Saving Seafood

Proposed menhaden ban blocked in Virginia legislature

January 25, 2023 — Virginia state House Bill 1383, recently introduced by Delegate Tim Anderson of Virginia Beach to shut down Virginia’s menhaden reduction fishery in all of the state’s territorial ocean waters and inland Bay waters for two years, was unanimously tabled Jan. 18 by the Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee.

The vote was 22-0 to table and “pass by indefinitely.”  The bill has a delayed effective date of Nov. 18, 2023 and a sunset date of Nov. 22, 2025.

“Normally when they vote PBI it means the bill dies forever unless someone brings it back next year,” said Montgomery Deihl, vice president of operations for Omega Protein in Reedville, Va.  “But the fact that it was a unanimous vote sends a strong signal that there’s no support for it.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Virginia’s seafood economy hits USD 1 billion mark, gets federal investment

January 10, 2023 — Virginia’s seafood economy has an estimated annual value of more than USD 1 billion (EUR 930 million), according to a new study.

Among all U.S. states, Virginia ranks fourth in seafood landings, with the value of its seafood products exceeding USD 200 million (EUR 186.2 million) in 2020. The state is also one of the top producers of oysters along the U.S. East Coast.

Read the full article SeafoodSource

VIRGINIA: State regulators approve Dominion Energy plans for offshore wind farm – with customers set to pay

December 19, 2022 — Dominion Energy’s planned wind farm got crucial approval from Virginia regulators this week.

The company filed its application with the State Corporation Commission last year. It’s been a long process since then, with legal back-and-forths between environmental groups, state officials and others.

The SCC’s new order approves an agreement Dominion reached with the Attorney General’s office this fall. It outlines who must pay for the billions of dollars the project is expected to cost.

Read the full article at WHRO

VIRGINIA: Regulators grant critical approval for Dominion wind farm off Virginia Beach coast

December 16, 2022 — Virginia regulators granted a critical approval Thursday for Dominion Energy’s plans to construct and operate a 176-turbine wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean.

The State Corporation Commission effectively signed off on an agreement Dominion reached this fall with the Virginia attorney general and other parties, in which the company agreed to implement several consumer protections in connection with the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.

“We thank the Commission for its approval and appreciate the collaboration of the parties involved to reach an agreement that advances offshore wind and the clean energy transition in Virginia,” the Richmond-based company said in a statement. “Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind has many benefits for our customers. It is fuel free, emissions free, diversifies our energy mix and is a transformative economic development opportunity for Hampton Roads and Virginia.”

Read the full article at WAVY

VIRGINIA: Menhaden harvest in the Chesapeake Bay won’t get new restrictions — for now

December 7, 2022 — The Virginia Marine Resources Commission on Tuesday chose not to place new limits on the menhaden harvest. The decision came after an hours-long hearing that included roughly three dozen impassioned public commenters.

In fact, board members didn’t vote on the regulations at all. Instead, they approved a non-binding motion to try and reach an agreement with the menhaden industry.

The decision is the latest in a decades-long, politically fraught fight over the fishery that’s unique to the commonwealth.

Virginia is the only place on the East Coast that still allows harvesting menhaden within state waters. Omega Protein catches the fish and processes them into oil or fishmeal at a facility in Reedville.

Sportfishers and environmental groups have been pushing for a total ban on the menhaden harvest in the Chesapeake Bay, citing impacts to the food chain.

A petition supporting such a ban, circulated by the Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association this year, garnered 9,200 signatures.

The proposed regulations this week would not have gone nearly as far.

VMRC staff recommended prohibiting menhaden fishing within one nautical mile of shorelines in state and Virginia Beach waters, and for a half-mile on each side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Read the full article at WHRO

VIRGINIA: State proposes limits on menhaden fishing in the Bay after spills

November 29, 2022 –The Virginia Marine Resources Commission is considering new limits on the controversial menhaden fishery after two spills of dead fish fouled Eastern Shore beaches in July and sparked calls for an outright ban.

The Reedville-based fleet operated by Omega Protein spilled 4,895 menhaden on Silver Beach over the July 4 weekend and an estimated 10,000 menhaden and 26 red drum on July 25, which forced the closing of Kiptopeke State Park beach for a time when some of them washed ashore.

The first spill came when a “purse seine” net tore, as Omega crew members were gathering a school of fish. Purse seining involves surrounding a school of fish with a net maneuvered by two boats, which then bring the closed “purse” alongside a larger vessel which vacuums the fish into its hold.

Read the full article at Richmond Times-Dispatch

VIRGINIA: Dominion, AG reach proposed agreement in offshore wind case

October 31, 2022 — Dominion Energy has agreed to implement several consumer protections in connection with its massive offshore wind project under a proposed agreement with the office of the Virginia attorney general and other parties released Friday.

The proposed agreement, which includes performance reporting requirements and provisions laying out a degree of construction cost sharing, is still subject to final approval by the State Corporation Commission.

Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican whose office represents the interests of consumers in utility regulation proceedings, said the agreement would provide “first-of-its-kind” protections for ratepayers while ensuring the 176-turbine project with an estimated $9.8 billion capital cost moves forward in a fiscally responsible way.

“I am pleased that we have achieved consumer protections never seen before in modern Virginia history,” Miyares said in a statement. “For the first time Dominion has significant skin in the game to ensure that the project is delivered on budget. Should the project run materially over budget, it will come out of Dominion’s pocket, not consumers,” he said.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

VIRGINIA: Offshore wind project “at a crossroads” Dominion argues

October 3, 2022 — Dominion Energy is arguing that it may “be forced” to pull the plug on its proposed offshore wind project if a performance guarantee remains imposed on it by the State Corporation Commission.

On Aug. 5, the SCC approved a rate adjustment clause, or rider, attached to consumers’ power bills so Dominion can recover costs associated with its proposed offshore wind project. The SCC order also included a performance guarantee to protect consumers from potential extra costs if the wind turbines don’t perform as well as expected.

The $9.8 billion wind farm— planned for 27 miles off Virginia Beach— is the largest energy project ever undertaken in the state and would be the largest wind project in the country.

But Dominion challenged the performance guarantee and the SCC agreed to reconsider it — kicking off a window in which both the utility company and other parties have responded.

“It is the regulator’s job to balance monopoly profit motives by adopting common and reasonable standards that will protect Virginians,” Laura Gonzalez, a policy manager with Clean Virginia said in a statement.

Clean Virginia is one of the environmental groups that responded.

But Dominion objected to the guarantee, asserting it could create uncertainty for its investors and hold the company responsible for things outside of its control — citing extreme weather as example.

Read the full article at the Richmond Times-Dispatch

VIRGINIA: Businesses, environmental groups back guarantee for Dominion wind project

September 22, 2022 — Last month, Dominion Energy asked the State Corporation Commission to reconsider a performance guarantee it attached to the utility’s proposed offshore wind project. The SCC agreed to revisit the matter and opened a response period — which garnered 13 responses from various groups.

Environmental nonprofit Clean Virginia is among the groups arguing that consumer protection is reasonable.

“It is the regulator’s job to balance monopoly profit motives by adopting common and reasonable standards that will protect Virginians,” Laura Gonzalez, Clean Virginia’s Energy Policy Manager said in a statement.

The organization’s filed response noted that projected profit from the wind project is more than enough to cover potential costs. The performance guarantee — which Dominion is asking regulators to reconsider — is meant to protect consumers from potentially absorbing additional costs if the turbines fail to perform as expected.

Read the full article at the Richmond Times-Dispatch

VIRGINIA: Oyster restoration stumbles in Virginia’s Lynnhaven River

September 14, 2022 — Back in the spring, Lynnhaven River Now was celebrating its efforts to rebuild the oyster population in one of the Chesapeake Bay’s most developed watersheds.

Undertaking the largest restoration project in its 20-year history, the nonprofit group started by spreading 190 barge-loads of crushed, recycled concrete across the bottom of Pleasure House Creek, one of the Lynnhaven’s tributaries.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Lynnhaven group’s partner on the project, followed up by topping the underwater ridges with a thin layer of shells bearing fingernail-size baby oysters.

“New reefs could support 10 million oysters!” Lynnhaven River Now enthused in an April press release. In all, the two groups planned to create nearly 14 acres of oyster habitat in three separate reefs.

But then waterfront residents began complaining about seeing chunks of asphalt, metal wires and steel rebar mixed in with the concrete being put in the water. A state senator responded by holding public meetings to air residents’ grievances. He pressed authorities to investigate, and in July the Virginia Marine Resources Commission ordered CBF to completely remove everything put in the Lynnhaven so far this year.

The snafu has tarnished the reputation of the two environmental groups, at least in the eyes of some riverfront residents.

“The public confidence in the people who are supposed to be protecting the resources the most, [in other words] Lynnhaven River Now and Chesapeake Bay Foundation, have taken a hit. That’s a polite way of saying it,” said Charles “Chuck” Mehle, a longtime waterfront resident and former community association president who was among the project’s vocal critics.

It’s also roiled other restoration efforts in the Lynnhaven, which is one of five Bay tributaries in Virginia where the state has pledged to complete large-scale revival of oyster habitat by 2025. Waterfront residents are now criticizing plans by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create more oyster reefs in the river.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal