Saving Seafood

Vineyard Wind offers concessions to fishermen, environmentalists

January 25, 2019 — Vineyard Wind officials are not waiting for federal officials to return to their desks: The company has reached an agreement with environmental groups to protect North Atlantic right whales and has offered Rhode Island fishermen a $6.3 million deal to compensate them for any economic damages they may incur from the wind farm’s construction and operations.

“We have not voted yet,” said Lanny Dellinger, chairman of a fisheries advisory board of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council. “We are currently in the process of reviewing (the Vineyard Wind) proposal.”

On both fronts the company’s intention, in part, is to pave a smooth path for the 800-megawatt wind farm project planned south of Martha’s Vineyard, which is on a tight schedule to take advantage of federal investment tax credits that are expiring at the end of the year.

The 84-turbine wind farm is expected to deliver enough electricity to power about 400,000 homes in Massachusetts via an underwater, high-voltage cable that will land on a Barnstable beach, company officials said. As planned, it could be the nation’s first industrial-size offshore wind project.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Offshore Wind, Commercial Fishing Industries Partnering Up In Unusual Collaboration

January 18, 2019 — The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), a group representing fishermen from Maine to North Carolina formed specifically to interact with offshore wind companies, and developer Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind (formerly Deepwater Wind) said the partnership is the first-of-its-kind.

As development of offshore wind farms is underway off of Rhode Island and Massachusetts’ coasts, commercial fishermen have been in talks with developers to figure out the best way to build wind farms that sustain the fishing industry.

However, RODA and Orsted feel the way the industries have been engaging with one another has been inefficient.

“The fishermen are being pulled in a million directions and we’re very excited to have a more structured approach where we can get that input and give it back to the developers as well as to the government,” Annie Hawkins, executive director of RODA, said.

Jeff Grybowski, Co-CEO of Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind, agreed the new partnership will make it easier for the industries to communicate.

“It can often be difficult for a developer to find the right people to talk to because obviously fishermen are, they’re small businesses and some of them are big businesses, but there are lots of different people,” Grybowski said.

Hawkins added the goal is to have fewer, more productive meetings, however any recommendations that come out of them are nonbinding.

Commercial fishermen have raised multiple concerns about offshore wind farms, such as the layout of the turbines affecting their access to fishing grounds and ability to safely return to shore, and spinning turbines interfering with their radar navigation.

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

Fishermen: Gov. Raimondo sidelined us from wind-power talks

January 16, 2019 — Rhode Island fishermen are accusing Gov. Gina Raimondo of cutting them out of talks with Vineyard Wind about compensation for lost access to ocean fishing grounds where the New Bedford company plans to install 84 giant wind turbines.

The state’s Fishermen’s Advisory Board, the group convened to represent the commercial and recreational fishing industries in the face of offshore renewable energy development, is set to meet Tuesday to consider a potential payout from Vineyard Wind. Yet, as of late Monday, the board had not received any details of a proposal.

Lanny Dellinger, chairman of the fishermen’s board, questioned why he and other members have been kept in the dark. He also said any negotiations that have taken place have violated state regulations.

“I don’t know why the governor feels it’s more important to benefit Vineyard Wind than our own fishing industry,” he said. “Maybe we’re just small potatoes in their eyes and easy to run over.”

Raimondo spokesman Josh Block said that the governor’s office “has been in contact with Vineyard Wind regarding an economic-development package for Rhode Island if the project is approved,” but he referred questions about compensation to the state Department of Environmental Management, which regulates the fishing industries.

DEM spokesman Michael Healey said the agency’s “only role is developing a science-based estimate of the value of the commercial fishing landings in the proposed Vineyard Wind construction area over 30 years” — the estimated project lifespan.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

 

Only one wind project proposed in waters off LI, filings show

January 14, 2019 — Only one of five developers who intend to vie for a New York State contract for off-shore wind energy is proposing its project off Long Island waters. The rest would be off Massachusetts/Rhode Island or the New Jersey coast, according to recent state filings.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, which is overseeing the bids and will award contracts for upward of 800 megawatts of offshore wind energy this year, said the five notices of intent to participate in the state bid represented the strongest response to any state solicitation to date. One megawatt of offshore wind powers around 360 homes. Formal bids are due Feb. 14.

The project located in the New York wind-energy area is off Long Island’s South Shore in waters previously identified by the federal agency responsible for leasing water rights. Another possible developer has offered a project off the New Jersey coast. A state official said all projects would get careful review, and downplayed the notion of their distance from New York.

Read the full story at Newsday

Massachusetts Joins Several States to Support Offshore Drilling Bans

January 9, 2019 — Legislators from several states, including Massachusetts, announced a collaborative effort to protect their regions from offshore drilling.

More than 225 lawmakers from coastal states have voiced their opposition to the Trump Administration’s proposed OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program.

Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket State Representative Dylan Fernandes joined legislators from Georgia, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon, New Hampshire and Rhode Island to announce legislative initiatives in each state to block offshore drilling in state waters now and in the future.

Connecticut legislators could not participate on the conference call but will also introduce a ban bill.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Lawmaker introducing offshore drilling ban bill

January 9, 2019 — A state representative from Falmouth plans to join his colleagues from Hawaii, Georgia and other states Tuesday to collectively oppose the Trump administration’s offshore drilling plans and to introduce drilling ban legislation in the states.

Officials from Maine, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island also plan to join a Tuesday afternoon conference call with Rep. Dylan Fernandes to discuss the situation, which stems from the release of the Trump administration’s proposed OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

DON CUDDY: New England surf clam fishery is headed for disaster

January 7, 2019 — When it comes to fishery management controversy never seems to be too far away. Last month you may have read about the dubious nature of a decision by the New England Fishery Management Council to close a large area of Nantucket Shoals to fishermen who harvest surf clams there, ostensibly to protect fish habitat. Questionable actions such as these undermine industry confidence in fishery regulators and serve only to alienate, and embitter, fishermen and the many others on the waterfront whose livelihoods are threatened by such draconian measures. With respect to protecting fish habitat allow me to quote from NOAA Fisheries’ own web site (fishwatch.gov) which bills itself as ‘U.S. Seafood Facts.’ The salient quote, with respect to the Atlantic surfclam, spissula solidissima, is this: “Fishing gear used to harvest surfclams has minimal impacts on habitat.” In spite of this fact these traditional grounds have now been designated as essential fish habitat and clamming is banned there indefinitely. NOAA also tells us that surfclams support a valuable fishery. Well, come April 9 it will not be nearly as valuable for those who participate in the harvest and that includes fishermen and shore workers in New Bedford, Gloucester and Bristol, Rhode Island where Galilean Seafood employs around 120 people in this fishery.

“There were five areas out there where we harvested our clams and the two areas with the most historical tows are the ones they closed,” Alan Rencurrel told me. Alan knows surf calms. He owns Nantucket Sound Seafood in New Bedford where the clams he catches are hand shucked. “If you steam ’em open they get chewy,” he said. He’s been fishing on the Shoals since 1992. “And there were boats out there before me.”

He also played me some high-resolution video, taken from a dredge-mounted camera, showing the sea bed in the area known as the Rose and Crown, the largest of the areas to be closed. There were no fish, rocks or cobble to be seen, just a solitary skate, on a sandy bottom littered with old mussel shells. “We can’t tow over rocky bottom like a scallop dredge,” he told me. It’s too hard on the gear and anyway clams prefer sand bottom, he said. Conversely, groundfish such as cod and haddock are found on hard bottom.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Coast Guard suspends search for missing fishermen

January 4, 2019 — After more than 40 hours of intensive search over an area covering 2,152 nautical miles, the Coast Guard suspended its search for two Rhode Island fishermen who went missing after their vessel capsized about two-and-a-half miles southeast of Block Island.

The search began immediately after the captain of the fishing vessel Mistress, home-ported out of Pt. Judith, notified the Coast Guard at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 1, that the vessel was taking on water. After the Coast Guard sent out an urgent request for assistance, a nearby fishing vessel, the Captain Bligh, was able to rescue one of the Mistress crew members, while the other two remained missing by the time the search was called off on Tuesday at 5:13 p.m.

Various news outlets have identified the two missing crew members as boat owner Oscar Diaz and his nephew John Ansay. The Captain Bligh rescued Tim Diaz, who has been identified in news reports as Oscar Diaz’s son.

The trouble began at around 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 1: “The captain of the fishing vessel Mistress notified watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England at around 1:30 a.m. that the boat was taking on water. The watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast to vessels in the area to request assistance for the crew of the Mistress. The fishing boat Captain Bligh responded and rescued one crew member from a life boat. The remaining two crew members have not been located. Low visibility and poor weather conditions hampered initial searches, but multiple crews launched as visibility improved,” the press release stated.

Read the full story at The Block Island Times

BILL STRAUS: Fishing industry could be endangered by planned wind turbines

January 4, 2019 — Whatever the future for large scale off-shore wind farms in New England, New Bedford and its first in the nation fishing industry will feel the effects. Renewable energy from sources which include off-shore wind, are an undeniable part of our future. It’s a fair question though whether commercial fishing as it now exists in southern New England, will survive the installation of the largest and most extensive array of ocean based wind turbines in the world. The offshore wind lease areas in federal waters overlay some important fishing grounds and navigation transit areas for the commercial fishing fleet which sails from our coast.

The project furthest along in the leasing process is being pursued by Vineyard Wind, which hopes to have all its approvals by the summer of 2019 and begin construction later in the year. Critical decisions are about to made at the state and federal levels regarding the design, spacing and layout of the initial turbines which are planned for the waters near Martha’s Vineyard. This process involves the filing of reports which are public and provide opportunities for comment and reactions. The Draft Environmental Impact Report before the lead federal agency involved, BOEM, is open for public comment through Jan. 21, 2019 and there are parallel state agency filings as well. The public has a responsibility to participate in shaping the decisions that are going to be made and monitor the filings as they are announced.

It’s a lot to expect that the fishing industry alone can handle the needed public oversight. Off the Massachusetts and Rhode Island coast alone there are seven different lease areas under review totaling about 1 million acres; their ultimate design configuration will be the first test of how seriously marine resource, safety and navigation issues involving the wind towers will be handled by the government agencies involved. The first maps and plans to be approved are especially important because how those turbines are set up and reviewed by the government will likely set a precedent for how the process is run for the additional lease areas sought by other developers. In other words, there’s a lot at stake not only for the developers, but importantly, the public interest in preserving ocean habitat and the existing ocean-going economy of New England.

Read the opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Two fishermen are missing after boat capsizes off Block Island, R.I.

January 2, 2019 — The Coast Guard and a good Samaritan were searching Tuesday for two missing fishermen after their boat capsized early New Year’s Day off Block Island, Rhode Island, officials said.

The captain of the Mistress issued a mayday call at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to say the fishing boat was taking on water near Block Island Wind Farm, which is nearly 4 miles from shore, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe