Saving Seafood

Feds move toward permitting offshore Florida fish farm

October 9, 2020 — The Army Corps of Engineers will open a public comment period on a permit application for a fish farming pilot project off Florida’s southwest coast, following demands from critics and a newly issued pollution permit.

Hawaii-based developer Ocean Era LLC is proposing its Velella Epsilon aquaculture project, a single net pen system to raise up to 20,000 Almaco jack fingerlings, in the Gulf of Mexico about 45 miles southwest of Longboat Pass-Sarasota Bay.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Sept. 30 issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit allowing the fish farm to discharge up to 80,000 pounds of wastewater during its pilot production cycle.

“The proposed aquaculture system would be deployed for one period of 12-18 months, which will represent one production cycle including a 12-month rearing timeframe and 6 months for initial cage deployment and water quality and benthic sampling, time between stocking and harvesting, and the removal of gear at the project conclusion,” according to the Corps’ public notice of application.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Functional harbor infrastructure vital to industry’s future

October 9, 2020 — Green Harbor in Marshfield is located 14 miles from the tip of Stellwagen Bank’s southwest corner, a trip that take most fishing vessels just a few hours. Provincetown is closer, but a trip over land adds hours.

“That makes Green Harbor ideal for day trippers to go out there, potentially catch a tuna fish, and land it,” Marshfield Harbormaster Mike Dimeo said. “It’s not a big harbor, but it’s the location.”

The geographic location is an advantage for Marshfield, which is home to roughly 100 tuna boats and 50 lobster boats, but maintaining the harbor proves a near constant effort by the town.

Misaligned jetties at the entrance to Green Harbor provide a nearly yearly headache for the town, Dimeo said. The existing design of the rock structures leads to a faster buildup of sediment than in other harbors, which requires frequent dredging.

The entrance is typically 100 feet wide, but sediment can half that and create a dangerously shallow depth at low tide – sometimes preventing fishermen from heading out or coming back in.

Working around the tides, a boat might head out in weather that’s more dangerous than would be advisable or fish more during off hours.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

PFMC makes recommendations on Executive Order 13921: Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth

October 8, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

On May 7, the President signed Executive Order 13921, Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth.  The Order focuses on the importance of seafood; combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing; removing regulatory burdens; and streamlining aquaculture permitting. It implements the Port State Measures agreement and other measures to combat IUU fishing, and makes NOAA the lead on certain aquaculture projects.

The Order requests that each Council submit a prioritized list of actions by November 2 to reduce burdens on domestic fishing and to increase production within sustainable fisheries. The Pacific Council’s list, determined in September, includes modifying the non-trawl rockfish conservation areas by reducing the areas, adjusting troll incidental landing limits, and allowing use of midwater jig gear; and increasing utilization in the whiting mothership sector. The Council will also request that the Secretary of Commerce work with the Department of Interior to modify U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rules to reclassify sea urchins and squid as shellfish.

Additionally, the Council identified several crucial funding needs: ongoing survey work needed for groundfish and coastal pelagic species stock assessments, increased funding for creel surveys and biological sampling of ocean salmon fisheries, and funding for electronic monitoring.

The Order calls for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (working with other agencies) to propose nationwide permits for finfish aquaculture, seaweed aquaculture, and combined aquaculture (finfish and seaweed) projects; and calls for Federal agencies including Councils to identify at least two “Aquaculture Opportunity Areas” (AOAs) that are suitable for commercial aquaculture every year for five years. A programmatic environmental impact statement will then identify suitable species, gear, and reporting requirements for those locations. Public input will be solicited at several points during the process.

Diane Windham of NOAA’s Aquaculture Program briefed the Habitat Committee on the selection of two AOAs in Federal waters. These areas are described as areas having high potential for commercial aquaculture. NOAA selected Southern California and the Gulf of Mexico for further evaluation based on existing spatial information and industry interests. Specific locations and spatial configurations will be determined through public processes involving stakeholders and government bodies.

The Council will request NMFS conduct an essential fish habitat consultation on the AOAs early in the process, as part of the programmatic environmental impact statement, and will emphasize the importance of communication and coordination between Federal and state processes in regard to AOAs. Part of the consideration AOAs should include is a review of fishing regulations and fishery patterns with respect to siting aquaculture projects. Any public comment periods on AOA, specific proposed sites, or environmental review documents should include dates that overlap a scheduled meeting of the Pacific Council.

ALASKA: Leaked tapes and loose talk tarnished Pebble’s reputation. Can the proposed mine go on?

October 7, 2020 — The Pebble Limited Partnership is trying to patch its battered image after secretly recorded videos last month caught its two top executives boasting about their influence over Alaska politicians and regulators.

The controversial Pebble mine proposal faces new challenges after Alaska’s U.S. senators, the governor and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denounced the statements as false.

But despite the blowback from the videos’ Sept. 21 release, the developer of the copper and gold prospect in Southwest Alaska continues its effort to win a key construction permit from the Corps.

“The idea that Pebble is dead, no matter whose opinion it is, is just not accurate,” said Mark Hamilton, vice president of public affairs at Pebble Limited Partnership. “(Pebble) can go forward and it is going forward as we speak.”

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Senator Cantwell Calls for Justice Department to Investigate Pebble Mine Following Revelations in Leaked Tapes

September 30, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA):

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) today called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation to examine discrepancies between what company executives promoting the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, said in recently-released tapes and how they characterized the project’s scope and plans in legally-binding documents, as well as congressional testimony:

“The Pebble Tapes make one thing very clear: the Pebble Limited Partnership will stop at nothing to build their disastrous mine, even if it means lying on their permit application, deceiving their investors, or possibly perjuring themselves in front of Congress. The Department of Justice should investigate what is disclosed in these disturbing Pebble Tapes.

“The science is clear—the Pebble Mine poses a direct threat to the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. Yet the Trump administration has consistently listened to politically connected corporate interests over scientists, so I remain unconvinced they will not someday greenlight this monstrous project.

“We must do everything we can to protect Bristol Bay salmon and the thousands of American jobs that depend on them. To that end, I would support legislation that would block Pebble Mine permitting until we can get to the bottom of these shocking revelations.”

At a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing in October 2019, Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier testified that “Pebble has no current plans, in this application or in any other way, for expansion.” Permitting documents Pebble Mine has submitted to the government would allow the mine to operate for 20 years, but what executives of the company say on the released tapes suggests the company has plans for a mine running for up to 200 years, with a planned expansion of the mine’s capacity after the first 20 years. Additionally, contradictory statements made by the company in their filings back in 2013 led Cantwell to request an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into whether the company misled investors. A recent New York Times analysis of video and transcripts of the leaked tapes described inconsistencies between the recordings and the company’s permit application currently under consideration by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Senator Cantwell has been the leading congressional opponent of the Pebble Mine, which threatens to irreparably damage hundreds of miles of habitat in the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. Every year, 40-60 million salmon return to the watershed, which supports thousands of fishing and tourism jobs throughout Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

She has long fought to protect the Bristol Bay watershed and its important environmental and economic place in the Pacific Northwest. In January of 2014, she called on the Obama administration to protect Bristol Bay from mining after a report showed the proposed mine would threaten salmon runs and damage the commercial and recreational fishing industry. In July of 2014, Cantwell praised proposed science-based protections for the Bristol Bay watershed. In October of 2017, Cantwell and other members of the Washington state congressional delegation urged President Trump to listen to Washington fishermen and businesses before removing protections from Bristol Bay. In May 2018, Cantwell called on the Trump administration to hold public meetings in Washington state on the proposal and increase transparency for the permitting process. And in July 2019, Cantwell slammed the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw protections for Bristol Bay.

Earlier this year she applauded the president’s son for coming out against the mine and supported the Army Corps of Engineers’ determination that the mine could not move forward with its current proposal.

Read the full release here

ALASKA: Secret recordings of Pebble Mine executives reveal plans for larger mine than proposed

September 22, 2020 — Two executives with the company seeking to develop an open-pit gold and copper mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, said they expect the project to grow much larger in size than the proposal currently under final review by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Northern Dynasty Minerals CEO Ronald Thiessen and Pebble Limited Partnership CEO Tom Collier told members of an environmental advocacy group posing as potential investors that the mine could operate for much longer than currently proposed, and could expand to other areas where the partnership owns mineral rights.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

An Alaska Mine Project Might Be Bigger Than Acknowledged

September 21, 2020 — Executives overseeing the development of a long-disputed copper and gold mine in Alaska were recorded saying they expected the project to become much bigger, and operate for much longer, than outlined in the proposal that is awaiting final approval by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The executives, who were recorded in remote meetings by members of an environmental advocacy group posing as potential investors, said the project, Pebble Mine, could potentially operate for 160 years or more beyond the current proposal of 20 years. And it could quickly double its output after the initial two decades, they said.

“Once you have something like this in production why would you want to stop?” Ronald W. Thiessen, chief executive of Northern Dynasty Minerals, the parent company of Pebble Limited Partnership, said in one of the recordings. Mr. Thiessen said local villages in the area would support extended operation of the mine because of the tax money they would receive. “It’s $10,000 per man, woman and child,” he said. “They want that to go away? No.”

Read the full story at The New York Times

Trump tweet promising ‘NO POLITICS’ in Pebble mine decision echoes ad on Fox News paid for by developer

September 18, 2020 — A television ad on Fox News from the developer of the Pebble copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska seems to have gotten the ear of President Donald Trump, who on Wednesday tweeted that politics will not play a role in whether the mine is permitted.

“Don’t worry, wonderful & beautiful Alaska, there will be NO POLITICS in the Pebble Mine Review Process. I will do what is right for Alaska and our great Country!!!” the president tweeted.

Tom Collier, chief executive of Pebble Limited, said the company decided to run the ads on Fox to reach the administration and remind officials of the president’s policy of keeping politics out of permitting procedures.

The ad features former President Barack Obama, a favorite target of Trump, when it says that the Obama administration attempted to halt the project after putting “politics over policy.”

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Trump says to be ‘no politics’ in Alaska mine project review

September 17, 2020 — U.S. President Donald Trump said there would be “no politics” in the review process of Alaska’s Pebble Mine project which has previously been opposed by prominent Republicans and environmentalists who say it would damage wetlands and popular fishing sites.

“Don’t worry, wonderful & beautiful Alaska, there will be NO POLITICS in the Pebble Mine Review Process. I will do what is right for Alaska and our great Country!!!,” Trump said in a tweet late on Wednesday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that regulates the development and dredging of wetlands, had last month placed an additional hurdle in front of the project to mine copper and gold, giving developers 90 days to explain how they would offset concerns about the environment.

Read the full story at Reuters

32 members of US Congress call for veto of Alaska’s Pebble Mine permit application

September 8, 2020 — A group of 32 members of the U.S. Congress have asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to veto permits for Bristol Bay, Alaska’s Pebble Mine, a proposed open-pit copper and gold mine at headwaters that feed part of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-California) and U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) led the letter to EPA Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, whose agency holds the power veto the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ Final Draft Environmental Impact Statement, a document that has been criticized as rushed and incomplete.

Read the full story at Seafood Source