Saving Seafood

Virginia governor signs ‘right to fish’ law

April 11, 2024 — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed into law “The Right to Fish” bill, (Virginia House Bill 928) to protect commercial watermen from interference, said state Delegate Hillary Pugh Kent.

Kent, who represents Virginia’s Northern Neck and Caroline County in the state legislature, was primary sponsor of the measure, inspired by reports of Virginia commercial fishermen being harassed while working on the water.

 Kent says the new law “recognizes the importance of our state’s seafood industry by creating protections for commercial watermen and deterring unlawful interference.”

“This new law will provide restitution against those who purposefully inhibit fishing and destroy the property of commercial watermen,” she said. “It will reinforce the continued viability of our fishing and seafood industries, which are necessary to the economic and cultural fabric of the Northern Neck and all of the Commonwealth.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman 

VIRGINIA: The ‘Right to Fish’ bill signed into law

April 11, 2024 — As of July 1, 2024, a new law will make it a Class 1 misdemeanor to interfere with or impede commercial fishing vessels and commercial fishing operations in Virginia waters.

This law arose from HB 928, a bill Delegate Hillary Pugh Kent introduced in this year’s  General Assembly. “The Right to Fish” law, as she calls it,  was inspired by incidents surrounding the Reedville menhaden fishing operations, including an incident where a jet skier reportedly approached two menhaden fishing vessels, cut the fishing net, and sprayed one of the open-air boats where  the crew was working.

In addition to a potential sentence up to 12 months in jail and a fine up to $2,500, any person convicted of a first offense loses the ability to have a hunting and fishing license for a year. Additional convictions deem the person ineligible for those licenses for 3 years. And, any person convicted of this commercial fishing interference law will be required to complete boating safety education.

Read the full article at News On The Neck

Dead right whale off Virginia likely hit by ship, calf unlikely to survive

April 6, 2024 — According to a release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service this week, an endangered North Atlantic right whale found dead off the Virginia Coast late last month was likely killed by a ship strike.

The release states that on April 2, experts conducted a necropsy on the adult female North Atlantic right whale #1950. “Preliminary findings included catastrophic injuries with a dislocation of the whale’s spine and fractures to all vertebrae in the lower back,” the release states. “These findings are consistent with blunt force trauma from a vessel strike prior to death. Additional histological and diagnostic testing of samples is pending. NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is investigating this incident.”

Experts believe there are fewer than 360 North American right whales alive.

Read the full article at the News-Times

Right whale found dead off Virginia coast recently gave birth to calf, experts say

April 3, 2024 — A critically endangered North Atlantic right whale was found dead off the coast of Virginia on Saturday, and her calf is missing, unlikely to survive without her, officials said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday confirmed the identity of the dead whale, female #1950, which was found floating approximately 50 miles offshore Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia. The whale has been known to researchers since 1989, and gave birth to her sixth calf during the 2024 calving season.

NOAA Fisheries said the whale was towed to shore for a necropsy, which will be led by scientists at the University of North Carolina Wilmington alongside other organizations, to determine her cause of death. The carcass showed signs of shark scavenging.

According to NOAA Fisheries, female #1950 is the 40th mortality in the ongoing Unusual Mortality Event impacting North Atlantic right whales. the UME was declared in 2017, and includes 40 dead, 34 seriously injured, and 51 sublethally injured or ill whales. The agency said most were killed or injured by entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes in both U.S. and Canadian waters.

Read the full article at WIFR

Endangered North Atlantic right whale, new mom found dead off Virginia Beach coast

April 2, 2024 — An endangered female North Atlantic right whale was found dead about 50 miles offshore from Back Bay Wildlife Refuge, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NOAA said in a release that on the morning of March 30, a company conducting Mid-Atlantic whale surveys for the Navy notified NOAA Fisheries of a dead North Atlantic right whale.

The whale was identified as female #1950. NOAA says she was a mom from the 2024 calving season.

Her calf was not seen near her carcass, according to NOAA.

Read the full article at WTKR

Female North Atlantic right whale found dead off coast of Virginia

April 2, 2024 — Another North Atlantic right whale has been found dead in U.S. waters.

