Saving Seafood

How Rhode Island’s Shellfish Industry is Innovating During Coronavirus: RI Sea Grant on LIVE

July 16, 2020 — The Rhode Island aquaculture industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus — loss of sales, but also forced to reinvent their business models fast.

Azure Cygler, Fisheries and Aquaculture Extension Specialist at the RI Sea Grant at the University of Rhode Island appeared on GoLocal LIVE, and talked about how the aquaculture industry in the state is adapting due to coronavirus restrictions — and innovating.

Cygler joined GoLocal LIVE as part of an ongoing partnership between the Rhode Island Food Policy Council and GoLocal.

“In terms of our seafood industry, we have some of the best and most amazing innovators you could imagine,” said Cygler. “So at the University of Rhode Island, I work with Rhode Island Sea Grant and the Coast Resources Center — I’ve been working with these folks for years and I just wanted to kind of zero in on the shellfish industry, which is part of the bigger seafood system.”

Read the full story at Go Local Providence

Rhode Island Seafood Industry Comes Together To Launch Food Assistance Program

July 8, 2020 — The following was released by Eating with the Ecosystem:

The Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island, Eating with the Ecosystem, and the Rhode Island Food Policy Council are joining together to launch a new series of online cooking classes, “Cook a Fish, Give a Fish!” These online classes not only raise eaters’ seafood game through small-group seafood tutorials led by local chefs; they also raise funds to deliver local seafood to families experiencing hunger.

The new program comes as the coronavirus era presents a number of challenges — as well as some promising learning opportunities — for fishermen, chefs, seafood businesses, and eaters.

“In general, most Americans are not very comfortable cooking seafood at home,” said Kate Masury, program director at the non-profit Eating with the Ecosystem. “The majority of seafood we consume in the US, about 70%, is actually consumed in restaurants. With restaurants having to limit their operations in order to maintain social distancing, that means the market for our locally caught seafood is also severely limited, which impacts our local fishermen and seafood businesses.”

“Our new online cooking classes will inspire local consumers to expand their repertoire and explore new recipes with family and friends in their own homes,” added Fred Mattera, Executive Director of the Commercial Fisheries Center. “Even more importantly, the classes will generate funds to process fish donated by the fishing industry and provide this fish to families in need.”

With the nation’s unemployment rate surpassing 11 percent, demand for food pantry services has surged. The organization Feeding America estimates that one in six Americans will experience food insecurity this year. Each ticket to a “Give a Fish, Cook a Fish!” class will purchase ten seafood meals for Rhode Island families who can’t afford to buy fish this summer.

Here’s how it works: Each weekly class session is led by a different local chef. The chef sends out a recipe and participants source all of the ingredients themselves, including the fish (organizers can provide advice on where to look). Typically, classes will center around whole fish, rather than processed fish. When class day arrives, participants connect on a video chat. Then, in kitchens across the Ocean State, they socialize, learn about local fisheries, and turn whole fish into delicious homemade meals for their families to enjoy.

How to sign up: To sign up for a “Cook a Fish, Give a Fish!” class, go to (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/112145084968). Tickets cost $75/household and all proceeds after expenses will be used to share fish to families in need.

US fishing alliance challenges offshore wind study

July 2, 2020 — The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) has called for a correction to a US Coast Guard (USCG) offshore wind study.

Referring to the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study (MARIPARS), the fishing industry group has cited “serious foundational and analytical errors that merit correction”.

On 29 June RODA filed a formal Request for Correction under the Information Quality Act in order to “improve the objectivity and utility” of the disseminated information.

The MARIPARS study examined current waterway uses in the areas off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, which are sites of proposed offshore wind energy development.

RODA stated: “Understanding these ocean use patterns is critical for successfully designing any offshore development, and for minimising interactions between the proposed developments and existing activity.

“Unfortunately, the Coast Guard’s final report, issued on 27 May, contained several key errors, and the process ‘failed to address nearly all of the substantive comments from fisheries professionals’”.

Read the full story at ReNews

Coast Guard challenged on offshore wind traffic study

July 2, 2020 — A Coast Guard study that recommends against designated vessel transit lanes through New England offshore wind turbine arrays “contains serious foundational and analytical errors that merit correction,” commercial fishing advocates say in a formal objection to the findings.

The Coast Guard’s Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study endorsed wind power developers’ proposal for a uniform grid layout of 1 nautical mile between turbine towers on their neighboring federal leases off southern New England.

The report found fault with a proposal for up to six vessel transit lanes, up to four nautical miles wide, that was proposed by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of fishing industry groups.

Developers of Vineyard Wind, the first 800-megawatt project to start construction in the region, and their supporters stressed the Coast Guard’s support for a uniform grid layout as the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management commenced public hearings on its environmental review of the plan.

RODA fired back this week, filing a request to revisit the Coast Guard’s study that was released in the May 27 issue of the Federal Register.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

US completes construction of second offshore wind farm

July 1, 2020 — The second offshore wind farm in the U.S. has been completed, featuring the installation of a two-turbine, 12-megawatt pilot facility 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. The project was completed by Dominion Energy.

The first U.S. offshore wind farm is a five-turbine facility off the coast of Rhode Island, the Block Island Wind Farm.

Called the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project, this new wind farm is the first to be approved by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to be installed in federal waters, and the second constructed in the United States, according to a press release.

The turbines will undergo testing before being used later this summer. At peak output, they will produce enough power for 3,000 Virginia households.

“The construction of these two turbines is a major milestone not only for offshore wind in Virginia but also for offshore wind in the United States,” said Dominion Energy Chairman, President and CEO Thomas F. Farrell II in a prepared statement. “Clean energy jobs have the potential to serve as a catalyst to re-ignite the economy following the impacts of the pandemic and continue driving down carbon emissions.”

Read the full story at The Hill

Seafreeze Limited, Sea Fresh USA nab MSC certification for loligo, illex squid

June 30, 2020 — Seafreeze Limited and Sea Fresh USA, both based in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, U.S.A., have achieved Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for their loligo and illex squid fisheries.

The certification was granted by SCS Global Services for the company’s catches of loligo or longfin squid (Doryteuthis (Amerigo) pealeii) and Northern shortfin squid (Illex illecebrosus), following a 10-month assessment. The certification is good through 2025, subject to annual audits to ensure the MSC standard continues to be met.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New England looks to Europe to assess environmental impacts of offshore energy facilities

June 24, 2020 — Rhode Island is still the only state in the country with an offshore wind farm, but that will change in the coming years as wind farms are built along the entire Eastern Seaboard, from Virginia all the way up to Maine.

Now five years old, the Block Island wind farm, consisting of just five turbines, has been the subject of considerable study as scientists determine what impacts, if any, the construction of the facility and the turbines themselves are having on the ecosystem. Researchers are also looking to the future, when thousands of wind turbines will be coming online.

At the second of four webinars in the 17th annual Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium, scientists from the University of Rhode Island and elsewhere heard from researchers in Europe, where offshore wind power has been commonplace for decades.

Entitled “Offshore Renewable Energy — Changes in Habitats and Ecosystems,” the June 15 symposium focused on the impacts of individual turbines and larger-scale wind energy installations on the diversity and interactions of marine species.

Emma Sheehan of the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom and Jan Vanaverbeke of the Royal Institute for Natural Sciences in Belgium presented some of the findings of their research on the environmental impacts of large-scale commercial wind and wave energy farms.

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun

Coast Guard backs wind industry on turbine layout

June 1, 2020 — The offshore wind power industry cleared one of its last remaining bureaucratic hurdles Wednesday with the release of a long-awaited report from the Coast Guard that essentially agrees with an industry proposal on turbine layout.

The Coast Guard’s Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study has concluded that turbines should be spaced 1.2 miles apart and oriented in the same direction across seven offshore wind lease areas totaling around 1,400 square miles south of Nantucket.

Concerned with vessel safety and the ability to maneuver while fishing, some fishermen and industry groups sought larger lanes, as wide as 4 miles, to transit to fishing grounds, but the five wind power companies holding the leases said that would force them to crowd turbines outside the travel lanes, making it less safe to navigate and fish.

The offshore wind leaseholders — Equinor, Mayflower Wind, Orsted/Eversource and Vineyard Wind — had been concerned that some of the layouts proposed by other stakeholders could reduce the number of turbines and power generation. The increasing efficiency and power capacity of newer turbines have alleviated some of that concern.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Coast Guard favors turbine corridors sought by energy developers

May 28, 2020 — The U.S. Coast Guard has concluded that the best way to maintain maritime safety and ease of navigation in the offshore wind development areas south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket is to install turbines in a uniform layout to create predictable navigation corridors.

The results of the Coast Guard’s Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study are largely in line with a proposal that the five developers that hold leases for offshore wind sites off New England made late last year to orient their turbines in fixed east-to-west rows and north-to-south columns spaced one nautical mile apart.

Having a consistent turbine layout across the seven adjacent lease areas, the companies said, would provide fishermen with the benefit of not having to change their practices as they pass from one lease area to another, and would promote safe maritime navigation. The Coast Guard agreed.

“The USCG has determined that if the MA/RI [Wind Energy Area] turbine layout is developed along a standard and uniform grid pattern, formal or informal vessel routing measures would not be required as such a grid pattern will result in the functional equivalent of numerous navigation corridors that can safely accommodate both transits through and fishing within the WEA,” the Guard wrote in a summary of its findings published in the Federal Register.

Read the full story at the Taunton Daily Gazette

United States Coast Guard Announces the Completion of The Areas Offshore of Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study

May 27, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today the United States Coast Guard announced the completion of The Areas Offshore of Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study. The study focused on the seven adjacent leased areas of the outer continental shelf south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and east of Rhode Island that together constitute the Massachusetts/Rhode Island Wind Energy Area (MA/RI WEA). The study was conducted to (1) determine what, if any, navigational safety concerns exist with vessel transits in the study area; (2) determine whether to recommend changes to enhance navigational safety by examining existing shipping routes and waterway uses as any or all of the lease areas within the MA/RI WEA are partially or fully developed as wind farms; and (3) to evaluate the need for establishing vessel routing measures.

For more information read the notice published in the Federal Register or the final report posted online.