Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: Is NOAA’s Sandy Hook lab at risk from funding freeze? ‘Bad news for fishermen’

February 14, 2025 — NOAA’s James J. Howard Marine Sciences Lab in Sandy Hook is in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s freeze on federal funding, Rep. Frank Pallone said this week.

Pallone, a Democrat and ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said $5 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding is unavailable which is putting jobs, research and critical infrastructure at the lab at risk.

The lab’s seawater intake supply infrastructure, essential for the lab’s core function, was set to be rehabilitated using IRA funds. Pallone said the freeze means the system is in jeopardy of total failure by April when contracts for critical maintenance staff expire. He said the system must now be manually shut down each night when maintenance staff leaves.

Read the full article at Asbury Park Press

Horseshoe crabs have a vital role in the development of a coronavirus vaccine. Here’s why

September 22, 2020 — Allen Burgenson had a job, his father explained as they stood on the sand.

This was Allen’s first fishing trip, but he wasn’t going to take anything from the bay. He was to return the water’s gifts to the deep, where they’d belonged for hundreds of millions of years.

If he spotted a horseshoe crab on its back, his father said as he held Allen’s hand, that meant it was in trouble and needed Allen’s help to get home. Allen just had to flip it over. Its 10 legs could make it the rest of the way back to the crashing waves.

Allen did just that on that day in 1963 in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, when he was 3 years old. That’s what he still does today. Whenever Burgenson enjoys a stroll along the East Coast, he is still a lookout for the stranded sea creature that’s unlike anything else on the planet.

In 1963, Burgenson didn’t know that inside each of those ancient animals he saved was something that would help save millions of us during his lifetime.

In 2020, the horseshoe crab is poised to assume a vital role in a drug the whole world awaits, a COVID-19 vaccine.

Read the full story at USA Today

New Jersey Beach Walkers – Please Keep an Eye Out for Sea Turtles!

November 18, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The recent cold snap has caused a sudden uptick in the number of cold-stunned sea turtles washing up on beaches in northern, NJ – particularly Sandy Hook and Long Beach Island. We are asking all individuals walking these beaches, and beaches throughout the northeast, to report stranded turtles immediately to our stranding hotline at 866-755-6622. Responders from our Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network are standing by to help!

Please keep pets away from these turtles since they are in a severely distressed state. If possible, please move them above the high tide line and cover lightly with seaweed and stand by the animal until a trained responder arrives. We greatly appreciate your assistance in helping us save these endangered animals.

New Jersey wind farm bid awarded to Norwegian company

December 19, 2016 — A Norwegian energy company that operates in 36 countries was the provisional winner Friday of an auction for the lease rights to build a wind farm off the coast of Sandy Hook.

Statoil, which operates many oil and gas fields on the Norwegian continental shelf, bid $42.5 million to lease nearly 80,000 acres of the Atlantic Ocean seafloor about 18 miles southeast of Sandy Hook and 12.5 miles south of Long Beach, on Long Island.

The online auction, held by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, started with six bidders, and lasted for 33 rounds before Statoil emerged victorious.

The auction came just a year after the Obama administration awarded leases to two companies to build wind farms off the southern coast of New Jersey. On Monday, the first offshore wind farm in the country started operating off Block Island in Rhode Island. The 30-megawatt farm was built by Deepwater Wind.

“This auction underscores the growing market demand for renewable energy among our coastal communities,” said Sally Jewell, U.S. secretary of the interior. She called the auction “another milestone for the U.S. offshore wind energy program.”

The agency already conducted a study to determine the visual impact of a hypothetical wind farm in the area to be leased. The simulation shows how a wind farm would look from Fire Island and Jones Beach on the Long Island coast, as well as from Sandy Hook and Asbury Park along the New Jersey coast.

From Sandy Hook and Asbury Park, a wind farm would appear as a series of tiny white dots on the horizon — barely visible. The simulations can be viewed online here.

Lawsuit fighting plan

This month a coalition of shore communities and fishing groups in four states had filed a petition asking a federal court to stop the auction, saying the area included in the lease is vital to commercial and recreational fishermen who catch everything from squid and scallops to flounder and sea bass.

An agreement was reached to allow the auction to proceed, but the lease will not be final until several other steps take place and the court can consider the fishing groups’ complaints.

The lead plaintiff is the Fisheries Survival Fund, which represents the Atlantic scallop industry. Other plaintiffs include the borough of Barnegat Light, the Garden State Seafood Association and the Fishermen’s Dock Co-operative. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 8.

The plaintiffs argued that the federal government didn’t consider the effect on the region’s fishermen of leasing the triangular area, which includes documented squid and scallop fishing grounds.

The area actually auctioned Friday is slightly smaller than originally intended, as a way to exclude an environmentally sensitive section of seafloor known as the Cholera Bank, which has an irregular bottom that attracts an abundance of sea life. As a result, it has long been a favorite spot for fishermen to gather year-round.

Read the full story at The Record

U.S. plans to lease New Jersey seafloor for wind farm

October 28th, 2016 — The federal government will hold an auction in December to lease nearly 80,000 acres of the Atlantic Ocean seafloor for a developer to build a large wind farm about 18 miles southeast of Sandy Hook.

The triangular area, about 12.5 miles south of Long Beach, on Long Island, is slightly smaller than originally intended, to exclude an environmentally sensitive section of seafloor known as the Cholera Bank, which has an irregular bottom that attracts an abundance of sea life. As a result, it has long been a favorite spot for fishermen to gather year round to bottom fish for blues, cod, blackfish and bonito.

The auction, set for Dec. 15, will come just a year after the Obama administration awarded leases to two companies to build wind farms off the southern coast of New Jersey.

“New York is a critical component in building a robust U.S. offshore wind industry,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, director of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees commercial offshore wind leases.

The agency conducted a study to determine the visual impact of a hypothetical wind farm in the area to be leased. The simulation shows how a wind farm would look from Fire Island and Jones Beach on the Long Island coast, as well as from Sandy Hook and Asbury Park along the New Jersey coast.

Read the full story at Asbury Park Press 

Fishing crew rescued from sinking boat off NJ coast

August 16, 2016 — POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. — Early Monday, before the sun was up, the Lady Gertrude was about 35 to 40 miles southeast of Sandy Hook in a fishing ground called the Chicken Canyon when she started to take on water.

The canyon is a deep depression on the ocean floor and a ground known for scallops — what the Lady Gertrude, a 78-foot commercial fishing vessel from Point Pleasant Beach, was after when she left Manasquan Inlet on Sunday night.

By 2 a.m. though, something had gone wrong as the boat’s hull started filling with water.

Capt. Jim Lovgren was far away on the boat Shadowfax, towing his nets for fluke two miles off the beach when he heard the Gertrude’s first emergency call over the VHF radio. His heart dropped into his stomach. His 34-year old son Keith Lovgren was on the boat.

“I’m worried, but I do know my son’s been through this before and he knows what to do,” said Lovgren, whose boat Viking sunk in 2012 with both him and his two sons on board.

They all made it home safe that day. Keith, who was back at his Brick home by Monday afternoon, made it home safe this time, too.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

NEW JERSEY: Sandy Hook Bay Sanctuary sparks strong opposition

LAKEWOOD, N.J. (March 25, 2016) —  Anglers are up in arms about the proposal by the Navesink Maritime Heritage Association to seek a Sandy Hook Bay National Marine Sanctuary designation that would encompass not only that Bay but also the rivers flowing into it plus a portion of Raritan Bay.

There was overwhelming opposition to that proposal at last week’s meeting in the Red Bank Library, which wasn’t large enough to hold the crowd that arrived. Rik Van Hammen seemed to be sincere as he spoke about his vision, but never presented any problem that would justify turning over control of the area to the federal government.

On the other hand, anglers in Florida and California can testify why this is the last thing we would want to do. The April issue of Salt Water Sportsman states that proposals there would eliminate fishing in up to 30 percent of the reefs covered, and may be followed up by making the entire southeast Florida reef track a National Marine Sanctuary. The magazine notes that “While anglers have supported a number of spawning-season area closures throughout the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, most consider MPAs a last resort only imperative for the survival or restoration of a fishery. The Coastal Conservation Association calls the proposed creation of a marine sanctuary an unnecessary delegation o a federal agency of a state’s authority over its waters. Florida has an excellent record of managing its fisheries.”

Read the full story at NJ.com

New Jersey: Boat found near crash site

August 25, 2015 — State police have located a sunken vessel in the Sandy Hook Channel near where a fishing trawler was reported missing. Divers are investigating Wednesday.

The Coast Guard watchstanders received word that a 40-foot steel fishing trawler called El Jefe started taking on water at 4:30 p.m. and then sank in the Sandy Hook Channel, officials said.

The Coast Guard, the NYPD, the FDNY, and the New Jersey State Police all sent boat crews to search for the boat and its crew. NYPD helicopters also searched for the vessel.

Read the full story at Fox 5: New York

New Jersey: Coast Guard launches search for sunken fishing boat in Sandy Hook Channel

August 26, 2015 — STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies were searching for a fishing boat that reportedly capsized off the coast of New Jersey on Tuesday evening, authorities said.

A witness notified the Coast Guard Sector New York command center that a 40-foot steel fishing trawler known as “El Jefe” had begun taking on water at around 4:30 p.m. in the Sandy Hook Channel and sunk shortly after, according to a statement issued by the Coast Guard.

Read the full story at Silive.com