The whale was found 30 March 2024 by representatives of HDR Inc. who were conducting Mid-Atlantic whale surveys for the U.S. Navy. The whale was floating approximately 50 miles offshore east of Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S. state of Virginia, according to NOAA. It was identified as adult female #1950, a six-time mother with a feeding calf born over the winter. Her calf was not seen in the vicinity of the carcass.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Whales v. wind turbines? Opponents hope to shut down Virginia Beach offshore wind farm project

March 23, 2024 — A legal battle is brewing in Virginia Beach waters. A collection of conservative groups filed a lawsuit this week to put a stop to Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Turbine project. They’re arguing the project could impact endangered whales.

Dominion Energy’s offshore wind farm plans caused a stir in Virginia Beach in weeks past.

“Essentially they’ve created an industrial complex next to a residential community,” Patrick McClaughlin of Virginia Beach told News 3 in early March

Read the full article at WTKR

Offshore wind opponents mount court challenge to Virginia project

March 21, 2024 — Wind power opponents filed a long-expected court challenge to the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, in a bid to stop Dominion Energy’s planned start of construction May 1.

The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is focused on claims that construction and operation of the planned 2.6-gigawatt-rated turbine array will harm the already extremely endangered North Atlantic right whale population, now estimated at only around 350 animals and already at risk from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement.

 The Heartland Institute, Center for a Constructive Tomorrow and the National Legal and Policy Center, groups with ties to conservative, libertarian and oil and gas energy interests, are at the top of the complaint filed in federal court. 

Heartland and allies have already worked to oppose Mid-Atlantic wind power development off the Delmarva coast, citing potential impact on commercial fishing, Ocean City, Md.’s tourism economy and interference with Navy and military aviation operations offshore.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Lawsuit to stop Virginia Beach offshore wind farm claims project is a danger to whales

March 21, 2024 — Several groups filed a lawsuit against federal entities to overturn the approval of a massive wind turbine project off the shore of Virginia Beach, claiming it is a hazard for endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The lawsuit filed by The Heartland Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow and the National Legal and Policy Center names the United States Department of Interior, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Marine Fisheries Services, among others. It claims the federal government is on an “aggressive” campaign of developing offshore wind off the Atlantic coast, and the locations of the projects being in right whale habitat poses a major risk for injury or death of the animals.

The coalition said in a statement that the lawsuit is to stop Dominion Energy’s plans to start construction May 1 to protect the North Atlantic right whales. North Atlantic right whale populations have dwindled due to an “unusual mortality event,” according to scientists. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other groups attribute many of the deaths to vessel strikes and entanglement.

“In issuing its ‘biological opinion’ in September, (National Marine Fisheries Services) only examined the impact that each of these projects, individually and in isolation, would have on the North Atlantic right whale,” the coalition said in a statement. “The agency did not, as it should have, issue a comprehensive and cumulative analysis examining the combined harm that all of the projects, together, would inflict on the whales during their annual migration path.”

Read the full article at The Daily Press

Lawsuit filed to halt offshore wind farm, citing concerns for whales

March 20, 2024 — An environmental lawsuit filed by a handful of conservative groups could interfere with Dominion Energy’s plans to begin constructing Virginia’s offshore wind project on May 1.

The Heartland Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, and the National Legal and Policy Center alleged that federal agencies, as part of their environmental assessment of the project, neglected to perform a full analysis of the harm that could come to the endangered North American right whale as a result. 

The plaintiffs argue that the Bureau of Ocean Management and the National Marine Fisheries Service are legally compelled to evaluate – not just the potential harm from the Virginia project – but the dangers the project might pose to the species in combination with the dozens of other offshore wind projects along the East Coast. 

“What BOEM and Marine Fisheries did is carve this integrated program of putting offshore wind off the East Coast – they carved it into little pieces. There’s a little piece here, which is Virginia, and a little piece there, which is Maryland, another piece which is New York,” Collister Johnson, Jr., senior adviser to the Committee, told The Center Square. “The courts are really clear that you can’t do that and minimize and understate what the actual harm is.”

Read the full article at The Center Square