The funding “provides an important opportunity to bolster salmon and steelhead recovery and invest in the communities that rely on them,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

Read the full article at The Challis Messenger

OREGON: Federal officials will meet with Oregonians about controversial offshore wind energy projects

September 10, 2023 — Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management officials will meet with Oregonians concerned or curious about potential floating offshore wind energy projects following public and political outcry.

Officials will host three in-person meetings in Gold Beach, Coos Bay and Brookings on Sept. 26, 27 and 28. The agency also doubled the public comment period from 30 to 60 days, until Oct. 16.

Generating clean energy from wind turbines floating in the Pacific Ocean is part of state and federal plans to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global climate change. But some residents of the Oregon Coast and several tribal nations are concerned about the potential impact to marine life, fisheries and the industries and people who depend on them.

Coos Bay and Brookings are closest to the two swaths of Pacific Ocean identified by the ocean energy agency as ideal for large wind turbines that would float about 18 to 32 miles from land. Energy generated across the 344 square miles of open ocean identified for the projects could power nearly 200,000 homes. The federal agency would like to host an auction by year’s end, allowing companies interested in developing ocean wind energy to bid on leases for the sites. A similar auction in California in 2022 brought in $757 million in winning bids for four companies.

Read the full article at Oregon Capital Chronicle 

OREGON: Oregon tribes protest offshore wind plans

August 26, 2023 — Federal officials’ announcement of two draft wind energy areas off the Oregon coast poses danger to fisheries, jobs and the state’s coastal environment, the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians say.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s proposal “was premature and threatens fisheries, local fishing jobs, and some of Oregon pristine ocean viewsheds, some of which are sacred to the Tribe,” the confederation said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Objections coming out of Oregon are echoing those lodged against offshore wind projects off the East Coast, where local groups continue to mount fierce political and legal campaigns over anticipate impact on fishing and ocean views from coastal communities.

In months leading up to the draft wind areas release, BOEM was urged by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, fishing advocacy groups, tribes and Oregon elected officials to pause and start its planning process over again.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

LORI STEELE: Safeguarding Oregon’s Sustainable Seafood Industry: DEQ urged to reconsider unachievable permits

August 21, 2023 — Oregon’s coast boasts the heart of our commercial fishing industry, renowned for its delectable, sustainable seafood that attracts nearly 30 million visitors annually.

The bustling waterfronts not only offer picturesque scenery but also serve as vital economic hubs, providing generational fishing families with a market to deliver their catch and distribute Oregon’s seafood nationwide and across the globe.

As proud stewards of the marine ecosystem, Oregon’s seafood industry has worked diligently for over a century to foster a sustainable environment, supporting thriving communities and vibrant coastal economies. However, our seafood industry now faces a critical challenge.

Read the full opinion piece at the North Coast Citizen

BOEM outlines two Oregon wind energy areas

August 17, 2023 — Two proposed wind energy areas located 18 to 32 miles off the southern Oregon coast would total less than 220,000 acres – much less than potential development areas first outlined by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in April 2022.

The Aug. 15 announcement from BOEM starts a 60-day public comment on the proposal. This new draft document comes after calls from Oregon state officials and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council for BOEM to rethink its analysis of wind energy development and potential conflicts with fishing, maritime shipping and environmental issues.

As now proposed the areas would total 219,568 acres of federal waters – a reduction of 81 percent from BOEM’s original “call areas” drawn in 2022 to gauge wind developers’ interest and stakeholders’ reactions.

The agency will “continue to prioritize a robust and transparent process, including ongoing engagement with Tribal governments, agency partners, the fishing community, and other ocean users,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein in announcing the proposal.

“At the request of Oregon’s governor and other state officials, there will be a 60-day public comment period on the draft WEAs and BOEM will hold an intergovernmental task force meeting in addition to public meetings during the comment period,” said Klein. “We look forward to working with the state to help us finalize offshore areas that have strong resource potential and the fewest environmental and user conflicts.”

BOEM worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) to use an ocean planning model “that seeks to identify and minimize conflicts,” according to BOEM.

Read the full article National Fisherman 

OREGON: Defying Governor, BOEM Moves Ahead With Offshore Wind Areas off Oregon

August 16, 2023 — The Department of the Interior has identified its first two Wind Energy Areas off the coast of Oregon, the latest frontier in an expanding offshore wind permitting campaign.

The Biden administration hopes to foster installation of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, a goal that appears increasingly remote given supply chain cost hikes and a growing number of abandoned or canceled power purchase agreements on the U.S. East Coast. Any future projects will be even costlier to develop on the West Coast, where platform-based floating wind farms and new power transmission infrastructure will be required.

According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Oregon has big opportunities for offshore wind deployment. The draft WEAs announced Tuesday would allow development of up to 2.6 GW of wind power.

The areas cover about 220,000 acres off Brookings and Coos Bay, and they are far smaller than the “call areas” previously outlined for expressions of industry interest.

Read the full article at the Maritime Executive

OREGON: Kotek requests public meetings on offshore wind

August 15, 2023 — Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is calling for more transparency from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as officials work to identify areas for potential offshore wind development off the state’s southern coast.

BOEM is identifying which sites may be best to build floating wind farms within two “call areas” covering 1,811 square miles of ocean near Coos Bay and Brookings.

In a letter sent Aug. 3 to agency director Elizabeth Klein, Kotek asked that BOEM hold a series of public meetings to share its draft wind energy areas and solicit feedback.

“While we understand that BOEM has met individually with community and tribal members in the interim, the broader public has not had access to BOEM’s proposed analysis of least-conflict wind energy areas, developed over the course of the last 16 months,” Kotek wrote.

The governor is also asking for BOEM to provide an update to the Oregon Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force, which last met on Feb. 25, 2022. The task force includes representatives from nearly 50 state, local, federal and tribal agencies.

Paul Romero, a spokesman for BOEM, said the agency has not yet released its draft wind energy areas publicly and “does not traditionally respond to letters from elected officials through the media.”

Read the full article at Capital Press

OREGON: Significant marine heatwave brewing off Oregon coast

August 8, 2023 — Oceans around the world are hotter than ever before in the record-keeping era – and those high temps have now reached the Pacific Northwest.

Colin McCarthy, an atmospheric scientist and extreme weather influencer tweeted that “[o]ne of the most intense marine heatwaves on Earth has developed off the West Coast of the US, with water temperatures peaking nearly 5°C (9°F) above normal.”

The marine heatwave off the coasts of Oregon and Washington has reached “extreme” levels, an event that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ranks a Category 4 on a scale of 5.

Average ocean temperatures around the world reached 70 degrees in spring of 2023, the highest ever recorded.

In July, the Associated Press reported that sea surface temperatures rose above 100 degrees Fahrenheit at a spot off Florida’s southern tip.

Warming oceans cause stronger storms, rising sea levels and the loss of coral reefs and other marine life, according to according to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information as reported by the AP.

Read the full article at Oregon Live

Oregon crabbers feeling pressures akin to Massachusetts lobstermen

August 7, 2023 — Oregon crab fishermen are feeling a similar pinch to their Massachusetts lobstermen counterparts as state lawmakers there weigh increased regulations to protect whales.

Humpbacks, which migrate off Oregon’s coast, and other whales can get caught in the vertical ropes connected to the heavy traps and drag them around for months, leaving the mammals injured, starved or so exhausted that they can drown.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission was expected Friday evening to vote on whether to permanently set stricter rules and pot limits put in place in 2020 to protect whales. The restrictions, which were originally supposed to end after this season, would reduce the number of traps, known as pots, and how deep they can drop in the spring and summer months when humpbacks are more likely to encounter them. The commission did not take up the measure that night.

The move comes during a turbulent period as Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishery contends with warming oceans, smaller crabs and shortened or canceled seasons due to high levels of an acid that makes the crabs inedible.

Read the full article at the Boston Herald

Oregon crabbers and environmentalists are at odds as a commission votes on rules to protect whales

August 4, 2023 — In the wheelhouse of a crab boat named Heidi Sue, Mike Pettis watched the gray whale surface and shoot water through its blowhole.

Tangled around its tail was a polypropylene rope used to pull up crab traps. It took two men with serrated knives 40 minutes to free the whale, which swam away with a small piece of rope still embedded in its skin. That was in 2004, off the waters of Waldport, Oregon.

Pettis, a crab fisherman, said it’s the only time in his 44 years of fishing he has ever seen a whale caught in crab lines, and he believes that is proof such encounters are “extremely rare.”

Pettis is among a number of veteran crabbers who fear regulators are on the cusp of curtailing the lucrative industry with overregulation to protect whales.

Humpbacks, which migrate off Oregon’s coast, and other whales can get caught in the vertical ropes connected to the heavy traps and drag them around for months, leaving the mammals injured, starved or so exhausted that they can drown.

Read the full article at the Washington Post