December 26, 2023 — The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition addresses five inaccurate and misleading statements made in a recent press release by the Chesapeake Legal Alliance and the Southern Maryland Recreational Fishing Organization regarding their petition for rulemaking to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC). A brief overview of inaccuracies, expert statements, and scientific findings is listed below, followed by a more detailed discussion of each false claim.
New England council makes groundfish quota recommendations for 2024, with deep cuts to haddock
December 26, 2023 — The New England Fishery Management Council has approved groundfish catch limits for the 2024 fishing year in the Northeast U.S., with deep cuts made to multiple species and few increases.
The sub-annual catch limits (sub-ACLs) for multiple species of groundfish were decided through Framework Adjustment 66 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan (NEFMC), which was implemented nearly forty years ago to reduce mortality of heavily fished groundfish stocks and promote rebuilding to sustainable biomass levels, and will still require approval from NOAA. In addition to setting quotas for multiple species in 2024, the new framework adjustment also includes provisions that will affect 2025 and 2026.
Glauconite forcing changes to wind farms off East Coast
December 24, 2023 — Glauconite, a tricky green mineral, has complicated another offshore wind project along the East Coast. Its presence will likely force wind developer Ørsted to build fewer turbines in its Sunrise Wind project south of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Sunrise Wind may be capped at 80 to 87 turbines, instead of as many as 94, according to the project’s final environmental impact report, released last week. Ørsted cites “glauconite feasibility issues” with installing turbine foundations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s report.
The Sunrise Wind project, about 40 miles south of New Bedford, will connect to the New York power grid. It’s the second confirmed offshore wind project along the East Coast that has rejected proposed turbine layouts due to the presence of glauconite. Empire Wind, off Long Island, has also had to do so, The Light reported in October.
BOEM, the U.S. ocean energy bureau, appears to be taking steps to address glauconite’s challenge to offshore wind development, its report last week signals.
“BOEM is developing further guidelines for developers to avoid these issues in the future,” read an agency response to a comment on the Sunrise Wind project. The comment was critical of the later timing of geological surveys, which can identify whether glauconite is present and might create an issue with certain turbine layouts.
BOEM did not provide a response to emailed questions on the agency’s comment about developing guidelines to avoid further issues.
The NOAA Fisheries Atlantic office, which cooperates with BOEM in reviewing projects, has also expressed concern with geological surveys occurring “late in the process.” In the case of Sunrise Wind, the fisheries agency said the timing reduced the government’s options for avoiding or minimizing impacts on marine resources.
Glauconite’s presence caused BOEM to reject a proposed wind turbine layout, preferred by NOAA Fisheries, that would have excluded Sunrise Wind’s turbines from a key area of Atlantic cod spawning habitat.
In response to a request for comment, a Sunrise Wind spokesperson said by email, “Impacts due to glauconite are not expected to affect this project.”
As salmon disappear, a battle over Alaska Native fishing rights heats up
December 24, 2o23 — When salmon all but vanished from western Alaska in 2021, thousands of people in the region faced disaster. Rural families lost a critical food source. Commercial fisherfolk found themselves without a major stream of income. And Alaska Native children stopped learning how to catch, cut, dry, and smoke fish — a tradition passed down since the time of their ancestors.
Behind the scenes, the salmon shortage has also inflamed a long-simmering legal fight among Native stakeholders, the Biden administration, and the state over who gets to fish on Alaska’s vast federal lands.
At the heart of the dispute is a provision in a 1980 federal law called the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which gives rural Alaskans priority over urban residents to fish and hunt on federal lands. Most rural families are Indigenous, so the law is considered by some lawyers and advocates as key to protecting the rights of Alaska Natives. State officials, however, believe the law has been misconstrued to infringe on the state’s rights by giving federal regulators authority over fisheries that belong to Alaskans.
Now, a lawsuit alleges the state has overstepped its reach. Federal officials argue that state regulators tried to usurp control of fishing along the Kuskokwim River in western Alaska, where salmon make up about half of all food produced in the region. The suit, originally filed in 2022 by the Biden administration against the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, escalated this fall when the state’s lawyers effectively called for the end of federal oversight of fishing across much of Alaska. Indigenous leaders say the state’s actions threaten Alaska Native people statewide.
