Saving Seafood

Six Individuals Rescued In Ocean By Commercial Fishing Vessel

August 25, 2020 — Six people were successfully pulled from the water last week after their vessel caught fire about three miles off the Ocean City coast.

Last Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard Maryland-National Capital Region command center received notification via VHF channel 16 from the owner of the 54-foot cruiser yacht No Filter that a fire had broken out on board and all six occupants were abandoning ship. Several other boaters in the area had also contacted the Coast Guard command center that the boat had become engulfed in flames.

Coast Guard Sector Maryland-NCR issued an urgent marine broadcast and launched a 47-foot motor lifeboat crew from Coast Guard Station Ocean City to respond to the scene. Meanwhile, crewmembers from the commercial fishing vessel Smugglers Point arrived on the scene first after hearing the urgent marine broadcast and safely recovered all six individuals from the water.

The Coast Guard Station Ocean City rescue boat arrived on scene a short time later and crewmembers safely transferred the victims to their vessel and transported them back to the station. The owner of the No Filter stayed behind to await Tow Boat U.S. crews to prepare to conduct salvage operations. All six boaters were wearing lifejackets and no injuries were reported.

Read the full story at The Dispatch

Mariners found on life raft after escaping burning boat off Outer Banks, officials say

July 17, 2020 — Two mariners were 15 miles off Cape Lookout — on North Carolina’s Outer Banks — Thursday morning when their boat caught fire and started taking on water.

One of mariners aboard the 35-foot fishing boat, named Double G, made a mayday call to the Coast Guard Sector North Carolina, according to a news release from the Coast Guard.

The two then threw on life jackets, grabbed a satellite phone and abandoned ship on a life raft, the release says.

Watchstanders with the Coast Guard put out an urgent marine information broadcast in response to the mayday call and launched a boat crew to the scene in a 47-foot motor lifeboat, the release says.

A Navy oiler nearby, hearing the Coast Guard’s broadcast, also sent a helicopter crew to the scene to assist.

Read the full story at The News & Observer

RODA calls for revisions to port access study used in offshore wind project impact statements

July 7, 2020 — The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), an organization representing fishing industry interests related to proposed offshore wind projects in New England, has officially requested that the U.S. Coast Guard correct a study done relating to port access in parts of the region.

The study, the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study (MARIPARS), does not fully take into account the full depth of fishing industry use in the region, according to a letter sent by RODA to the U.S. Coast Guard. RODA claims the report, issued on 27 May, 2020, does not take into account certain information, resulting in “fundamental omissions and calculation errors that compromise the quality, objectivity, and integrity of the information contained therein.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

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

Responsible Offshore Development Alliance Calls for Correction on Coast Guard Study; Cites ‘Serious’ Errors

July 1, 2020 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA):

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) has officially requested that the U.S. Coast Guard revise and correct its Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study (MARIPARS), citing “serious foundational and analytical errors that merit correction.” On June 29th, it filed a formal Request for Correction under the Information Quality Act in order to improve the objectivity and utility of the disseminated information.

The Coast Guard 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. Understanding these ocean use patterns is critical for successfully designing any offshore development, and for minimizing interactions between the proposed developments and existing activity.

Unfortunately, the Coast Guard’s final report, issued on May 27th, contained several key errors, and the process “failed to address nearly all of the substantive comments from fisheries professionals.” These include dozens of comments from vessel operators, fishing companies, and fishing associations, as well as independent experts including the New England Fishery Management Council, the New Bedford Port Authority, the Rhode Island Fisheries Advisory Board, and Dr. Thomas Sproul.

One key error involved the Coast Guard’s reliance on “inappropriate data sources.” RODA previously warned the Coast Guard that most fishing vessels in Massachusetts and Rhode Island do not use Automatic Identification System (AIS) technology onboard, and that any analysis of fishing vessel activity and movement should not rely on AIS data. Despite this warning, the Coast Guard cited only AIS data in its study. Additionally, while the MARIPARS contains a list of nearly 900 contacts in its “stakeholder outreach” section, only two are active commercial fishermen – hardly sufficient to inform a study primarily focused on fishing vessels.

Despite drawing conclusions about the amount of space necessary to conduct fishing operations, the study similarly did not include important information on the nature of fishing activity in the region, including the spatial requirements of vessels and their gear, and the changes in vessel traffic patterns that are likely to result from wind turbine construction.

The study’s flaws were not limited to its analysis of fishing activity. The Coast Guard also failed to properly analyze a range of alternative spacing proposals for wind turbines that included dedicated transit lanes for fishing vessels. Rather than provide an analysis of the impacts transit lanes would have, the Coast Guard simply asserted “project developers have made clear that larger corridors … would result in reduced [turbine] spacing.” RODA asserts in its appeal that the Coast Guard should have conducted a full, independent evaluation of this claim. Instead, “it relied on developers’ attestations that there are a predetermined number of turbines that will be placed in the wind energy areas,” which is at odds with the public record and how the development process is supposed to work.

RODA’s Request for Correction raises further issues, including unsubstantiated claims made by the Coast Guard about the nature of potential radar interference from wind turbines as well as simple calculation errors included in the study.

In light of these numerous errors, RODA considers the conclusions of the study “wholly unsupported and unsubstantiated by the record” and is requesting that the Coast Guard address and correct these errors. It is specifically asking for relief in the form of: (1) revising the analysis using appropriate data and calculations; (2) clear documentation of the MARIPARS’ limitations; (3) a formal, independent peer review; and (4) not using the MARIPARS as a basis for regulatory decisions pending these corrections.

Since the publication of the final MARIPARS, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Vineyard Wind I project to analyze cumulative impacts of offshore wind energy development off of New England. That document relies heavily on the MARIPARS in assessing the navigational safety impacts of the project’s preferred layout.

Read RODA’s full Request for Correction here

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

Coast Guard breaks up Mexican poachers’ red snapper incursion off Texas

April 10, 2020 — Thirteen Mexican fishermen were detected poaching red snapper far north of the U.S. maritime boundary off south Texas Monday when the Coast Guard moved in to break up their longlining operations, Coast Guard officials said.

Three lanchas – small, slim-hulled outboard boats of 20 to 30 feet that can run at 30 knots – were corralled about 50 miles inside the boundary and detained by crews on a Coast Guard cutter, small boat and helicopters.

The haul brought in 12 miles of longline gear, other fishing equipment illegal under U.S. law, and 2,020 pounds of poached red snapper.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Lawsuit threatened over ship strikes on whales near California ports

March 11, 2020 — An environmental nonprofit has moved closer to pursuing a lawsuit claiming the Trump administration is not providing enough protection for whales and sea turtles threatened by ship strikes near ports along California’s coastline.

On March 2, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a “notice of intent to sue,” in which it demanded that the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Coast Guard change how they protect marine life within the next 60 days or face legal action.

Ships near the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the nation’s two busiest ports, are on a voluntary slow-down program to reduce the striking of whales and curtail air pollution. But data from marine mammal experts and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicate voluntary compliance has not sufficiently reduced the number of ship strikes.

“Ship strikes kill far too many endangered whales off California’s coast, and the Trump administration can’t keep ignoring a deadly threat that’s only getting worse,” said Brian Segee, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We want good science to determine how shipping lanes are placed and managed. Ships simply don’t need to kill as many whales and sea turtles as they do.”

Read the full story at The Mercury News