February 15, 2023 — Meghan Lapp of the Center for Sustainable Fisheries discusses an alarming uptick in whale deaths allegedly caused by offshore wind energy projects.
BOEM Releases Environmental Plan for Next Offshore Wind Farm
February 14, 2023 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is moving forward with the next key step for the development of one of Massachusetts’ offshore wind farms even as the project has sought to renegotiate the key part of its plan. The federal government continues to push forward on its efforts for renewable energy from offshore wind keeping its focus on deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.
“BOEM continues to make significant progress toward achieving this Administration’s vision for a clean energy future – one that will combat climate change, create jobs to support families, and?ensure economic opportunities are accessible to all communities,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “In our review of offshore wind projects, we are committed to working collaboratively with our tribal, state, and local government partners as well as using the best available science to avoid or minimize conflict with existing users and marine life.”
Today, February 13, BOEM announced the availability of the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed SouthCoast Wind (formerly Mayflower Wind) energy project offshore Massachusetts. It begins a process of a 45-day comment period as part of the review by BOEM as the project moves into the final stage of permitting and approvals.
The offshore wind and whales public relations duel
February 14, 2023 — This winter’s grim series of dead whales on East Coast beaches brought on a simmering public relations battle, as opponents and supporters of offshore wind energy projects work to shape the debate.
Stranded whales on New York and New Jersey beaches in December and January brought out the Clean Ocean Action environmental group and allies from beach towns and commercial fishermen who have been fighting for years against offshore wind development in the New York Bight.
They demanded that all work be suspended on offshore projects while the whale deaths are investigated. The calls grew louder in recent days, with another humpback whale and a highly endangered North Atlantic right whale found in Virginia.
Yet another whale washed up at Manasquan, N.J. Monday afternoon. One witness was Mayor Paul Kanitra from neighboring Point Pleasant Beach, who was one of a dozen Jersey Shore mayors who signed a recent letter to federal officials demanding a moratorium on offshore wind work pending an investigation of the whale deaths.
“It’s the size of a bus and it could easily come ashore in Point Pleasant Beach,” Kanitra wrote in a Facebook post, addressing New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. “I guarantee you if it does we will personally test it and get to the bottom of this. Governor, when do these stop becoming coincidences? How many more will it take?”
Inflation is slowing down, but still harming seafood sales
February 14, 2023 — Seafood has continued to see lower inflation rates than many other foods, but price hikes continue to impact its sales across the United States.
Frozen seafood prices jumped 6.3 percent in January to USD 10.44 (EUR 9.74) per unit on average compared to January 2022, according to IRI and 210 Analytics. Ambient seafood inflation rose 7.4 percent to USD 2.14 (EUR 2.00) on average, and fresh seafood experienced the lowest inflation at 3.3 percent to USD 8.95 (EUR 8.35) per unit on average.
Read the full article at SeafoodSource
Whales Are Dying Along the East Coast. And a Fight Is Surfacing Over Who’s to Blame
February 14, 2023 — In mid-January, threatening social media messages started showing up on the accounts of a small New Jersey organization devoted to rescuing ocean mammals that wash up on the beach. Some said “we’re watching you.” Others accused staff of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) being “whale murderers.” Some people wrote that they were going to show up at the group’s Brigantine, N.J., headquarters and “make” members of the wildlife organization “come to [their] side.” “You don’t know what they’re gonna do,” says Michele Pagel, 49, the group’s assistant director. “Are they gonna march in here and put a gun to somebody’s head?”
Staff members contacted local police, and they started locking the doors to the group’s office. In late January, someone left the door unlocked, and a man burst into the office and approached the secretary. “He just starts [yelling], ‘I want to know, I demand to know,’” says Shelia Dean, 75, the group’s director. “He was very frightening.”
