Saving Seafood

Management & Regulation

US lawmakers trying to stop NOAA Fisheries’ new vessel speed rules

July 29, 2024 — U.S. lawmakers in Congress are trying to stop NOAA Fisheries’ expanded vessel speed rules from going into effect, with 54 legislators signing a letter asking the federal government to reopen the rule for further input and review.

“We share the objective of preventing vessel strikes and protecting critically endangered marine mammals like the North Atlantic right whale,” the lawmakers wrote in the joint letter. “However, we believe that there are better strategies to accomplish this goal while safeguarding the multiple uses of our ocean resources.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Speed limits to protect whales? Not so fast, says Congress

July 29, 2024 — The federal proposal to designate critical habitat for the endangered Rice’s whale is slowing amid opposition from Gulf of Mexico state leaders, who say any potential restrictions to protect the whales could endanger their maritime industries.

With a population estimated at only around 75 animals, the Rice’s whale is at even more peril than the North Atlantic right whale, believed to number around 360 whales ranging along the U.S. Atlantic coast.

Back in October 2023 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration backed off from a rule proposal that called for local 10-knot speed limits when Rice’s whales are seen in Gulf waters. The agency says ship strikes are a major danger for whales just below the sea surface.

That plan drew intense criticism from Gulf shipping and offshore energy industries. The NOAA Fisheries service is continuing to push for some measures to help the Rice’s whale survive, by designating a 28,000-square mile critical habitat along the continental shelf and slope waters within the Gulf of Mexico.

 Read the full article at Workboat

US promises $240 million to improve fish hatcheries, protect tribal rights in Pacific Northwest

July 26, 2024 — The U.S. government will invest $240 million in salmon and steelhead hatcheries in the Pacific Northwest to boost declining fish populations and support the treaty-protected fishing rights of Native American tribes, officials announced Thursday.

The departments of Commerce and the Interior said there will be an initial $54 million for hatchery maintenance and modernization made available to 27 tribes in the region, which includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.

The hatcheries “produce the salmon that tribes need to live,” said Jennifer Quan, the regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. “We are talking about food for the tribes and supporting their culture and their spirituality.”

Some of the facilities are on the brink of failure, Quan said, with a backlog of deferred maintenance that has a cost estimated at more than $1 billion.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

US FDA warns retailers, restaurants about contaminated Maine oysters

July 26, 2024 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising restaurants and food retailers not to serve or sell, and consumers not to eat, recalled oysters from Recompense Cove in Freeport, Maine, U.S.A., because they may be contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria.

“These oysters have been associated with a Campylobacter illness outbreak in Maine,” the FDA said in a press release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

World’s Biggest Dam Removal Project to Open 420 Miles of Salmon Habitat in Klamath River This Fall

July 25, 2024 — For the first time since 1918, an astonishing 420 miles of salmon habitat in the Klamath River watershed in California and Oregon will be fully connected by September. This results from the world’s largest dam removal effort, the Klamath River Renewal Project. The amount of habitat opened up on the Klamath is equivalent to the distance between Portland, Maine, and Philadelphia-a journey through seven states.

PacifiCorp, the previous owner, agreed to remove the aging dams after they determined removal would be less expensive than upgrading to current environmental standards. The dams had been used for power generation, not water storage. The Copco No. 2 Dam on the Klamath was removed last year. The deconstruction of the Iron Gate, Copco No. 1, and JC Boyle dams is underway and running ahead of schedule.

“I think in September, we may have some Chinook salmon and steelhead moseying upstream and checking things out for the first time in over 60 years,” says Bob Pagliuco, NOAA marine habitat resource specialist. “Based on what I’ve seen and what I know these fish can do, I think they will start occupying these habitats immediately. There won’t be any great numbers at first, but within several generations-10 to 15 years-new populations will be established.”

There’s more good news for Klamath salmon and steelhead. NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation recommends an $18 million award to the Yurok Tribe to restore and reconnect cold-water tributaries that will open to migratory fish after dam removal. Another roughly $1.9 million award is recommended to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to begin evaluating options for improving fish passage at Keno Dam. The Keno Dam sits upstream of the dams currently being removed. Nearly 350 miles of additional salmon habitat lie upstream. Both awards are funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.

“The Yurok people are extremely happy to be witnessing the beginning of the Klamath River’s rebirth,” says Yurok Tribe Fisheries Department Director Barry McCovey. “The dams caused a tremendous amount of damage to the Klamath over the last century. Through the decommissioning project and holistic restoration, we are confident that we will see the Klamath’s salmon, steelhead, and Pacific lamprey runs recover.”

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

To decarbonize, New England is betting big on offshore wind. Can it deliver?

July 24, 2024 — Dozens of hard hats and yellow safety vests were neatly placed on folding chairs. A giant American flag hung from the rafters of a hangar-sized fabrication building. And cellophane-wrapped cookies with blue icing spelling out “Revolution Wind, powered by Ørsted and Eversource,” added the final celebratory touch.

