Saving Seafood

New York State officials: East End shouldn’t be considered for wind farms

May 9, 2018 — New York State will urge the federal government to exclude coastal areas off the Hamptons shore line from consideration for offshore wind farms, officials said.

At a public meeting in Southampton on Monday to discuss the state’s blueprint for offshore wind development and proposed offshore area maps, state officials discussed reasons for removing a large proposed East End wind-farm area from federal consideration, including visual and fishing impacts.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released the maps for proposed New York areas last month, seeking comments and proposals. The agency will accept comments through May 29.

New York State specifically removed the East End areas from its proposed wind-farm maps in a blueprint released earlier this year. New York prefers wind farms to be at least 21 miles from shore. The Block Island wind farm, at 15 miles from Montauk Point, can be clearly seen from Montauk.

The state also cited concerns about extensive cable crossings and navigational risks, said Doreen Harris, director of large-scale renewables for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which is leading the state’s offshore wind planning efforts. The areas also are used heavily for commercial fishing.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

New York: Plans For Offshore Wind Energy Draw Criticism At Hearing In Southampton On Monday

May 8, 2018 — The difference between what the federal government and New York State have carved out for renewable wind energy projects destined to be built off the south shore of Long Island is about 2.7 miles.

That’s a big difference, especially for the commercial fishermen, environmentalists and South Fork residents who voiced their concerns Monday about wind farms proposed in their backyards.

“We know the moment [the federal government] gets a taste of wind farms in the Atlantic, we are going to be playing whack-a-mole with energy and oil companies creeping up on our fishing grounds,” Bonnie Brady said at a presentation by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, on Monday night at the Southampton Inn.

Ms. Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association in Montauk, said that, like other commercial fishermen in the audience, she worries that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, which has jurisdiction over the Atlantic, will lease more ocean for wind energy development and wind up hurting the industry.

In October 2017, NYSERDA recommended two leasing areas to BOEM after various studies. The state’s master plan was praised by some residents, like Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, for its speedy analysis.

Read the full story at 27 East

 

New York: Wind-energy meetings scheduled amid concerns about East End

May 7, 2018 — New York State will hold a public meeting Monday in Southampton to discuss its blueprint for wind energy and the recently released federal government call for wind-energy projects along the shore of practically all of Long Island, including the East End.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which is hosting the meeting and wrote the blueprint, has released its own map of potential sites for wind energy in the state’s coastal waters, one of which notably excludes the East End. The authority’s chief executive Alicia Barton, said last month the agency “does not support” the proposed federal areas off the East End, which the federal government on its map refers to as Fairways North.

She is not alone.

“We definitely would have concerns” about the federal area mapped out for the East End, said Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman. “While offshore wind has extraordinary potential to power our homes and our lives in a more environmentally responsible way . . . I need to see that it’s far enough away that they are not visible from anywhere on the land mass.”

Schneiderman said he can see the five-turbine Block Island wind farm from Montauk beaches and “I can’t say I’m thrilled about seeing the blinking lights” at night.

Holding the symposium in Southampton is likely to draw forces on both sides of the issue. East End governments and green-energy advocates have been among the most progressive on Long Island in calling for more green energy to power the regional electric grid. Committees of local government representatives from East Hampton and Southampton met with PSEG Long Island to review proposals to power the South Fork and ultimately decided on a wind farm 30 miles from Montauk Point.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

New York is expanding artificial reefs off Long Island

April 20, 2018 — In what will be the largest expansion ever of New York State’s artificial reef system, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that more than 43,000 cubic yards of clean, recycled Tappan Zee Bridge material, 5,900 cubic yards of jetty rock, 338 cubic yards of steel pipe, and more than 30 old vessels will be spread across marine reef sites in the waters surrounding Long Island. All of the reef materials have been cleaned of contaminants.

All told, six sites will be expanded: Shinnecock, Moriches, Fire Island, Hempstead and Rockaway reefs on the South Shore, plus Smithtown Reef in Long Island Sound. Fire Island Reef will get the biggest drop with 10 barges of bridge material, 11 canal vessels, a barge of steel pipe, plus four barges of jetty rock by June 28. Hempstead Reef will see a dozen barges of bridge material and 11 canal vessels deployed through August. The remaining reefs will get lesser though significant boosts.

According to the DEC, construction of New York’s first artificial reef dates to 1949.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

Zinke calls for more wind energy proposals off LI

April 6, 2018 — PRINCETON, N.J. — U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke issued a powerful endorsement for offshore wind energy at a symposium here Friday, and announced a call for new proposals for a wind energy area off Long Island.

Zinke said wind energy was a key part of the Trump administration’s plan for greater energy independence, saying it was “morally the right thing to do” in place of seeking resources in conflict-ridden areas.

He called the offshore wind industry a virtual “blank slate” with “enormous potential.”

His speech included announcement of a formal “call for information and nominations” from companies interested in potential wind energy areas for the New York Bight off Long Island’s South Shore.

Fishermen have sued to block a lease already issued to Statoil in that area, which they consider a vital scallop and squid ground.

Zinke emphasized the importance of protecting fisheries and the fishing industry, saying they’ll be important stakeholders in a five-year plan being developed by the department.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

New York: Long Island outrage over reduced black sea bass limit reduction

March 30, 2018 — On Tuesday evening, the New York State DEC held a meeting to discuss regulatory options for the 2018 black sea bass season that must conform to federal guidelines.

All of the proposals called for a 12 percent reduction in harvest from last year. The reduction comes despite the sea bass population standing an astonishing 240 percent above the federal target biomass for the species. The percentage comes from a cooperative effort between the states and federal authorities.

The DEC’s Division of Marine Resources director, Jim Gilmore, started the meeting by saying he has heard the outrage of anglers, for-hire captains and industry stakeholders, and agrees something must be done.

He announced that New York has joined the other states in the black sea bass northern regulatory zone — Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts — in appealing a decision by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) that allowed the five states in the southern sector, plus New Jersey, to liberalize their sea bass regulations while the northern states must reduce. New Jersey is a stand-alone region in terms of sea bass management.

If the appeal is successful, New York should get 6 percent added to its harvest allocation — but that would still be a 6 percent reduction from 2017. As sea bass stocks have swelled, New York has taken a catch reduction in six of the past seven years.

The response from the standing room only crowd of more than 200 was swift and overwhelming.

“No reduction is acceptable!” said Capt. Joe Tangle, skipper of the Center Moriches charter vessel King Cod. “In my entire lifetime sea bass have never been this numerous but we keep getting cuts. It’s ridiculous.”

Capt. Jamie Quaresimo, who along with Tangle suggested New York go out of compliance (ignore federally mandated regulations, which could result in closure of both the recreational and commercial sea bass seasons,) said after the meeting that sea bass are so thick at Montauk he has to find areas to avoid catching them while fluke fishing.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

Federal Agency To Study Effects Of Electric Pulses From Proposed Wind Farm On Fish

March 28, 2018 — Federal officials say they are looking at new studies of fish species that migrate off the coast of Long Island and their potential reactions to electric pulses from the transmission cables of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, in response to concerns raised by fishermen and the East Hampton Town Trustees.

Concerns about how fish might react to the electric magnetic field, or EMF, given off by the wind farm’s foot-thick power cable when it comes ashore have become the main objection from the East Hampton Town Trustees and the South Fork’s commercial baymen.

Fishermen rely on the annual migrations of fish through the relatively shallow waters within a couple of miles of the shore on their way to summer haunts in the bays. They worry that even if the EMF pulses given off by the sort of cable that would connect to the wind farm were minor—as studies suggest—the subtle impulses could be enough to divert fish in their migrations and away from the near-shore areas.

