June 25, 2024 — The Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) has accepted Community Offshore Wind as the latest company to join the center as a member of its Industry Advisory Board (IAB).
Community Offshore Wind, a joint venture of RWE and National Grid Ventures, currently holds the largest offshore wind lease area in the New York Bight. As the project is developed, the venture hopes to balance the needs of existing ocean users and the wind power sector.
June 24, 2024 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:
The Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) is pleased to announce that Community Offshore Wind is the latest company to join the Center as a member of its Industry Advisory Board (IAB). The company is the first offshore wind developer to join SCEMFIS.
Community Offshore Wind, a joint venture of RWE and National Grid Ventures, holds the largest offshore wind lease area in the New York Bight, the area between New York and New Jersey. As it works to bring clean energy from offshore wind to homes and businesses across the region, the project is focused on engaging with local communities, promoting dialogue and cooperation with the region’s fishing industry, and working to balance the needs of existing ocean users and the emerging offshore wind power sector.
“Community Offshore Wind is committed to successful coexistence with commercial and recreational fisheries,” said Deirdre Boelke, Fisheries Manager for Community Offshore Wind. “We support SCEMFIS’ approach of science and industry working together for sustainable fisheries, and believe that the growth of offshore wind in the US is an opportunity for the fishing industry, researchers, and developers to identify innovative solutions to build resilient fisheries facing impacts of climate change and other challenges.”
As a member of the Center, Community Offshore Wind will work with representatives of the fishing industry on the IAB to approve and fund needed research on finfish and shellfish. In addition to focusing on how these fish stocks are impacted by a changing climate, the company is also advocating for research on how to improve resiliency in key East Coast fisheries, and other steps to mitigate any potential impacts of offshore wind development.
In the time since Community Offshore Wind joined SCEMFIS, the Center has already begun funding research to help ensure the future viability of surfclam fisheries in the Northeast, with a total of $28,000 allocated to surfclam and shellfish enhancement research.
“We welcome the expertise that Community Offshore Wind will bring as the first offshore wind developer to join our organization,” said Tom Dameron, the Government Relations and Fisheries Science Liaison of Surfside Seafood Products and a SCEMFIS IAB member. “They have taken the first step towards working with us to conduct important research that supports sustainable fisheries and ecosystems, and we hope that other wind developers will follow their lead and similarly engage with the fishing industry.”
By joining SCEMFIS, Community Offshore Wind will benefit from the research and expertise of the universities participating in the Center. This includes leading marine scientists and researchers, as well as a talented pool of students and interns with backgrounds in marine biology, fluid dynamics, socioeconomics, and computer science. It allows for direct collaboration with fishing industry representatives, and direct input on developing and funding research projects, while lowering overhead research costs. Community Offshore Wind will also have access to the peer-reviewed research the Center regularly produces.
For its part, Community Offshore Wind brings to the Center deep expertise in cooperative fisheries research, fisheries management, and the regulatory process, making the Center the ideal collaborative forum for the offshore wind and fishing industries to work together.
Community Offshore Wind is also collaborating proactively with local commercial and recreational fishermen to protect ocean ecosystems, and has developed initiatives to mitigate potential impacts to the fishing industry since its launch. The developer continues to work with the Rotary Club of Huntington and Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program to restore oyster reefs on Long Island; donated over 90,000 meals of local, sustainable seafood to food banks throughout New Jersey and New York; and is developing project design elements to support coexistence with fisheries.
They are also the first offshore wind developer to sign a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a partnership that will transform environmental monitoring for offshore wind projects and increase transparency between researchers and developers.
June 14, 2024 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:
As the House and Senate continue work on proposed Farm Bill legislation, the emerging framework for the first time reflects a significant focus on fisheries.
June 3, 2024 – The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:
The United States has built a world-renowned fishery management
system on regional, science-based oversight and stakeholder collaboration. The success of this
system is beyond dispute.
Rep. Mary Peltola’s “Bottom Trawl Clarity Act” flies in the face of decades of scientific
understanding and actual outcomes in hundreds of federally managed fisheries. Subjectively
walling off areas and imposing static area closures based on ideological hostility to certain
harvesting methods is the wrong approach. It will limit the nation’s flexibility to manage
fisheries based on the best available science and, in the process, will threaten a significant
number of jobs in seafood harvesting and processing, many of them in remote Alaska
communities.
Congress should not take up this flawed legislation.
Lisa Wallenda Picard
President & CEO
May 8, 2024 — The 20th season of the hit TV show “Deadliest Catch,” a genre-defining series following commercial crab fishermen who risk their lives on the treacherous and unpredictable Bering Sea, returns with a two-hour premiere on Tuesday, June 11, at 8 PM ET/PT on Discovery Channel.
Since its debut, the 59-time Emmy®-nominated series has revolutionized unscripted television. It utilizes best-in-class cinematography and storytelling to capture every death-defying moment at sea, captivating generations of viewers with authentic, tenacious characters.
“Deadliest Catch is the gold standard for unscripted series, paving the way for an entire genre of television that highlights everyday working heroes,” said Howard Lee, President of Discovery Networks. “Audiences have grown with our captains and their families, respecting their unwavering determination and experiencing the struggles and successes with them. This season is a celebration of their epic stories and the first page of their next chapter.”
May 1, 2024 — The Axel Carlson Reef off the New Jersey shore now has a new artificial addition: the fishing vessel Carrabassett. The vessel was once part of Carlos Rafael, also known as the Codfather’s fleet, most recently owned by C&P Trawlers. The Carrabassett had quite the journey as a groundfish boat off New England’s coast but has now officially been laid to rest.
The Carrabassett, formerly known as the Cowboy under Rafael’s ownership, has a fascinating journey. After Rafael was forced to sell his entire fleet in 2017 due to his involvement in falsifying fish quotas, tax evasion, and conspiracy, the vessel found a new home with Blue Harvest Fisheries in 2020. It was then renamed and relaunched as the Carrabassett in August of the same year, only to face a new journey with Blue Harvest filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2023.
In 2021, the vessel ran aground under the Blue Harvest’s ownership and remained on Longnook Beach in Truro, Mass., for five days. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, no crew members were injured during the incident. Blue Harvest had obtained permits from government officials and private landowners to bring in equipment to help get the vessel off the beach. Eventually, a tug pulled it back into the water, and it fully floated.
April 28, 2024 — Re-envisioning the fishing industry to make it more sustainable and environmentally friendly. It’s a movement that started in Iceland. And now, it has inspired a similar collaboration here in New England.
The New England Ocean Cluster in Portland, Maine is trying to harness the wonders of the ocean and power the blue economy.
It was spawned by Patrick and Janeen Arnold after a visit to Iceland.
“We found at the Iceland Ocean Cluster something new, something novel,” says Arnold. “An energy where people were sharing principles and values in business.”
The Ocean Cluster brings people with common goals together to spark innovation.
April 22, 2024 — In North America, there are five major species of wild Pacific salmon, including keta, pink, silver, king, and sockeye. We wanted to share some of the purse seiners, gillnetters, trollers, and set netters harvesting these wild species.
The peak season for salmon fishing occurs from May through September, and these are some of the Crew Shots commercial fishermen have shared with us over the years.
Share new moments on the water with us and submit your best crew photos here: https://www.nationalfisherman.com/submit-your-crew-shots
April 20, 2024 — When you’re 21, you know everything. When you’re 21 and a first-year captain of an Alaskan salmon seiner, you know even more. I was a 21-year-old captain once, and it took me all of 21 minutes to realize that I, in fact, did not know everything…
After a decade spent seining as a crewmember in perpetually progressing positions aboard my father’s high-producing salmon boat based out of Port Lions, Alaska (a picturesque pacific paradise positioned where the spruce meets the sea) in the Kodiak Island statistical salmon district, I was positive I was ready to fulfill my destiny as a salty sea-hardened highliner as the impending June 9th salmon season opener crept ever closer.
Despite my newfound status of skipper, my green as-grass crew, and my complete inability to grow a beard, morale was high. At the same time, we buttoned up boat work, and I did my downright damnedest to inspire and excite my crew about the upcoming opener with pre-season inspirational speeches during our nightly “team meetings” over barley pops and BBQ.
If my guys had any inkling, I commandeered most of my quotes from “Lord of the Rings” and “Rudy,” they kept it to themselves as we spent our last night in port preparing my newly purchased “pocket seiner” for our first trip by loading the last of the gourmet grub disguised as canned chili, a cup of noodles and store brand cereal aboard the boat in whatever nooks and crannies we could find. The borderline claustrophobic confines of the cabin were so short on space that Larry, my skiff-man, said it was “less cabin & more coffin.”
Somehow, no one seemed to mind that we’d eat like inmates, sleep like sardines, and likely smell like them for the next three months. We were boys, and to us, the ocean was just another adventure that we hoped would soon make us men.
April 15, 2024 — The 42nd edition of Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America, which took place 10 to 12 March 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. joined more than 19,780 seafood professionals and covered 249,665 net square feet of exhibit space, which was 5 percent larger than 2023, producer Diversified Communications said. [Editor’s note: Diversified Communications also owns and operates SeafoodSource.]
Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America showcased companies and products ranging from fresh, frozen, canned, value-added, and seafood packaging and processing technology, logistics services, among other service providers across the industry.