Managing and Conserving the World’s Largest Tuna Fisheries
December 20, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries and partners convened December 4–8, 2023, for the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission annual meeting in the Cook Islands. The aim was to strengthen the conservation and management of international fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. Following this gathering, they returned home with new management measures that establish international rules for Pacific bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna fishing. The agenda topics encompassed discussions on tuna stock status and harvest strategies, as well as the incorporation of climate change considerations into fisheries management.
Meeting Highlights
The United States led the adoption of a measure to create a climate change work plan addressing impacts on fisheries in the Commission Convention Area. The United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands will co-lead this work plan, and the Commission’s Secretariat may also assess current management measures to identify any that may be susceptible to climate change impacts. This will help the Commission be prepared to react quickly and comprehensively to climate change impacts.
The United States also supported several major revisions to the Commission management measure governing the harvest of Pacific bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin tunas.
Key changes include:
- Support for the Hawaiʻi-based longline fleet by establishing the U.S. bigeye tuna catch limit at 6,554 metric tons—nearly double the historic limit of 3,554 metric tons
- Support for the U.S. purse seine fleet through reductions in the Fish Aggregating Device closures from 5 months to 2.5 months
- Adoption of three other management measures, including a new Compliance Monitoring Scheme that will enhance compliance with conservation and management measures, and revisions to the management of Pacific Bluefin Tuna and North Pacific Swordfish
“The new measures are critical to supporting sustainable U.S. fisheries in the Western Pacific,” said Sarah Malloy, Acting Regional Administrator, NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office. “The United States benefits from sustainable management of tuna stocks, which is essential to the success for our longline and purse seine fleets.”
The United States wanted to secure unlimited fishing on the high seas for the U.S. purse seine fleet based in American Samoa. Although it garnered support from numerous members, there wasn’t consensus. NOAA Fisheries and other members of the U.S. delegation intend to use the momentum gained at the meeting to continue advocating for the prioritization of support for American Samoa’s fishery-based economy.
Collaborating on Change
Adopting these changes was made possible due to the hard work of Commission delegates leading up to the annual meeting.
“The U.S. delegation worked tirelessly throughout 2023 to secure the support of other Commission members for U.S. priorities,” said Kelly Kryc, NOAA’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Fisheries and the head of the delegation to the Commission. “We held multiple bilateral talks, worked closely with Territories and stakeholders, and prepared a variety of working papers detailing the United States’ commitment to sustainable fishing and to the fishery development aspirations of the U.S. Pacific Territories.”
The U.S. delegation included NOAA, U.S. Pacific Territories, U.S. Coast Guard, State Department, and industry representatives.
NOAA engaged in eight intersessional working groups this year to prepare for the annual meeting. Over the last 2 years, we also provided funding to support three longline fishery management workshops with various Commission members, in an effort to develop a shared vision of the fishery.
With the new measures in hand, NOAA will continue international conservation and management efforts while supporting the economic development aspirations of the U.S. Pacific Territories through:
- Advocacy for the American Samoa-based U.S. purse seine fleet
- Establishment of a harvest strategy for South Pacific albacore tuna
- Development of minimum standards for electronic monitoring
- Agreement to substantively strengthen oversight of at-sea transshipment
- Further enhancement of compliance management measures
Wind farm off New Jersey likely to ‘adversely affect’ but not kill whales, feds say
December 19, 2023 — The lone remaining offshore wind project in New Jersey with preliminary approval is likely to “adversely affect” whales and other marine mammals, but its construction, operation and eventual dismantling will not seriously harm or kill them, a federal scientific agency said.
In a biological opinion issued Monday night, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the Atlantic Shores project, to be built off the state’s southern coast, is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any species of endangered whales, sea turtles, or fish.
Nor is it anticipated to destroy or adversely modify any designated critical habitat, the agency said.
Jennifer Daniels, the company’s development director, called NOAA’s decision “the next step forward” for the project.
