Hudson Canyon Archives - Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: Fishermen fear Hudson Canyon sanctuary will mean more restrictions: ‘Why do we need this?’

July 25, 2022 — Of great concern to the fishermen that showed up to a public scoping meeting is a guarantee that no extra regulations would be placed on their industry if the Hudson Canyon was designated a National Marine Sanctuary.

They didn’t walk away with one after the meeting with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s sanctuary’s staff at Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute on Thursday. NOAA, however, was not there to make promises or make any management decisions. At this point it’s just looking for public comments, the first part of a multi-year designation process.

NOAA’s sanctuary staff will use the public comments then to put together a management plan for the Hudson Canyon, such as the boundaries for the sanctuary, its permitted uses and protections. If it gets to the point of a sanctuary, an advisory committee would be created where fishermen would have a seat at the table, the staff said.

The canyon is a prolific fishing ground that starts about 90 miles offshore from Manasquan Inlet and is in the crosshairs of a public debate over the sanctuary designation, which would give NOAA more leverage managing the resources of the largest submarine canyon off the Atlantic Coast.

The canyon, which draws warm-water eddies that spin off from the Gulf Stream, is an ecological wonder, supporting large schools of tuna and squids; it’s a foraging ground for whales and porpoises and home to many bottom fish and curious sea creatures such as anemones, crabs, octopi, deep water corals and is dotted with shipwrecks, some dating to the 19th century.

Several federal and international regulatory bodies and acts already manage the fish species that traverse the canyon or reside there, including the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Atlantic Highly Migratory Species, the National Marine Fisheries Service, Mid-Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, or ICCAT.

Officials from Jenkinson’s Aquarium in Point Pleasant Beach attended the meeting and put their support for the sanctuary designation on the public record.

NEFMC June 28-30, 2022 Hybrid Meeting – Listen Live, View Documents

June 21, 2022 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a three-day hybrid meeting from Tuesday, June 28 through Thursday, June 30, 2022. This will be an in-person meeting in Portland, ME, coupled with a webinar option for individuals who cannot or prefer not to attend in person.

COVID PROTOCOLS: The Council continues to follow all public safety measures related to COVID-19 and intends to do so for this meeting. Please participate remotely if you are experiencing COVID symptoms or do not feel well. Updates will be posted on the meeting webpage as needed.

START TIME: 9:00 a.m. each day. The webinar will end shortly after the Council adjourns each day.

HUDSON CANYON: Under Other Business on Thursday, June 30, 2022, the Council will receive a presentation from the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries on NOAA’s initiation of the scoping process to consider designating a national marine sanctuary in the Hudson Canyon area. The Council will discuss and approve scoping comments, which are due August 8, 2022.

PUBLIC COMMENT OPPORTUNITIES: The Council wants to hear from you. Here’s how you can let the Council know what you think.

WRITE A LETTER: The deadline for submitting written comments for consideration at this meeting is 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 23, 2022. Please note that written comments mustaddress items listed on the agenda for this meeting.
TALK TO THE COUNCIL: You’ll be able to address the Council directly through two different avenues:

By commenting on motions at the discretion of the Council chair (if commenting remotely, raise your hand on the webinar and unmute yourself when called upon); and
By speaking during the open period for public comment. Here are the Guidelines for Providing Public Comment.

OPEN PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT: On Thursday, June 30, 2022 at 2:45 p.m., the Council will offer the public an opportunity to provide comments on issues relevant to Council business but not listed on this agenda. Given the Council’s busy meeting schedule, we ask that you limit remarks to 3-5 minutes.
- SIGN UP: Interested in speaking? If attending in person, fill out the sign-up sheet on the table at the entrance to the Council meeting room. To speak remotely, email Janice Plante at jplante@nefmc.org to get on the list.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION: Online access to the meeting is available at Listen Live. There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

Here are instructions in the Remote Participation Guide for successfully joining and participating in the webinar.
THIS IS KEY! If you want to speak during opportunities for public comment, you need to: (1) register for the webinar; and (2) actually “join” the webinar. People who call in by telephone without joining the webinar will be in listen-only mode. Those who take both steps – register and then join the webinar – will see the meeting screen and be able to click on a “raise hand” button, which will let the meeting organizer know you want to be unmuted to speak.
We have a Help Desk in case you get stuck joining the webinar or have trouble along the way. Phone numbers are listed on the Help Desk Poster, or just email helpdesk@nefmc.org and we’ll get right back to you.

