Saving Seafood

Sale of monkfish will pay for science to study them

March 20, 2020 — An Arizona university will be able to use about money generated from the sale of monkfish to study the monster-like sea creatures.

Monkfish are harvested as food off the East Coast, where they are brought to land in states such as Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine. The New England Fishery Management Council said a program called the “research set-aside” will allow Arizona State University to use new tagging technology to investigate the movements of the fish.

The university will collaborate with the New England Aquarium on the project, which is valued at about $4.2 million. The research set-aside program generates money for science from the harvest and sale of fish that are “set aside” for this purpose.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

RHODE ISLAND: Offshore Wind Takes Shape at Providence Innovation Hub

March 4, 2020 — A new glass-and-steel office space is less about the number jobs or the company that will occupy it and more about the industry taking root there.

Seven co-working desks at the Wexford Innovation Center on Dyer Street in the Jewelry District will soon be used by Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind. The Danish company is joining seven other wind-related companies already there. And judging by the 200 or so attendees at the March 2 office opening, a nascent industry is on the verge of rapid growth.

“This is a brand-new industry and it’s being born right here in the state of Rhode Island. It’s unbelievable,” Gov. Gina Raimondo said.

Twenty-two gigawatts of wind facilities are planned for federal waters between Maine and North Carolina, and undoubtedly a lot of engineers, tradespeople, boatbuilders, and more will be needed to get the turbines built and spinning.

Other port cities such as Boston, where Ørsted has its co-headquarters, New Bedford, Mass., and Norfolk, Va., are vying for the title of U.S. capital of offshore wind. But these is little doubt that Providence is part of the emerging blue economy. Ørsted, which bought Deepwater Wind in 2018, is still using its original downtown office on Exchange Terrace, where it has already doubled its staff from 30 to 60. More will work at the innovation hub on Dyer Street, where employees from Denmark and other offices will hold meetings with offshore wind entrepreneurs.

Read the full story at EcoRI

Wind-power developer opens 2nd R.I. office

March 3, 2020 — The construction of more offshore wind farms on the East Coast is on hold as federal regulators reconsider their impacts, but that hasn’t deterred the leading developer in the global industry from opening its second office in Providence.

Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind’s new innovation hub is small, with only two full-time staff members and space for seven other employees of the Danish parent company to cycle through, but Orsted executives say its presence reflects confidence in the future of the American market.

“We are still pretty optimistic,” Thomas Brostrom, president of Orsted’s operations in North America, said in an interview. “We are getting anxious to move on, but nothing to make our hands shake.”

He spoke outside the new office in the Wexford Innovation Center on Monday before the official opening of the work space. In a demonstration of the importance of Orsted to the growth of Rhode Island’s “blue economy” — commercial activities centered around the ocean — Gov. Gina Raimondo joined Brostrom and others at the event.

Offshore wind alone could generate 20,000 supply-chain jobs along the Atlantic coast, said Raimondo, citing one recent report.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Vineyard Wind project delayed

February 12, 2020 — Vineyard Wind, the company developing an offshore wind farm that was the subject of a protracted dispute with Rhode Island fishermen, is pushing back the expected date of operation for the $2.8-billion project.

The company says that because of delays in permitting it will not be able to make its 2022 target date to go on line.

“We have received updated information from the Department of Interior that indicates the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Vineyard Wind I project will be published later than what was previously anticipated,” Lars Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“While we need to analyze what a longer permitting timeline will mean for beginning construction, commercial operation in 2022 is no longer expected,” he continued. “We look forward to the clarity that will come with a final EIS so that Vineyard Wind can deliver this project to Massachusetts and kick off the new US offshore energy industry.”

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Block Island Wind Farm to go offline in fall to rebury cable

February 10, 2020 — The electric cables for the Block Island Wind Farm were supposed to be buried in trenches at least four feet below the seabed, but workers couldn’t get down as far as they wanted, and over the last four years waves have exposed portions of the transmission lines that run to and from a beach on the island.

Now, Orsted, the Danish company that owns the five-turbine offshore wind farm that is the first in the nation, plans to rebury one of the two cables starting in the fall. Orsted, which has offices in Boston and Providence, says it should be able to do all the work at Crescent Beach in the off-season and wrap up the project by Memorial Day in 2021.

But for an indeterminate amount of time during construction, the 30-megawatt wind farm, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build, will have to go offline.

Orsted says it will be “solely responsible for paying for this work,” according to a statement from the company.

“Ratepayers will not bear any of these costs,” the company said.

It would not disclose the project’s price tag.

Orsted’s cable runs from the wind farm to the island. The second cable, which connects the island to the mainland electric grid, is owned by National Grid, the main electric utility in Rhode Island. National Grid is also working on plans to rebury its cable, which is expected to happen around the same time, but the company has yet to release details to the public.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

RHODE ISLAND: Commercial Fishermen Endorse Partial Balloon Ban

February 3, 2020 — Commercial fishermen aren’t happy with the amount of balloons they constantly find floating in the ocean and, thus, support a bill that places restrictions on their use.

House bill H7216 doesn’t ban or prohibit the use of balloons but forbids the intentional release of balloons containing helium.

At a Jan. 28 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, commercial fisherman Norbert Stamps gave emotional testimony recounting the endless presence of balloon and balloon strings floating at sea between Canada and Virginia.

“This is not some bullshit pollution legislation,” Stamps said. “This is the biggest piece of plastic commercial fishermen in New England see in our ocean and New England coast.”

Balloons, he said, are the most common waste fishermen encounter, most often as a bunch of balloons that have been released from weddings, graduations, and other events.

Balloons threaten filter feeders such as endangered North Atlantic right whales, Stamps noted. A 2019 study out of Australia found that soft plastics such as balloons accounted for only 5 percent of the items ingested by seabirds but are responsible for 42 percent of seabird deaths. Balloons floating in water also resemble jellyfish and are often consumed by seals and turtles.

Read the full story at EcoRI

Fisherman’s Perspective: Electronic Monitoring Needs to Pay Off for Fishermen

January 28, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

This is part two of our interview Rick Bellevance, a charter fisherman out of Point Judith, Rhode Island and a member of the New England Fishery Management Council, about his experiences using electronic monitoring and reporting. In this part, we focus on electronic monitoring. Read Part 1 for Rick’s take on electronic reporting.

Getting Started in Electronic Monitoring

You just recently started a pilot project using cameras to attempt to verify eVTR recreational fishing reports. Why did you start this project?

I started the project on electronic monitoring as a way to validate my electronic vessel trip reports. I grow frustrated with folks who feel like they need to double, triple, and quadruple check our vessel trip reports. I honestly believe that we all try hard to accurately report what we catch and what we throw back. This was my way of being able to show a full season of how my business works. So those cameras are, in my opinion, recording what I already know, and I want to have an opportunity to show that to people.

Where are the cameras located on your boat?

One camera is on the railing on my bridge that shoots down into the cockpit and captures all the anglers in the back of the boat and all of the fishing activity. There is a second camera that is focused straight down on the station where we generally measure all the fish to determine if they are legal-sized or not. And so as I understand it, they can take the images from the angler reeling in the fish. Then the fish is then captured by the camera where it gets measured, and you can see whether the fish is discarded or retained. That system validates the numbers of discards and kept fish that we reported.

Have you seen the video? How are the cameras on the vessel working out so far?

I did see a little snippet from the program. It’s really cool how you can see the fish get caught on the first camera, and then see the fish measured and tossed or kept on the second camera.

Read the rest of the interview on our website.

Mako Shark Populations Take Half-Century to Recover from Overfishing and Bycatch Kills

January 27, 2020 — An essay in the January newsletter of the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association claimed that populations of shortfin mako sharks — a popular sport fish and a tasty offering on local menus — are “in crisis,” with fewer and smaller mako sharks being caught compared to 25 years ago.

The piece — on pages 8, 31, and 32 in the association’s newsletter — written by Long Island, N.Y., attorney Charles Witek, a recreational fisherman who identifies himself as a consultant on fisheries management issues, also criticizes the measures adopted to reduce shark mortality and the long timeline for rebuilding the population.

“Even if such reductions could be achieved, it will take about 50 years to return the shortfin mako stock to something resembling a healthy level of abundance,” Witek wrote. “Which, in turn, means that I and probably most of the people reading this article, will never see a healthy mako population in our lifetimes.”

Although shark biologists in southern New England disagree that makos are “in crisis,” those surveyed agree that the species is being overfished and that, even if targeted fishing for the species around the world was eliminated entirely, it would likely take at least several decades for the species to recover to healthy levels.

Read the full story at EcoRI

Warmer ocean means changing fish populations in Narragansett Bay

January 27, 2020 — It will come as no surprise to local anglers that different fish species are now found in Rhode Island waters. In some cases, these fish are displacing ones traditionally found here, and scientists are trying to understand which species pose the greatest threat to the native marine populations of Narragansett Bay.

Students presented some of the findings Thursday at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. The talks on the bay’s marine food web were part of the monthly Bay Informed series sponsored by Rhode Island Sea Grant and open to the public.

“It gets more complicated when you start realizing that there’s a lot of different predators for any given species,” said Maggie Heinichen, a master’s degree candidate. They’re not just eaten by one thing. And it gets even more complicated when you look at an entire ecosystem.”

Scientists have looked at changes at both the bottom and the top of the food web, analyzing fluctuations in populations of organisms at the bottom, like plankton, and of fish at the top level such as striped bass.

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun

American Lobster Benchmark Stock Assessment Workshop Scheduled for February 24-27 in Narragansett, RI

January 21, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will hold a second American Lobster Benchmark Stock Assessment Workshop on February 24 – 27 at the University of Rhode Island Bay Campus, 215 South Ferry Street, Narragansett, Rhode Island. The stock assessment, which is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2020, will evaluate the health of the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank and Southern New England stocks and inform management of this species.  The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data*, when the public will be asked to leave the room.

The draft agenda for the workshop is available athttp://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/AmericanLobsterAssessementWorkshopII_DraftAgenda_Feb2020.pdf. For more information about the assessment or attending the upcoming workshop (space will be limited), please contact Caitlin Starks, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at cstarks@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
 
* Each state and federal agency is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of its data and deciding who has access to its confidential data.  In the case of our stock assessments and peer reviews, all analysts and, if necessary, reviewers, have been granted permission by the appropriate agency to use and view confidential data. When the assessment team needs to show and discuss these data, observers to our stock assessment process are asked to leave the room to preserve confidentiality.