Saving Seafood

White House, tribal leaders hail ‘historic’ deal to restore salmon runs in Pacific Northwest

February 26, 2024 —  The Biden administration, leaders of four Columbia River Basin tribes and the governors of Oregon and Washington celebrated on Friday as they signed papers formally launching a $1 billion plan to help recover depleted salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest.

The plan, announced in December, stopped short of calling for the removal of four controversial dams on the Snake River, as some environmental groups and tribal leaders have urged. But officials said it would boost clean energy production and help offset hydropower, transportation and other benefits provided by the dams should Congress ever agree to breach them.

The plan brokered by the Biden administration pauses long-running litigation over federal dam operations and represents the most significant step yet toward eventually taking the four Snake River dams down. The plan will strengthen tribal clean energy projects and provide other benefits for tribes and other communities that depend on the Columbia Basin for agriculture, energy, recreation and transportation, the White House said.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

 

Interior advances two New England offshore wind projects

February 26, 2026 — The Biden administration on Monday advanced two massive offshore wind projects off the coast of Massachusetts that have faced economic woes challenging whether they will be built.

The Avangrid projects, Park City Wind and Commonwealth Wind, would be located more than 20 miles off the coast of Massachusetts’ Martha’s Vineyard and just south of the first major offshore wind farm in the U.S., the Vineyard Wind project that is under construction.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Monday released a joint environmental analysis for the projects, which combined could power nearly 1 million homes. The document explores the impacts constructing and operating the large wind farms could have on the environment, marine life like the endangered North Atlantic right whale, and industries like tourism and fishing.

Read the full article at E&E News

Agreement to save Pacific Northwest salmon population signed

February 24, 2024 — A “landmark” agreement was signed by the federal government, the Pacific Northwest, and tribes to help save declining salmon populations in the Columbia Basin.

Friday’s ceremonial signing formalizes the Biden administration’s historic agreement made in December with Oregon, Washington, advocacy groups, and the “Six Sovereigns,” including the Yakima, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Nez Pierce tribes.

The effort aims to preserve ecosystems supporting wild salmon, steelhead, and other native fish habitats in the region.

The agreement includes efforts to expand tribally sponsored clean energy production and aims to provide stability to communities that rely on the Columbia Basin.

The agreement includes efforts to expand tribally sponsored clean energy production and aims to provide stability to communities that rely on the Columbia Basin.

Read the full article at KOIN

Biden-Harris Administration invests $3.9 million for Ocean-based Climate Resilience Accelerators through Investing in America agenda

February 24, 2024 — Read the full release at NOAA Fisheries:

The Ocean-based Climate Resilience Accelerator program will invest in a network of novel business accelerators, which are organizations that support the development of innovative early to mid-stage small businesses through training, resources, mentorship and often seed funding, aimed at bringing products to market. Once operational, these accelerators will support businesses developing ocean observation technologies and information services, such as forecasts and digital apps, to enhance climate resilience.

“The impacts of climate change are visible in communities across America every day,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “This ocean-based accelerator program connects the government, the private sector, academia, tribes and stakeholders to innovate and produce new ocean, coastal and Great Lakes technologies at a pace that supports the urgent need for resilience nationwide.”

The program is structured in two phases: design and development. The Phase 1 awards announced today provide approximately $250,000 in development funding to each of the 16 proposed business accelerators, equaling a total investment of $3.9 million.

Alaska

  • Alaska Oceans 2075: Accelerating a Resilient Future, Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, $249,540.

California

  • Activate Oceans Fellowship, ACTIVATE GLOBAL Inc., $202,431.
  • StartBlue Climate Ocean Resilience Accelerator Launchpad (CORAL), University of California San Diego, $250,000.

Florida

  • Catching the Blue Wave: Accelerating America’s Ocean Economy, Tampa Bay Wave, Inc., $250,000.
  • The Upwell Collaborative Accelerator, Seaworthy Collective, $249,848.

Hawaii

  • HITIDE Studio: Guiding the Commercialization Voyage of Ocean-Based Climate Resilient Technologies, University of Hawaii, $250,000.

Louisiana

  • CLIMATEx Accelerator Program, The Idea Village, Inc., $250,000.

Maine

  • OceanVista: Advancing Ocean Data for Climate Resilience, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, $250,000.

Massachusetts

  • VentureWell Ocean-Based Climate Resilience Accelerator, VentureWell, $249,810.
  • Accelerating Climate & Ocean Resilience with Bluetech Innovation, SeaAhead, Inc., $249,299.
  • Accelerating Resilience: Linking Research, Industry, and the Public Across the Value Chain, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, $225,480.

New York

  • The National Ocean Renewable Power Accelerator – Ocean RePower, National Offshore Wind Research & Development Consortium, $249,991.

Virginia

  • OpenSeas Data Accelerator, Old Dominion University Research Foundation, $249,816.
  • NOAA Ocean-Based Climate Resilience Accelerator, FedTech, $176,799 (full recommended funding: $249,844).

Washington

  • Washington Maritime Blue Ventures for Ocean-based Climate Solutions, Washington Maritime Blue, $248,403.

Wisconsin

  • Great Lakes Resilience Accelerator, gener8tor Management, LLC, $250,000.

Later this month, all Phase 1 awardees will be invited to apply to Phase 2 of the Ocean-based Climate Resilience Accelerators program, which will award up to a total of $55 million for the implementation of up to five proposed accelerators.

Visit NOAA’s Inflation Reduction Act website to learn about current and future funding opportunities.

 

 

Media contact

Kimberly Rodgers, kim.rodgers@noaa.gov, (771) 233-3988.

Lawmakers press for investigation into forced labor in seafood supply chains

February 20, 2024 — A group of bipartisan lawmakers are asking the Biden administration to investigate forced labor allegations in seafood supply chains in China.

The group is led by California Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and Michelle Steel (R-Calif.).

They wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and acting U.S. Customs and Border Protections Commissioner Troy Miller to urge them to evaluate the supply chain’s alleged force labor ahead of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Ministerial Conference next week.

Read the full article at The Hill

US lawmakers call on Biden administration to impose Magnitsky sanctions against Chinese companies

February 16, 2024 — A group of U.S. lawmakers has called on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen to impose Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (GloMag) sanctions on Chinese companies named in the October 2023 Outlaw Ocean Project report on forced labor in Chinese processing facilities.

U.S. representatives Jared Huffman, Mike Gallagher, Raul Grijalva, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Betty McCollum, James Moylan, Josh Gottheimer, Jill Tokuda, Marry Peltola, Julia Brownley, and Delia Ramirez all signed the letter, which urged the executive branch of the federal government to impose sanctions on the Chinese companies.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

100 chefs call on Biden to expand Seafood Import Monitoring Program

January 29, 2024 — More than 100 chefs have signed a letter organized by nonprofit Oceana calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to expand the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), which imposes traceability requirements on some seafood species to prevent illegal fishing.

SIMP currently covers just 13 species or species groups, but many fishery observers and lawmakers have called on the program to expand.

Read the full article at the SeafoodSource

Biden administration issues new guidance closing gaps in expanded ban on Russian products

January 21, 2o24 — The U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued new guidance that closes gaps in pollock tariff categories that were left open in a recent Biden administration order expanding a ban on seafood of Russian origin.

On 22 December 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order that expanded a U.S. ban on Russian seafood that includes imports of products that originated in Russia and were then processed in third countries, including China. The ban explicitly targets salmon, cod, pollock, and crab harvested by Russia, but prior guidance from the U.S. Department of the Treasury indicated only three pollock HTS category codes for pollock were included in the ban.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Biden administration announces USD 10 million contract for right whale-protection technology

January 11, 2024 — The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has issued a USD 10 million (EUR 9.1 million) contract to the Center for Enterprise Modernization to develop technologies that can help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales.

“NOAA and its partners are working to stabilize the North Atlantic right whale population and prevent extinction of this species,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said. “This partnership, made possible by funding from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, will allow us to develop and explore new technologies and tools to address the North Atlantic right whale crisis.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Offshore wind faces more financial turbulence in 2024

January 8, 2024 — The offshore wind industry is hoping for new momentum in 2024 to counter the broken contracts, canceled wind farms and missed targets characterizing its last 18 months.

While experts say the nascent industry is getting back on its feet after being thrashed by inflationary costs and an immature supply chain after the pandemic, the enormous scale of building a new U.S. renewable sector from scratch still poses significant challenges that could stall a key plank of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda.

“There is an adjustment going on in the industry that I read very clearly as we’re trying to build an industry for which we have no supply chain,” said Eric Hines, an engineering professor at Tufts University who studies the offshore wind industry. “Our demand has outstripped not only the U.S. supply chain but the global supply chain.”

The obstacles are coming to a head as Biden faces a tough election year and is aiming to prove his climate bona fides to needed voters on the left, some of whom have criticized the administration for not meeting 2020 campaign promises such as ending new oil drilling on public lands.

The Interior Department has 10 months to deliver on other White House offshore wind promises before Election Day, including pledges to approve 16 wind arrays by 2025 and hold lease sales in areas like the Gulf of Maine.

But optimism for the industry is growing as inflation eases and interest rates trend downward. Also, states have boosted enthusiasm by seeking contracts for a whopping 14 gigawatts of offshore wind power despite the harsh economic realities that have pushed up prices to build wind farms.

“I think the headlines are different for 2024,” said Theodore Paradise, an energy attorney at K&L Gates. “We’ve got better contracts, we’ve got better timelines, we’ve got a better sense of the supply chain.”

With the administration and industry set to make decisions in coming months that will drive the industry’s future, here are three issues to watch with offshore wind in 2024:

Read the full article at E&E News