Saving Seafood

VIRGINIA: Can a few hundred mussels become millions in the Anacostia?

October 25, 2019 — Last fall, Jorge Bogantes Montero of the Anacostia Watershed Society helped to transfer tiny, hatchery-raised mussels into protective baskets in the Anacostia River. At the time, Montero said, he “didn’t have any expectations” that they would survive. But, under the careful watch of the watershed group and local school children who helped monitor their growth, nearly 92% of them did.

Now, the pilot project that started with 9,000 quarter-size mussels placed in a river no one was sure could sustain them has graduated to a much bigger one. In late September, the surviving mussels — some of which grew as much as 2 inches over the last year — were disseminated to several other locations in the river, from the marshes around Kingman Island to the faster-flowing waters near Yards Park.

Projects to circulate mussels through more of the Chesapeake Bay’s freshwater systems have been picking up steam as more people recognize the bivalves’ powerful water-filtering capacity.

Although most of the species used for restoration projects won’t show up on a local menu, they function like the Bay’s beloved oysters by providing food and filtration to local ecosystems.

“Mussels filter the water. They take nutrients and bacteria and sediment out,” said Jim Foster, president and CEO of the Anacostia Watershed Society. “We see this as an opportunity to help naturally clean up the river.”

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

Outer Banks fisherman will test device that could save sharks — by tickling them

October 18, 2019 — Fun fact: Sharks, unlike fish, can sense electrical stimuli, according to scientists.

Researchers in North Carolina are hoping to use that biological trait to their advantage with the help of a small electronic device designed to protect sharks from overfishing, N.C. State University announced in a press release this month.

The device, which “has shown promise in the laboratory,” is reportedly ready to start pilot testing off the Outer Banks.

“Several sharks are overfished or are experiencing overfishing on the U.S. East Coast,” fisheries extension specialist Sara Mirabilio said in the release. “Populations of scalloped hammerhead, dusky, sandbar and blacknose sharks all could benefit from an effective deterrent from commercial fishing gear.”

The device could also help fishermen save time and money. Sharks like to chomp on fish while they’re hooked — leaving fishermen with just a head by the time the fish are reeled in, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

Capt. Charlie Locke, an Outer Banks fisherman, has partnered with researchers on the project.

Read the full story at The Charlotte Observer

Student-developed app will help public remove derelict crab traps

October 16, 2019 — The following was released by William & Mary:

Kirk Havens of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science says a question regularly asked by community clean-up groups is whether they can remove derelict crab traps from the Chesapeake Bay. Research shows these “pots” both harm marine life and cut into watermen profits.

To date, the answer has been no — in Virginia, it requires special permission to recover derelict traps, even if they are clearly abandoned or illegally present during the fishery off-season. Scientists estimate that baywide, tens of thousands of traps are lost or abandoned each year.

Now, funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Covanta, and NOAA’s Marine Debris Program will allow Havens and colleagues to address the derelict-trap issue by working with local high school students to develop a “Crab Trap App” for the cell phones of trained and authorized users. The project will also re-animate an earlier program that paid watermen to find and remove derelict traps from crabbing “hot spots.”

“Having students, trained citizens, and conscientious watermen working together to address lost, abandoned, or discarded crab pots is a great way to help lessen the impact of these pots on the Chesapeake Bay,” says Havens, assistant director of VIMS’ Center for Coastal Resources Management. Joining him in planning and implementing the project are VIMS Asst. Professor Andrew Scheld; Research Associate Professor Donna Bilkovic, Kory Angstadt, Karen Duhring, Dave Stanhope, and Dave Weiss of CCRM; and Cara Simpson, a master’s student at W&M’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business.

Read the full release here

Dominion Energy takes a second swing at costly plan to upgrade Virginia power grid

October 1, 2019 — Dominion Energy has filed a plan with the state to spend $594 million over the next three years modernizing Virginia’s electrical grid, which it says would cost customers an average of a little more than $1 per month.

The State Corporation Commission (SCC) denied a similar plan earlier this year, saying the utility had not demonstrated that the costs were “reasonable and prudent.”

Dominion spent several months refining the plan, creating cost-benefit estimates and interviewing stakeholders about priorities. It submitted the new version, which is slightly less costly than the original, on Monday.

“We believe that these investments are very important for our customers and our commonwealth,” Ed Baine, Dominion senior vice president for electric distribution, said Monday in an interview.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

VIRGINIA: Decision to continue striped bass tournament is “huge.” The fish won’t be.

September 27, 2019 — Despite regulations that will take big fish out of the equation, the founder of the Mid-Atlantic Rockfish Shootout has decided to press on.

The 17th annual event will take place Dec. 5-7. Teams can depart from any Virginia port, but weigh-ins are held at King’s Creek Marina in Cape Charles on the lower Eastern Shore.

This week the Virginia Marine Resources Commission lowered the recreational take of striper from two fish to one. And instead of allowing trophy-sized fish to be caught, rockfish will now have to measure between 20 and 36 inches length.

That means all the top catches will be nearly the same size. The tournament will have to rely on scales that measure to one-hundreth of a pound to judge the winning fish.

Mike Standing, who started the shootout in Virginia Beach but moved it to Cape Charles a few years ago, said continuing his event is about more than competitive fishing.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

VIRGINIA: Four things to know about Dominion’s massive wind farm proposal

September 24, 2019 — Dominion Energy announced last week it filed plans to build what would be the United States’ largest offshore wind farm, capable of producing 2,600 megawatts of energy, or enough to power 650,000 homes.

The news was heralded by environmentalists as an important step in the state’s transition away from fossil fuels, one in line with Gov. Ralph Northam’s recent executive order pledging that Virginia’s electric grid would be carbon free by 2050.

But many question marks remain around the three-phase project, which Dominion says will be complete by 2026 and will cost an estimated $7.8 billion. Here’s four key things to know about the current state of wind energy in Virginia, what and how offshore wind is being developed elsewhere and what comes next.

1. Virginia has pledged to make its electric grid carbon free by 2050. But the state currently has no wind energy in its portfolio.

When it comes to words, Virginia has made a strong commitment to wind energy. The sweeping 2018 Grid Transformation and Security Act declared the development of 5,000 megawatts of solar and wind energy to be “in the public interest,” and Virginia’s 2018 Energy Plan recommended that Northam set a goal of developing 2,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2028. Northam’s Executive Order 43, which committed the state to a carbon-free grid by 2050, increased that goal to 2,500 megawatts of offshore resources and set a new deadline for its development of 2026.

Read the full story at The Virginia Mercury

An $8 Billion Wind Farm Will Test Virginia’s Resolve to Be Green

September 23, 2019 — Dominion Energy Inc.’s customers have been pressing the Virginia utility giant for years to source more clean energy. On Thursday, the company heeded their call — with a $7.8 billion, ratepayer-backed plan to build the largest offshore wind farm in America.

The proposal is unprecedented. Never has a utility pitched an offshore wind project of this size — big enough to power 650,000 homes — and in such a way that would have its customers shouldering the costs. It still needs the approval of state regulators, and the blessing of others including the region’s grid operator. But the Richmond-based company is already promoting the plan as a major means of curbing its global-warming emissions 55% by 2030.

In proposing the wind project, Dominion Vice President Mark Mitchell said, the utility is “giving our customers what they have asked for — more renewable energy.”

Already, though, some of its big ratepayers are choosing to take another route. Customers including Costco Wholesale Corp. and Kroger Co. applied for the right to bypass Dominion and negotiate directly with independent electricity suppliers for renewable energy. On Wednesday, less than 24 hours before Dominion announced is massive wind project, the Virginia State Corporation Commission gave them what they wanted, ruling that the utility must allow them to seek other options.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Local News Consortium earns funding to enhance oyster breeding

September 23, 2019 — A consortium of 14 shellfish geneticists from 12 East Coast universities and government agencies has won a 5-year, $4.4 million grant from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to develop new tools to accelerate and localize selective breeding in support of oyster aquaculture.

The project team was assembled by Stan Allen, professor and director of the Aquaculture Genetics and Breeding Technology Center at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science; Ximing Guo, distinguished professor and shellfish geneticist at Rutgers Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory; and Dina Proestou, a scientist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. Guo will serve as the consortium’s principal investigator.

Allen says, “Our respective breeding programs at Rutgers and VIMS are at the core of the new consortium approach. The project is a terrific opportunity to develop further ground-breaking approaches with Ximing’s team and our other East Coast collaborators, and will hopefully deliver all the more results for industry.” Guo and Allen previously partnered to create the world’s first tetraploid oysters at Rutgers in 1994.

Read the full story at the Williamsburg Yorktown Daily

Dominion planning large wind farm off Virginia coast

September 20, 2019 — Dominion Energy announced plans Thursday to seek approval to build what it says would be the largest offshore wind project in the United States off the Virginia coast.

The company told The Associated Press ahead of a public announcement that the project would include about 220 wind turbines in federal waters it has already leased 27 miles (43 kilometers) off Virginia Beach.

If approved as proposed, Dominion says, the approximately $7.8 billion project could produce more than 2,600 megawatts of energy during peak wind by 2026, enough to power 650,000 homes.

“This is, to us, big news. It’s a big step for us to accomplish our carbon reduction goals,” Mark Mitchell, vice president of generation construction for Richmond-based Dominion, said in an interview.

Read the full story at the Associated Press