Saving Seafood

Local seafood company praises Cape May County officials for keeping Middle Thorofare Bridge up

August 20, 2024 —  A local seafood company is praising the Cape May County Bridge Commission for leaving the Middle Thorofare Bridge up following a mechanical failure to allow fishing vessels to continue to use the Port of Wildwood/Cape May.

The port is the largest in the state and would have lost millions of dollars if vessels were forced to go elsewhere, according to a news release from Lund’s Fisheries. The port brings in species such as squid, scallops and several types of finfish.

“Losing access to the Port through this waterway would have been devastating for Cape May’s fishermen and the economy of the whole County,” the company’s president, Wayne Reichle, said in a statement. “We are grateful to the Bridge Commission and all Cape May County officials who made the decision to prioritize keeping the waterway accessible for vessels, ensuring that the port remains open and active while the bridge undergoes the needed repairs.”

Read the full article at The Press of Atlantic City

NEW JERSEY: Cape May keeps drawbridge open for fishing traffic

August 20, 2024 — A“total failure” of a drive shaft motor led Cape May N.J. officials to leave the Middle Thorofare drawbridge locked open, ensuring continued vessel access to the nation’s 6th-most valuable fishing port.

The bridge in Lower Township carries a two-lane road between Cape May and Wildwood Crest over the Intracoastal Waterway. At 10 a.m. Saturday Aug. 18 the motor used to open the bridge failed, according to a summary from the Cape May Bridge Commission.

 “The bridge electrical engineers performed many tests, concluding that the motor was inoperable and irreparable,” according to the agency. “The Bridge Commission is currently reviewing all options available both nationally and globally to source this highly specialized motor with the goal of replacement as soon as possible, with the best-case scenario is it taking many weeks.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NEW JERSEY: Temporary repair planned for damaged bridge between Wildwood Crest and Cape May

August 20, 2024 — The Cape May County Bridge Commission is working on a temporary solution to reopen the Middle Thorofare Bridge that connects Cape May to Wildwood Crest and Diamond Beach, possibly enabling traffic to return in the coming weeks. A motor failure on Saturday caused the drawbridge to be stuck in an upright position, resulting in an indefinite closure with significant disruptions.

The county’s interim plan will be to install an auxiliary motor to make the bridge operational in the short term while a specialized replacement for the primary motor is custom built.

The bridge commission’s executive director, Kevin Lare, said Tuesday the auxiliary motor could be installed within a week, at the soonest, but could take as long as a month.

Read the full article at PhillyVoice

NEW JERSEY: Bridge between Wildwood Crest and Cape May closed due to motor failure, could take weeks to repair

August 19, 2024 — The Middle Thorofare Bridge/Two Mile Bridge, which connects Wildwood Crest and Diamond Beach to Cape May, New Jersey, will be closed for the foreseeable future.

Wildwood Crest Mayor Don Cabrera posted on Facebook around 6:15 a.m. Sunday the bridge was closed to vehicles, bikes and pedestrians due to a “motor failure that could not be repaired.”

In a statement released Sunday afternoon, the Cape May Bridge Commission said the bridge experienced a “total failure of the drive shaft motor that was used to open the bridge on demand” at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 17. Tests determined “the motor was inoperable and irreparable,” the commission said.

The mayor said Sunday that there’s no timeline for when the bridge will reopen and that it could be closed for “an extended period of time.” On social media, the Cape May County Sheriff’s Office said “major mechanical repairs” were needed to fix the issue.

The Cape May Bridge Commission echoed the severity of the issue, saying the goal of replacing the motor could take “many weeks.”

Because the motor is a customized part made specifically for the bridge, they can’t easily replace it. They have to build a whole new one, which will take months.

Read the full article at CBS News

US Supreme Court overturns Chevron in blow to NOAA’s regulatory authority

June 28, 2024 — A lawsuit filed by New Jersey herring fishermen has struck a massive blow to the authority of U.S. regulators.

On 28 June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff fishermen in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overturning the long-standing Chevron deference – a legal precedent that gave federal agencies wide latitude in interpreting congressional statutes – and limiting the authority of NOAA Fisheries to implement regulations without clear guidance from lawmakers.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

The Supreme Court weakens federal regulators, overturning decades-old Chevron decision

June 28, 2024 — The Supreme Court on Friday upended a 40-year-old decision that made it easier for the federal government to regulate the environment, public health, workplace safety and consumer protections, delivering a far-reaching and potentially lucrative victory to business interests.

The court’s six conservative justices overturned the 1984 decision colloquially known as Chevron, long a target of conservatives who have been motivated as much by weakening the regulatory state as social issues including abortion. The liberal justices were in dissent.

The case was the conservative-dominated court’s clearest and boldest repudiation yet of what critics of regulation call the administrative state.

Bill Bright, a Cape May, New Jersey-based fisherman who was part of the lawsuit, said the decision to overturn Chevron would help fishing businesses make a living. “Nothing is more important than protecting the livelihoods of our families and crews,” Bright said in a statement.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Cape May fishermen at center of major U.S. Supreme Court case

January 21, 2024 — The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing what could be one of the most important decisions it makes this term: whether to uphold a 1984 legal precedent known as Chevron, which states that federal courts must defer to regulatory agencies when a law is ambiguous.

But a lawsuit filed by three commercial fishermen at the Jersey Shore could sink Chevron.

Environmentalists fear that would greatly curtail the power of federal regulators such as the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as a broader spectrum of agencies handling public health and safety.

In short, the fishermen are objecting to a regulation that requires them to pay observers to ensure their vessels comply with federal regulation while at sea. Cape May-based commercial fishing operations, run by Bill Bright, Wayne Reichle, and Stefan Axelsson, filed a suit, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which is backed by conservative groups seeking to overturn Chevron.

Read the full article at The Philadelphia Inquirer 

Cape May County continuing federal offshore wind suit despite Ørsted backout

November 27, 2023 — Cape May County will continue challenging permitting for offshore wind development in New Jersey despite one company abandoning its plans to build wind turbines along the coast.

Michael Donohue, who represents the county in offshore wind matters, said the decision to not rescind its lawsuit was made because Ørsted has said in statements another company could take on the leases for the projects.

“It is clear that Ørsted has abandoned the development of Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2, but it is also clear that they believe that they can sell their lease and their state and federal permits,” said Donohue. “For Ørsted to break every promise it made to multiple New Jersey communities, to break all the promises it made to trade unions in South Jersey, to break all of its contractual obligations with New Jersey agencies and then believe that it is entitled to profit from its lease and permits is the height of arrogance. The County of Cape May intends to challenge this proposition in federal and state court moving forward in connection with the litigation already underway.”

Read the full article at The Press of Atlantic City

NJ county, groups sue federal government over offshore wind

October 19, 2023 — Cape May County and several local groups have filed a lawsuit against the federal government, hoping to bury plans to erect a wind farm off of New Jersey’s southern coast.

At the same time, an ocean advocacy group is calling on leaders in New Jersey to quit green-lighting any offshore wind development for the future.

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday argue that federal regulators rushed approval of permits for Orsted’s Ocean Wind 1 project and are putting the environment and local marine life in harm’s way.

Read the full article at New Jersey 101.5

Cape May County, fishermen challenge approval of Ørsted wind project

October 18, 2023 — Led by Cape May County, N.J., elected officials, a coalition of fishermen, tourism businesses and environmental activists filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the Federal District Court for the District of New Jersey challenging federal government approvals for Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 1 project.

The court action is aimed “against multiple federal agencies and the leadership of those agencies, alleging that federal regulators have abandoned their obligations to protect the environment and Atlantic coastal marine life in favor of an inappropriate collusion with Big Wind interests,” according to a statement issued by county officials.

Plaintiffs on the complaint include the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Wildwood Hotel Motel Association, the environmental group Clean Ocean Action, the Garden State Seafood Association, LaMonica Fine Foods, Lund’s Fisheries, and Surfside Seafood Products.

Cape May officials and seaside communities like Ocean City, N.J., have opposed the planned 1,100-megawatt turbine array as a threat to their tourism economy, while Clean Ocean Action activists see New Jersey’s wind power ambitions as a threat to the marine environment.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman