Saving Seafood

For 2nd year, Chesapeake Bay’s striped bass population is down: Regulators will decide if more rules are needed

November 18, 2024 — Striped bass populations in the lower Chesapeake Bay are not doing well, marking the second year in a row for below-average numbers in Virginia waters.

According to a 2024 survey from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which monitors the success of young bass in the lower Chesapeake Bay, this year was “significantly lower” than the historical average. In Maryland, the Department of Natural Resources reported it saw the sixth consecutive year that young striped bass fell far below the long-term average.

During the Virginia survey, researchers usually get about 7.77 fish per haul, but the latest count had only about 3.43.

Read the full article at phys.org

US East Coast states select firms to run offshore wind development compensation fund for fishers

November 12, 2024 — A coalition of U.S. East Coast states have selected two firms to manage the Offshore Wind Fisheries Compensation Fund, a mitigation program built to compensate commercial and recreation for-hire fishers for revenue lost due to offshore wind developments.

The fund is a collaboration between the governments of 11 East Coast states – Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina – to provide financial compensation for economic loss caused by offshore wind projects along the Atlantic Coast. The states launched a competition earlier this year to select an administrator to run the new fund.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Richmond firm to oversee fishermen compensation related to offshore wind farms

November 6, 2024 — Richmond claims resolution firm BrownGreer PLC and London’s The Carbon Trust have been tapped to design and roll out a regional fisheries mitigation program on the East Coast.

The program is aimed at providing financial compensation to the commercial and recreational for-hire fishing industries related to the impacts of new offshore wind farms.

BrownGreer and The Carbon Trust will work with 11 East Coast states and their respective fishing industry communities on the program. The groups have established a design oversight committee and a for-hire committee to provide advice and guidance from respective parties on the program.

The involved states include Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

Read the full article at Richmond Inno

VIRGINIA: VA’s Second Blue Catfish Grant Awarded to Hampton Seafood Company

November 6, 2024 — Virginia is continuing its fight against invasive blue catfish by boosting the fishery and making it easier to put blue cat into markets and restaurants.

The state has awarded a second $247,000 grant in an effort to control the Chesapeake Bay’s blue catfish population.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin recently announced that L. D. Amory Company Inc. (Amory Seafood) of Hampton, Virginia, has been awarded the grant through the governor’s Blue Catfish Processing, Flash Freezing, and Infrastructure Grant Program.

“This reimbursable grant will support the implementation of a modern quick freezer and essential packing equipment that will allow Amory Seafood to increase processing capacity in its Hampton facility,” the governor’s office said.

“Once the expansion and modernization project is complete, Amory Seafood will purchase more blue catfish from local watermen, which supports economic growth and helps to remove the invasive species from Virginia waters,” it stated.

“I congratulate Amory Seafood on this expansion, as this project helps to increase processing capacity of the invasive blue catfish, provide additional market opportunities for Virginia watermen, and boost the Commonwealth’s seafood industry’s economic impact which was over $1.1 billion in 2019,” said Governor Youngkin.

Read the full article at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

Ocean Harvesters, Omega call for increase of wind facility buffers

November 6, 2024 — Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein are calling on the federal government to increase the buffer for wind energy facilities from 6 miles to 15 miles, stating their operations are incompatible with wind turbine arrays and  critical adjustments are needed to protect the menhaden fishing industry.

The Reedville companies made those statements as part of their public comment to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which was soliciting feedback on possible commercial wind energy development in areas off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Read the full article at News On The Neck

VIRGINIA: Dominion pauses offshore turbine installation for whale migration

November 5, 2024 — Dominion Energy has halted some construction on its massive offshore wind project off the coast of Virginia to allow endangered whales to migrate through the area in the winter.

The 176-turbine project will be the largest offshore wind farm in U.S. waters if completed on schedule in 2026, at a cost of nearly $10 billion. So far, Dominion Energy has installed 78 steel turbine foundations and four offshore substation foundations in its federal lease area, which is located 27 miles off the Virginia coast.

The Richmond utility has paused further foundation installation — which requires hammering steel structures into the seafloor — until May 1 to allow endangered North Atlantic right whales to migrate through the area with less noise disturbance.

Read the full article at E&E News

VIRGINIA: Once locally extinct, Virginia’s bay scallops nearing sustainable levels

October 25, 2024 — Sweet, tender, briny bay scallops are making a comeback in Virginia, according to researchers at the College of William & Mary, who say this year’s population may be approaching sustainable levels.

“The Atlantic bay scallop is a species that ranges from New England, down to Florida, and around the Gulf Coast,” said Richard Snyder, director of Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s Eastern Shore Lab and a professor of marine science at William & Mary’s Batten School of Coastal and Marine Sciences.

With a creamy texture, he said bay scallops are smaller than sea scallops.

For the past 24 years, scientists at the ESL have been working to restore the seagrass, which plays a crucial role in the survival of bay scallops.

“The young scallops will attach to the grass blades, and that’s how they grow and survive,” Snyder said. “And the adults will then drop to the bottom, but they live in the grass beds, even as adults.”

Starting in 2010, researchers brought wild scallops from North Carolina into the research hatchery.

Read the full article at WTOP

More Striped Bass Restrictions Possible for Chesapeake Bay Fisheries

October 25, 2024 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) held a meeting this week to review recent studies that suggest the Chesapeake Bay’s striped bass (or rockfish) populations continue to struggle.

According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation,a 2024 stock assessment update showed the number of rockfish remains below sustainable numbers despite multiple recent efforts to reduce their mortality. Studies conducted in Maryland and Virginia suggest similar issues with lower levels of juvenile fish in consecutive years.

“If an upcoming stock assessment prior to the rebuilding deadline of 2029 indicates that the stock is not projected to rebuild by 2029, with a probability greater than or equal to 50 percent, the Board can respond via Board action, essentially by changing management measures via a vote to pass a motion, as opposed to an addendum or an amendment,” Dr. Katie Drew said at the ASMFC meeting.

Read the full article at WBOC

VIRGINIA: Dominion Energy Receives $2.6B as Stonepeak Acquires Share of Wind Farm

October 24, 2024 — Dominion Energy Receives $2.6B as Stonepeak Acquires Half of Offshore Wind Farm

Dominion Energy completed the previously announced deal to sell a 50 percent interest in its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project to Stonepeak, a leading alternative investment firm specializing in infrastructure and real estate. The transaction continues the trend of investment firms entering the offshore wind sector while for Dominion Energy it reduces risk and is part of a broader effort to lower corporate debt. The company has said it does not signal a change in its support of offshore wind energy power generation.

“We are pleased to partner with Stonepeak on CVOW,” said Robert Blue, Chair and CEO of Dominion Energy. “Stonepeak is one of the world’s largest infrastructure investors in large energy projects such as offshore wind, and its financial participation in CVOW will benefit both the project and the people who will rely on electricity from CVOW to keep the lights on and fuel economic growth in the Commonwealth.”

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

VIRGINIA: Virginia’s juvenile striped bass numbers down for 2nd straight year, raising concerns

October 22, 2024 — The number of juvenile striped bass in Virginia waters is down for the second straight year, a concerning development, researchers say.

The 2024 survey of the juvenile numbers was released last week by William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and its Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences.

They say the 2024 mean value of 3.43 stripers per seine haul (in which a long net is used to trap fish) is significantly lower than the historic average of 7.77 fish (the survey’s been conducted annually since 1967).

Read the full article at WAVY