CALL-IN OPTION: To listen by telephone without joining the webinar, dial +1 (562) 247-8422. The access code is 308-632-643. Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply. Remember, you will not be able to speak if you do not first join the webinar as described above. This phone number provides a “listen-only” option without the webinar component.

AGENDA: All meeting materials and the agenda are available on the Council’s website at NEFMC June 28-30, 2022 meeting. Additional documents will be posted as they become available.

THREE MEETING OUTLOOK: A copy of the New England Council’s Three Meeting Outlook is available HERE.

COUNCIL MEETING QUESTIONS: Anyone with questions prior to or during the Council meeting should contact Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

Biden proposes making underwater canyon off New York a marine sanctuary

June 9, 2022 — Long ago, the retreat of ice age glaciers carved one of the largest underwater canyons in the world into the seabed about 100 miles from New York City. Now, hundreds of species live there, including sperm whales, sea turtles and deep-sea corals.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it intends to designate the area a new national marine sanctuary, which would give it some of the same protections afforded to national parks.

The Hudson Canyon — spanning nearly 7½ miles wide and more than two miles deep in some places — rivals the Grand Canyon in scale. The push to add it to the National Marine Sanctuary System reflects the Biden administration’s broader effort to safeguard critical habitat threatened by development and global warming by conserving 30 percent of the nation’s land and waters by 2030.

“A sanctuary near one of the most densely populated areas of the Northeast U.S. would connect diverse communities across the region to the ocean and the canyon in new and different ways,” Rick Spinrad, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said in a statement. “As someone who grew up in New York City and went on to a career in ocean science, I am excited about how this amazing underwater environment can inspire shared interest in conserving our ocean.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

American Sword and Tuna Harvesters Respond to Hudson Canyon Marine Sanctuary Consideration

June 9, 2022 — The following was released by the American Sword and Tuna Harvesters:

The American Sword and Tuna Harvesters are concerned about the negative consequences to American citizen’s access to safe and sustainable seafood by a marine sanctuary designation of the Hudson Canyon. This decision was announced yesterday without warning or consultation with participants in the many well-regulated fisheries, operating under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, that depend on this area to survive.

Simply put, a commercial fishing ban in the Hudson Canyon, has the potential to cause the collapse of the East Coast commercial fishery.

This is another disappointing action from an Administration that claims to be committed to science, working families, and communities. But it is unfortunately not out of character. Our June 2021 attempts to arrange a meeting with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to discuss the harm to our fishers from reimposition of a commercial fishing ban in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument were rebuffed. Although acknowledged by staff via email, a terse, tardy, and condescending reply, did not come until January 2022, six months later, and three months after the ban was reimposed.

Yesterday’s announcement is, as the expression goes, déjà vu all over again: A cadre of tax-deduction funded environmental organizations working in secret with a friendly Administration orchestrates the unveiling of a far-reaching potentially negative action affecting America’s commercial fishing industry under the false banner of “much-needed” ocean protections. The details are distributed in advance under embargo to a wide swath of journalists. Then, when the proposal is simultaneously unveiled by its proponents and the White House, pre-written stories appear in numerous media outlets; filled with self-congratulatory quotes, without the inconvenience of input from our hard-working fishing families and communities.

This announcement comes on the second day of Capitol Hill Oceans Week, an annual gathering of environmental and conservation groups organized by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. In past years, our efforts to reach out to Foundation officials, both directly and through mutual contacts, to include commercial fishing voices in this event have been rebuffed. As can be seen in this year’s event agenda, with the exception of Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), there was once again not a single speaker representing domestic commercial fisheries. It would seem that the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s commitment “to a culture of diversity, inclusion, equity, justice, and belonging” does not extend to the inclusion of commercial fishing.

Tonight, in Washington, DC — in an action that can only be described as audacious, hypocritical, and exploitative — the Foundation will host a fundraiser featuring a screening of the film The Perfect Storm, which tells the story of the tragic loss of the Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing vessel Andrea Gail. This creates the false illusion that the Foundation is interested in the plight of domestic commercial fishing families.

We appreciate the Biden-Harris Administration’s stated commitment to equity, environmental justice, and workers’ rights, but at a time when the need for self-sufficiency and supply chain security should be at the forefront of our domestic agenda, the Administration should not support actions that are likely to incentivize the increased importation of often-illegal, underreported, and unregulated (IUU) seafood to the detriment of law-abiding American commercial fishers.

About American Sword and Tuna Harvesters
American Sword and Tuna Harvesters are experienced fishers, fish buyers, vessel owners and support businesses who represent a significant harvesting segment of the U.S. pelagic longline Industry. We strive for equitable, logical and science-based fishery management to maximize the harvest of the United States’ allocation internationally-determined highly migratory fish species, to supply the American public with a healthy and renewable food source.

Biden administration proposes Hudson Canyon marine sanctuary

June 9, 2022 — A new marine sanctuary off the northeast United States is proposed by the Biden administration, part of a suite of measures for public lands announced Wednesday.

The Hudson Canyon, the largest submarine gorge off the U.S. Atlantic at up to 2.5 miles deep and 7.5 miles wide, lies about 100 miles offshore of New York Harbor and runs 350 miles through the edge of the continental shelf.

The waters are home to federally protected whales, turtles and deep sea corals, and the scene of commercial and recreational pelagic fisheries. The sanctuary proposal raised alarms among East Coast longline fishermen, who worry it could restrict their swordfish and tuna fishery.

“Hudson Canyon’s grand scale and diverse structure – steep slopes, firm outcrops, diverse sediments, flux of nutrients, and areas of upwelling – make it an ecological hotspot for a vast array of marine wildlife,” according to a synopsis issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The American Sword and Tuna Harvesters, a group of commercial pelagic fisherman, said a Hudson Canyon sanctuary designation could set a course for a similar conflict again.

“Simply put, a commercial fishing ban in the Hudson Canyon has the potential to cause the collapse of the East Coast commercial fishery,” the group said in a statement early June 9.

“This is another disappointing action from an administration that claims to be committed to science, working families, and communities. But it is unfortunately not out of character,” the group said. In June 2021 “our attempts to arrange a meeting with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to discuss the harm to our fishers from reimposition of a commercial fishing ban in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument were rebuffed.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Biden pitches Atlantic coast ‘Grand Canyon’ as marine sanctuary

June 8, 2022 — The White House today endorsed designating the Atlantic coast’s largest undersea canyon as one of the nation’s next underwater parks, but stopped short of enacting immediate protections that could guard the “ecological hotspot” from commercial fishing, energy development or other threats.

The Biden administration announced it will begin the process for safeguarding the Hudson Canyon — which sits 100 miles off the coasts of New York and New Jersey and rivals the Grand Canyon in scale — in a series of actions to mark today’s World Oceans Day.

In addition to kicking off the designation of a new national marine sanctuary, the White House vowed to develop a “whole-of-government Ocean Climate Action Plan” on ocean-based climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

NOAA will oversee the designation process for the Hudson Canyon, which would become part of an existing group of 15 underwater parks that includes both freshwater and ocean sites.

But that process, which includes public comment, the drafting of environmental impact statements and management plans, and potential rulemaking, is not a swift one, with a final decision taking two to three years.

Bob Vanasse, executive director of industry group Saving Seafood, praised the decision to utilize the sanctuaries act rather than take executive action.

“I appreciate that they are using the Marine Sanctuaries Act to do this, which allows input from affected ocean users and will allow for actual science to be considered, which is exactly why we objected to and continue to object to the marine monument designation,” Vanasse said, referring to the ongoing legal battle over the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts site (E&E News PM, Oct. 8, 2021).

Last fall, Biden restored commercial fishing prohibitions to the Atlantic Ocean monument that former President Donald Trump had struck down in 2020.

Read the full story at E&E News

NOAA begins process to potentially protect waters off New York, New Jersey

June 8, 2022 — NOAA is seeking public comment on potentially designating a new national marine sanctuary in Hudson Canyon off the coast of New York and New Jersey. A sanctuary designation would help conserve the area’s rich marine wildlife and habitats, promote sustainable economic activities and create new opportunities for scientific research, ocean education and recreation.

Hudson Canyon is the largest underwater canyon along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, and is about 100 miles off the coast of New York and New Jersey. The canyon ⁠— about 2 to 2.5 miles deep and up to 7.5 miles wide ⁠— provides habitat for a range of protected and sensitive species, including sperm whales, sea turtles and deep sea corals. The canyon’s rich biodiversity is integral to the region’s economy, underpinning commercial and recreational fisheries, recreational diving, whale-watching and birding.

The National Marine Sanctuaries Act allows NOAA to designate and protect areas of the ocean and Great Lakes with special national significance. As directed by President Biden’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, NOAA and other federal agencies are pursuing a holistic approach to curbing greenhouse gas emissions and building resilience to climate change and its impacts, including by conserving and restoring ocean and coastal ecosystems. This action is consistent with that approach, including by seeking to expand the National Marine Sanctuary System as one recommendation of the Administration’s America the Beautiful initiative.

“A sanctuary near one of the most densely populated areas of the Northeast U.S. would connect diverse communities across the region to the ocean and the canyon in new and different ways. It would also help advance the Administration’s commitment to conserve and restore special marine places, leaving a lasting legacy for future generations,” said Rick Spinrad, Ph.D., NOAA Administrator. “As someone who grew up in New York City and went on to a career in ocean science, I am excited about how this amazing underwater environment can inspire shared interest in conserving our ocean.”

The Wildlife Conservation Society submitted a nomination for a Hudson Canyon National Marine Sanctuary in November 2016, noting that the area provides a wide range of benefits to New York and New Jersey residents such as clean air, fresh water, recreation and food.

Based on that successful nomination, NOAA is considering the potential designation of the Hudson Canyon area as a national marine sanctuary. We are seeking public comments on a range of management considerations, including options for the proposed sanctuary boundary, the potential name, information on the Indigenous and Tribal heritage of the area and other factors.

“The Mid-Atlantic region is already seeing shifts in marine species distributions, including some that are important to humans for food,” said Nicole LeBoeuf, director of NOAA’s National Ocean Service. “Hudson Canyon could serve as a sentinel site for NOAA to monitor the impacts of climate change on submarine canyons and other deep sea benthic habitats, which are vulnerable to the effects of ocean acidification and oxygen depletion.”

Read the full story from NOAA Fisheries

NOAA Begins Process to Potentially Protect Waters Off New York, New Jersey

June 8, 2022 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA is seeking public comment on potentially designating a new national marine sanctuary in Hudson Canyon off the coast of New York and New Jersey. A sanctuary designation would help conserve the area’s rich marine wildlife and habitats, promote sustainable economic activities and create new opportunities for scientific research, ocean education and recreation.

Hudson Canyon is the largest underwater canyon along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, and is about 100 miles off the coast of New York and New Jersey. The canyon ⁠— about 2 to 2.5 miles deep and up to 7.5 miles wide⁠— provides habitat for a range of protected and sensitive species, including sperm whales, sea turtles and deep sea corals. The canyon’s rich biodiversity is integral to the region’s economy, underpinning commercial and recreational fisheries, recreational diving, whale-watching and birding.

To Comment

The public can comment on the proposed Hudson Canyon sanctuary designation until August 8, 2022, through the Federal eRulemaking Portal. The docket number is NOAA-NOS-2022-0053. In addition, NOAA will host public meetings during which members of the public can offer oral comments.

A detailed description of the proposed sanctuary, additional information about opportunities to provide comment, and information about the public meetings can be found on NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries website.

Questions?

Alison Gillespie, NOAA, alison.gillespie@noaa.gov, 202-713-6644 (cell)
Vernon Smith, NOAA, vernon.smith@noaa.gov, 240-638-6447 (cell)

CONNECTICUT: Stonington fishermen fight for their livelihoods: A look at the fleet’s past, present and tenuous future

July 22, 2021 — At 3:20 a.m. Wednesday, the fishing boat Tradition, its deck awash in flood lights, eased out of the south pier of the Town Dock and headed out into Stonington Harbor. A few minutes later, the Jenna Lynn II followed, gliding through the placid water on the way to its fishing grounds.

The two boats would return Wednesday afternoon to unload their catches on the dock.

This scene has taken place here for more than 250 years as fishermen and lobstermen from the Town Dock and other borough piers have left home in search of fish, lobster and scallops in waters as close as Block Island and Long Island sounds and as far away as Georges Bank and Hudson Canyon.

While they have weathered storms, the loss of 41 fleet members at sea, declining catches and restrictions on how much fish they can land, the aging group of mostly men who make up the Town Dock Fleet now face a set of new challenges that threatens their future and that of the state’s last surviving commercial fleet.

These include the difficulty of luring young people into a grueling but potentially lucrative occupation and the leasing of vast areas of their fishing grounds to offshore wind energy companies that plan to erect hundreds of massive turbines.

“A lot of these men have sacrificed a lot to keep Stonington a viable fishing community,” said Joe Gilbert, who owns four large scallop and fishing boats at the dock.

To a man, they say the general public does not have a good understanding of or appreciation for what they do.

Read the full story at The Day

Dock to Dish Prepares New Seafood-Tracking System

February 8, 2018 — It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your shipments of iced-down, black sea bass are? Or perhaps you want to check on the status of the longline boat that is catching your carton of golden tilefish from the 500-foot depths of the Hudson Canyon, located about 80 miles south of Montauk? For those who demand the freshest, most sustainable seafood, and partake in the increasingly popular and expanding Montauk-headquartered Dock to Dish community-supported fishery program, keeping an eye on your seafood order is a simple mouse click away.

“More and more people want to know where, when, and how their fish are caught,” explained Sean Barrett, a fisherman and restaurateur who founded the cooperative fishery program in 2012. “Our motto is ‘know your fisherman’ and that has not changed. Members of Dock to Dish can check in real time the status of their catch from the beginning of the fishing trip all the way until it is delivered by hand right to their doorstep. It’s just one of the many enhancements we have made since we started.”

This year Mr. Barrett hopes to improve the fishery marketplace by having the world’s first live tracking dashboard so that end consumers on land can monitor hauls of wild seafood from individual fishermen at sea in near-real time. Named Dock to Dish 2.0, the new technology bundle was created in partnership with several fish tracking companies, including Pelagic Data Systems, Local Catch, and Fish Trax. Once completed, the bundle will be open-sourced, meaning it can be replicated and used by all independent small and medium-scale fisheries operations around the world.

“Dock to Dish 2.0 is the first public-facing system to ever combine vessel and vehicle tracking with geospatial monitoring technologies on an interactive digital dashboard,” Mr. Barrett explained last month as he unloaded a catch of tilefish just outside the kitchen door of Nick and Toni’s, one of the first members of Dock to Dish’s restaurant-supported fisheries program. Fishing boats will be outfitted with solar-powered automatic data-collection monitors and application-specific wireless sensors.

Read the full story at the East Hampton Star