It’s “a testament to the five years and 40-plus environmental assessments completed to ensure we are delivering safe, reliable, renewable power in a way that prioritizes responsible ocean development,” Daniels wrote.
Wind farms will be 15 miles away. But Preservation Society says they will spoil their ‘viewshed’ | Opinion
December 19, 2023 — Bill Fitzgerald lives in Newport.
I read that the Preservation Society of Newport County is filing a lawsuit to stop or alter the wind farm being developed 15 miles out to sea. I was a little dumbfounded. How is this going to help them? Perception is everything in the tourism business and it makes the Preservation Society look like a NIMBY poster child for the fossil fuel industry.
I guess that is what the rich and powerful do if they don’t like something.
In the complaint, the Preservation Society argued that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management improperly approved the wind farms that will damage historic resources in the City of Newport, which is heavily dependent on heritage tourism. Federal law, it claimed, “makes clear that the ‘viewsheds’ of historic resources are as important as bricks and mortar. These appeals seek to preserve historic and pristine views from industrial-scale development.”
Scientists to study how offshore wind construction off Virginia Beach impacts fish
December 18, 2023 — Researchers with the Nature Conservancy and federal government are embarking on groundbreaking research off the coast of Virginia Beach to see how driving offshore wind turbines into the seafloor impacts fish behavior.
The research will provide guidance for how the government should craft environmental regulations for offshore wind development, which is increasing as the U.S. transitions from fossil fuel generation to renewable energy sources.
“The renewable energy sector is really critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Kate Wilke, a marine scientist with the Nature Conservancy. “There really is a lot of scrutiny on this industry, and therefore we hope that that truly leads to better outcomes as the industry is developing and built out.”
While offshore wind has been slower to develop in the U.S. than in Europe or Asia, states along the East Coast have been racing to propose projects in recent years, especially after President Joe Biden announced a goal of having 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. That’s enough to power roughly 10 million homes.
Virginia set its own goal of developing 5.2 gigawatts of offshore wind as part of the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act, which seeks to decarbonize the state’s electric grid by 2050. Dominion Energy, Virginia’s largest electric utility, is currently building a 2.6 gigawatt project that is expected to be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm when it’s complete.
The $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, also known as CVOW, will construct 176 turbines about 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. While other projects along the East Coast have stalled because of economic pressures, Dominion has said CVOW is “on-time and on-budget.”
As the utility prepares to begin the drilling needed for the turbines, the Nature Conservancy is taking the opportunity to see how all the earth-shaking activity will affect fish.
“We are going to tag animals in such a way that it gives us the opportunity to observe behavior and gain an understanding of how that behavior may or may not change before versus during that construction activity,” said Brendan Runde, another scientist with the Nature Conservancy.
BOEM intends to lease more wind farm area off Delaware coast
December 18, 2023 — The U.S. Department of the Interior recently announced a proposal of another offshore wind lease sale, this time in ocean waters about 26 nautical miles from Delaware Bay.
“We are taking action to jumpstart America’s offshore wind industry and using American innovation to deliver reliable, affordable power to homes and businesses, while also addressing the climate crisis,” said Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a prepared statement.
According to the announcement, the new areas have the potential to power more than 2.2 million homes with clean energy.
Read the full article at the Cape Gazette
NEFMC sets groundfish fishery quota for upcoming fishing years
December 17, 2023 — The New England Fishery Management Council’s final action on specifications meant to guide the groundfish fishery in the coming fishing year offers increased catch limits for Eastern Georges Bank cod and haddock but a decrease for yellowtail flounder.
The council selected final measures for Framework Adjustment 66 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan at its December meeting in Newport, Rhode Island, last week.
The action, once approved by NOAA Fisheries, will guide the groundfish fishery for fishing year 2024, beginning May 1.
For commercial fishers, there are slight increases in the so-called sub-annual catch limits for Georges Bank cod and Gulf of Maine cod, and a more significant reduction to the sub-ACL for Georges Bank haddock.
Some of the Framework 66 provisions apply to fishing years 2025 and 2026 as well.
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