After a rough year for the fledgling U.S. offshore wind industry, the crowd of union leaders, energy company representatives, state and federal officials, media and other guests at the Port of Providence on June 13 were marking the final assembly of the advanced foundation components for the Revolution Wind project, a 700-megawatt offshore wind farm currently under construction 12 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard that will deliver energy to Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee called the now- bustling port – packed with offshore wind turbine components and hosting a gleaming new crew service vessel built for Ørsted, the Danish offshore wind giant, docked nearby – “an example of what can happen all around the country.” The construction progress “marks a pivotal moment, not just for Rhode Island but our country’s offshore wind industry,” McKee added.

Other governors across New England are banking big on the mammoth turbines being installed off the coast to not only keep the lights on as the region moves toward cleaner electricity, but also to meet a surge in power demand from electric vehicles and a shift to electrified home heating. The region’s push into offshore wind comes amid longstanding apprehension by federal regulators and the nation’s electric reliability watchdog over New England’s dependence on natural gas power generation, worrisome when paired with its constrained pipeline capacity during extreme cold.

Whether the hundreds of turbines planned to spring up off the coast — and the major grid upgrades needed to get that power to where it’s needed — can reliably meet those expectations will come down in large part to timing, experts say. That includes not just how fast developers, who are facing supply chain problems and sometimes stiff local resistance and have complained about permitting delays, can get turbines built, but also when the expected demand increase from an electrified future materializes. Also in the mix: how quickly the system is able to inject the power produced offshore and whether it can handle the dips in output that can come with variable generation, said John Moura, director of reliability assessment at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which sets and enforces standards for the American power system.

Read the full article at Maine Morning Star

NOAA recommends $18M to Yurok Tribe-led restoration project

July 19, 2024 — The NOAA‘s Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience program recommends $18 million for a Yurok Tribe-led restoration project.

The project aims to restore critically important segments of multiple Upper Klamath River tributaries.

This follows the progress of the Klamath River Renewal Project taking out four dams along the historic Klamath River.

Read the full article at KOBI

Blade collapse, New York launch and New Jersey research show uneven progress of offshore wind

July 18, 2024 — Three events Wednesday highlighted the uneven progress of the offshore wind industry in the Northeast, including the start of a major project in New York, research aimed at preventing environmental damage in New Jersey, and a temporary shutdown of a wind farm in Massachusetts after a broken turbine blade washed ashore on a famous beach.

The federal government ordered a wind farm operator off the coast of Nantucket in Massachusetts to suspend operations while cleanup continues after a wind turbine blade fell into the water, broke apart, and washed up on beaches at the popular vacation spot.

Vineyard Wind said Wednesday that it has removed 17 cubic yards of debris, enough to fill more than six truckloads, along with several larger pieces that washed ashore. The debris was mostly non-toxic fiberglass fragments ranging in size from small pieces to larger sections, typically green or white.

Read the full article at the Associated Press 

Offshore wind meeting nets few answers on sending energy to shore

July 18, 2024 — Of the four people who spoke at a virtual July 10 public meeting held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the federal agency in charge of leasing offshore U.S. waters, three were concerned about energy transmission lines, cooling stations and standpipes during transmission to the mainland. But the meeting only addressed a draft environmental assessment issued June 21 over effects during the leasing and assessment process, so no answers were forthcoming.

The environmental assessment shows negligible to minor effects on the ocean environment, marine mammals and other ocean animals, navigation and vessel traffic, commercial and recreational fishing, recreation and tourism and cultural, historical and archaeologic resources. The assessment covers the “routine and non-route activities associated with lease and grant issuance, site characterization activities and site assessment activities with the wind energy area.”

A fourth comment came from ocean scientist David Dow of Falmouth, retired from NOAA Fisheries Woods Hole Laboratory in Massachusetts, who raised concerns over an ocean “degraded” by climate change by the time turbines start turning, around 2032, if offshore wind development progresses as planned.

Read the full article at Mount Desert Islander

Agency critics slam federal oversight of bycatch

July 18, 2024 — The agency that oversees the performances of federal agencies gave a sobering assessment of those tasked with monitoring bycatch in US fisheries.

That oversight falls to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), also called NOAA Fisheries, which agreed with the troubling performance outlined in a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

In a June report to the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee titled “Efforts to Reduce and Monitor Unintentional Catch and Harm Need Better Tracking,” the GAO addressed four issues: measures used to reduce bycatch, coverage, and funding of fisheries observers, how bycatch estimates are developed and reported and how NMFS tracks its performance towards reducing and monitoring bycatch.

It added: “NMFS’ efforts to track its performance in reducing and monitoring bycatch do not align with key elements of evidence-based policymaking related to performance management.”

The GAO outlined numerous ways in which NMFS has failed to adequately tackle bycatch issues and blamed a lack of observer coverage overall. NMFS replied that it needs more funding to recruit and retain observers, but it hasn’t communicated that need to Congress.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman