Saving Seafood

ASMFC vote to create workgroup to study Virginia’s menhaden fishery

August 8, 2024 — The saga of the future of Virginia’s menhaden reduction fishery on Chesapeake Bay continues to unfold as the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Menhaden Management Board approved a motion on Tuesday Aug 6 that could lead to further regulations of the fishery.

The management board approved a motion to establish a “workgroup” to consider and evaluate “precautionary options” in the regulation of the state’s menhaden fishery.

This includes considering time and area closures of Virginia’s menhaden reduction fishery “to be protective of piscivorous birds and fish during critical points of their life cycle.”

The approval to create a workgroup came on the heels of a motion made by Maryland commissioner Lynn Fegley, who serves as director of Fishing and Boat Services at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

She introduced a motion to “initiate an Addendum (document) to the Atlantic Menhaden Interstate Management plan that would regulate menhaden purse net fishing of boats over 300 tons.” This was specifically directed at the Virginia owned Ocean Harvesters fleet out of Reedville, Va., the only menhaden reduction fishery fleet on the East Coast.

Fegley’s motion stated that the “document should include seasonal (fishing) closures of Chesapeake Bay waters (inside the COLREGs line)” but should not consider changes in the bay menhaden cap of 51,000 metric tons currently allowed from Virginia waters.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

VIRGINIA: Dominion bills will rise to fund wind farm

July 26, 2024 — Dominion Energy customers will see bills rise this fall to pay for the continuing costs of the electric company’s $9 billion project to erect a wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean 27 miles off the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.

The State Corporation Commission approved an 80% increase in the surcharge on bills that finances the offshore wind project.

The increase in the surcharge will boost a benchmark bill of $138 a month or 1,000 kilowatts of electricity by $3.89.

The increase takes effect on Sept. 1.

That increase will generate $485.9 million over the following 12 months.

Read the full article at the Richmond TimesDispatch

VIRGINIA: Fish factory workers rescue two kayakers

July 25, 2024 — On Wednesday, July 10, four Omega Protein employees went above and beyond their daily protocols when they rescued two overturned kayakers near the facility.

It was a regular, windy day when lead fish bailer Darvell Kelly noticed something strange a ways away in the water.

According to Kelly, the waters were rough that day as he was unloading fish from the boat to the dock at the facility.

While getting on and off the boat unloading, Kelly realized what he had seen in the distance in Cockrell Creek were two people stranded in need of some help.

Read the full article at the Rappahannock Record

Virginia menhaden fleet files motion to dismiss lawsuit

July 15, 2024 — Virginia-based Ocean Fleet Services and Ocean Harvesters filed a “motion to dismiss” a $2 billion lawsuit against seafood giant Cooke Inc. of New Brunswick, Canada, that claimed the firm violated U.S. foreign ownership laws with the acquisition in 2017 of Omega Protein in Reedville, Va.

The lawsuit, filed on July of 2021 by plaintiffs W. Benson Chiles and Chris Manthey and unsealed in April 2024, alleges Cooke Inc., Omega Protein, Alpha Vessel Co. Holdings Inc., Ocean Fleet Services, Ocean Havesters, have been violating the American Fisheries Act (AFA) of 1998 and the 1920 Jones Act that allow only U.S. citizens to fish in U.S. waters.

The suit stems from an approximately $500 million purchase of Omega Protein of Reedville in 2017 by Cooke Inc. The lawsuit alleges that part of the deal was an illegal arrangement that gave Cooke improper control of the company and the fishing vessels.

The fishing companies’ motion to dismiss, filed July 9 in U.S. District Court in New York, alleges that the suit “lacks factual basis, are speculative, and are quite simply inaccurate.”

 “From the moment we became aware of this case, we have been eager to show that the allegations are inaccurate,” says an Ocean Harvesters spokesman. “Our legal filing underscores several key misstatements from the complaint and offers concrete evidence that they are false.”

The lawsuit alleges Cooke Inc. was involved in a “figurehead fraud scheme” creating a Delaware shell corporation to avoid violation of the AFA citizenship requirement and that “instead of simply acquiring Omega and owning its vessels (Cooke) restructured the entire acquisition to create an illusion of compliance with the AFA citizenship requirement.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman 

Seafood Nutrition Partnership’s latest summer challenge expands on efforts to promote seafood consumption

July 12, 2024 — The Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP), an Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A.-based nonprofit that aims to promote the health and nutritional benefits of seafood, has launched a Summer Seafood Challenge, drawing support from companies up and down the seafood supply chain.

The campaign, which kicked off 20 June and runs through 20 August, asks participants to create or join a team on Give Lively – a free fundraising platform for nonprofits – commit to eating seafood at least twice a week for 60 days, and engage their friends, family, and colleagues to join the initiative and donate. They are also encouraged to share their seafood experiences on social media using the hashtags #SeafoodChallenge, #SummerSeafoodChallenge, and #Seafood2xWk and tagging @Seafood4Health in their posts.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

VIRGINIA: Federal government will auction off another offshore wind site in Virginia

July 1, 2024 — The 176,000-acre lease area is located directly east of where Dominion Energy is already building the nation’s largest offshore wind farm.

The federal government announced Friday that it will soon auction off two more offshore wind energy leases in the central Atlantic Ocean — including one off the coast of Virginia just east of Dominion Energy’s wind farm already under construction.

The Biden administration said in a news release that the auction on August 14 is part of its effort to fight climate change by expanding access to renewable energy sources. Under the current administration, the Interior Department has approved eight commercial-scale wind energy projects in federal waters.

The upcoming auction includes a 101,443-acre area about 26 miles off the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware.

Read the full article at WHRO

VIRGINIA: As offshore wind installation rises, Dominion showcases environmental, economic benefits

June 25, 2024 — On a recent summer day, under blue skies, a 272-feet tall, 31-feet wide, 1,500-ton steel cylinder was being pushed into the ocean floor 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.

The process will be repeated for months as Dominion Energy builds the country’s largest offshore wind project.

“It’s really cool,” said John Larson, director of public policy and economic development for Dominion, who was watching the action from a boat about 1,600 feet away. “In your career, you don’t get to work on a lot of 10-year projects and actually see it happen.”

Larson and others involved in the $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project were showcasing the project’s construction and economic benefits while trying to allay environmental concerns during a tour of the work with area reporters.

The State Corporation Commission, Virginia’s utility regulators, approved the project seen as critical in the transition to renewable energy in the summer of 2022 as part of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which requires the state’s two largest electricity utilities to decarbonize the grid by 2050.

Read the full article at the Virginia Mercury

VIRGINIA: Virginia offshore wind project underway as environmental studies continue

June 24, 2024 — As Nature Conservancy marine scientist Brendan Runde motored into the Atlantic Ocean to study fish about 27 miles offshore from Virginia Beach, two 600-foot-tall wind turbines appeared in the distance. They steadily grew on the horizon, until one of them was towering over the comparatively tiny C-Hawk fishing boat Runde steered.

To catch the fish he was there to tag for his study, Runde had to keep the boat right beside the massive pilon — as the equally massive turbine blades swept by overhead.

“There’s 100 or 130 feet between the tip of the blade and the boat, but it doesn’t feel like that much when that thing’s coming down,” Runde said. “So, that’s pretty cool to experience.”

Runde is one of many scientists eager to fill in the remaining knowledge gaps around how the country’s growing offshore wind industry affects the environment. The turbine he was visiting was one of two “demonstration” units built in advance of Dominion Energy’s enormous Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) installation. Its construction got underway in earnest in May after the project received its final federal permit.

Once finished, with an estimated completion date of late 2026, it will be the largest wind energy installation in the U.S., in terms of both size and energy output. Its 176 turbines and three offshore substations will cover 112,800 acres, and it is expected to generate 2.6 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power at least 650,000 homes.

The project is in response to Virginia’s Clean Energy Act. The 2020 law demands that Dominion Energy deliver 100% of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045.

“Cutting emissions is important from a climate change perspective,” said Chris Moore, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Virginia executive director. “So, these types of projects can help reduce our impact on Chesapeake Bay resources, improve water quality, and help us meet our Bay goals.”

“I’m not sure that we can’t have it all,” he added. “I think it’s a matter of making sure that we site these things correctly, making sure that we try to reduce our impact on other resources.”

Read the full article at the Bay Journal

Conservative groups cleared to continue legal fight to protect whales from Biden-backed offshore wind farm

June 17, 2024 — A coalition of conservative organizations has standing to continue fighting a Biden administration wind project in Virginia, a federal judge determined.

However, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan of the District of Columbia, a Biden appointee, denied the plaintiff’s petition for a preliminary injunction to halt construction of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project from going forward.

On Thursday, the plaintiffs withdrew a petition for an expedited appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court for a narrow decision on the injunction but will continue the case to stop the construction, one attorney said.

The plaintiffs sued the Biden administration and Dominion Energy to protect the North Atlantic right whale under the Endangered Species Act.

Read the full article at Fox News

Launch of US wind installation vessel masks critical shortage

June 17, 2024 — The launch of the first U.S.-built wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) in April marked an important milestone for the offshore wind sector. Commissioned by U.S. utility Dominion Energy, the 472-foot ‘Charybdis’ will be fully operational by early 2025 and will first be used to install Dominion’s 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.

The Charybdis is a positive step for the burgeoning U.S. offshore wind industry but several other vessels are needed to fill a widening supply gap that is holding back developers. Slow buildout of U.S. supply chain and port infrastructure and a lack of clarity over leasing and permitting schedules has hampered developers and deterred some investors.

The U.S. needs four-to-six turbine installation vessels to meet the 30 GW offshore wind target set by President Biden for 2030, according to the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Read the full article at Reuters