Along with picking up sick baby seals and dolphins, the MMSC helps to carry out examinations on the bodies of dead whales when they wash up on the shores of New York and New Jersey in order to collect scientific data, and hopefully help determine a cause of death. And in recent months, whales have been washing up on these shores with alarming frequency. Eight large whales, including sperm whales and humpbacks, have washed up in the area since December. Those deaths have become a focal point in the clean energy culture war, with conservative media commentators blaming them on preliminary site-mapping work for offshore wind developments. But evidence to support those claims hasn’t turned up. That’s brought down the ire of many people opposed to offshore wind on small animal welfare organizations like MMSC for supposedly hiding the truth of what killed those whales.
The work to actually examine those carcasses is grueling and tedious. It involves sourcing backhoes or other construction equipment to maneuver the school bus-sized animals, taking measurements, and then, when possible, undertaking difficult necropsies. A trailer parked in front of the MMSC’s offices houses the necessary equipment: smocks and boots, along with large knives and hooks for pulling off layers of cetacean skin and blubber to examine the animal and take tissue samples. It’s a messy, smelly business. In humpback whales, gasses from the whale’s putrefying innards often begin to swell the sack under the whale’s mouth. If it bursts, it can splatter anyone standing nearby with whale guts. If a whale had broken bones from being hit by a ship, for instance, the necropsy can help examiners tell if the ship strike occurred before or after the whale died. MMSC and other groups that collaborate on the necropsies then forward that information to the federal government, which provides some of their funding.
ALASKA: Trident reopening processing plant in Wrangell Alaska
February 14, 2023 — Trident Seafoods will open its processing plant in Wrangell, Alaska, U.S.A. for the upcoming salmon season.
The Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based company, which operates seafood-processing plants around Alaska, including in Akutan, Chignik, Cordova, False Pass, Ketchikan, Kodiak, North Naknek, Petersberg, Sand Point, and Saint Paul, had closed its Wrangell plant for the past three seasons, citing weak chum salmon returns.
Fishermen’s Finest loses appeal challenging fishing limits included in Jones Act waiver
February 14, 2023 — Kirkland, Washington, U.S.A.-based Fishermen’s Finest has lost an appeal challenging fishing limits contained in a Jones Act waiver it received for its newly-built America’s Finest vessel.
The ruling, delivered 8 February, 2023, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, found against Fishermen’s Finest’s contestation its rights under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution were violated by the limits, or sideboards, contained in the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018, which was signed into law in 2018. The law gave Fishermen’s Finest a waiver to the Jones Act, which would have prohibited its newly-built vessel, the USD 75 million (then EUR 65.9 million) America’s Finest, from operating in U.S. waters due to the fact that it was constructed with 10 percent foreign steel.
VIRGINIA: Bill to require study of menhaden in Chesapeake Bay scaled back
February 14, 2023 — A proposal to study the menhaden population in the Chesapeake Bay was scaled back in the House Monday.
An earlier version of the bill from Sen. Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomack, asked the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to study the ecology, fishery impacts and economic importance of menhaden within the Chesapeake Bay over a two-year period.
But on Monday a House Rules subcommittee voted to amend the bill to only require VIMS to provide details of a potential study’s scope, including methodology, possible stakeholders, costs and timeline.
“I think your issue is totally legitimate, but we need to look at the health of the Bay in toto,” said Del. Bobby Orrock, R-Spotsylvania, noting studies can take five to 10 years to complete.
ASMFC Begins Preparations for Spot, Atlantic Croaker, and Red Drum Benchmark Stock Assessments
February 14, 2023 — The following was released by Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has initiated benchmark stock assessments for spot, Atlantic croaker, and red drum to be completed in 2024. The goals of the assessments are to evaluate the health of stocks along the Atlantic coast and inform management of these species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data.
Lobster fishers sued federal government over closure to help whales
February 13, 2023 — A group of Massachusetts lobster fishers has sued the federal government over an emergency closure of fishing grounds that are designed to protect a vanishing species of whale.
The closure, enacted Feb. 1, blocked off about 200 square miles (518 square kilometers) of Massachusetts Bay from lobster fishing until the end of April. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the closure was necessary to protect North Atlantic right whales from dangerous entanglement in fishing ropes.
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