In the earliest discussions of the issue over the last several months, representatives of Deepwater Wind have presented the results of studies conducted at the existing wind farm off Block Island and by scientists around the giant offshore wind farms in Europe, as well as laboratory tests that show the effects of EMF on migrating fish to be inconsequential.

But fishermen and their supporters have said those studies are of little reassurance to them, since they involve different scales, different types of sea floor or different species of fish than those that are of the utmost importance to local baymen.

“What they tested in Europe is not that relevant. What they tested at Block Island, with a cable one-quarter the size of this, is not that relevant,” said Gary Cobb, an East Hampton man who has been reviewing the work done thus far on EMF and other details of offshore wind development on behalf of fishermen. “And you need several years of data for any of it to be useful.”

Earlier this winter, the Town Trustees issued a call for more studies—along with an aggressive demand for financial support from Deepwater for fishermen who are impacted by the project—to examine the effects of EMF on fishes that migrate to Long Island in summer.

Read the full story at 27 East

 

New York State petitions feds demanding more equitable fluke quota

March 23, 2018 — New York State on Friday filed a petition with the federal government to demand a more equitable distribution of the commercial fluke quota, saying current rules put “unreasonable limits” on the state industry.

The petition, filed with a U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is a first step, officials said, toward changing a decades-old quota that leaves New York fishermen with just 7.6 percent of a catchable annual allocation for fluke up and down the East Coast. Other states such as North Carolina and Virginia get more than 20 percent each of the coastal quota, and often travel to New York waters to catch it.

Local fishermen who have complained of the low quota for decades had been expecting a lawsuit, after state officials visiting Long Island in November vowed to make good on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo promised litigation in a visit to Montauk in 2013.

But delays by an interstate fisheries commission addressing quota inequities until the fall forced the state to file the petition as a necessary first step toward litigation, officials said.

“Quite frankly, we lost patience,” Basil Seggos, commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said in an interview. His staff worked with New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman’s office to file the petition.

“The stringent limits on commercial landings of [fluke] in New York ports have made [fluke] fishing no longer an economically viable choice” for New York fishermen, because the “limited revenue generated by a trip often cannot offset the costs, including fuel, time, and vessel wear-and-tear.”

One longtime critic of the governor’s protections for commercial fishermen called the petition effort “weak.”

Daniel Rodgers, a Southampton lawyer and director for New York Fish, a fishermen’s advocacy group, expressed concern that the petition will only further delay action that fishermen need now.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

New York: Rep. Zeldin Slams ASMFC Black Sea Bass Allocation, Calls for Equitable Fishing Quotas

March 22, 2018 — LONG ISLAND, N.Y. — Congressman Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1) issued the following statement following the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) proposed allocation for black sea bass for the 2018 season, which would unfairly cut New York State’s share by up to 12%, while other states will see their allocations grow:

“With the vast majority of Long Island fishing taking place in waters shared with New Jersey and Connecticut, such as the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound, it is unfair that New York anglers are, once again, being penalized with smaller fishing quotas than neighboring states. For my constituents, who are both fishermen and small business owners trying to attract customers, the ASFMC’s decision to, once again, cut New York off from its fair share while allowing New Jersey’s allocation to grow, is unacceptable. Two boats fishing next to each other with one allowed to catch up to double the amount of the other because they are landing the fish in New Jersey instead of New York is ridiculous and inequitable.

“That is why, when it comes to fishing quotas, tri-state parity is so important. At the state level, New York’s representatives must fight more aggressively within these regional bodies to advocate for New York’s anglers who rely on fishing as a way of life that supports so much of our local economy. If our state representatives on the ASMFC– who supported this terrible proposal and failed to fully advocate for New York– aren’t willing to fight for our anglers, then they should step aside.

“I call on all levels of government in our state to work together as one team to fight this unfair allocation and, if necessary, appeal this all the way to the Secretary of Commerce. Going into non-compliance is never the first option, but it may be the only one in taking a stand for New York anglers who year after year continue to get screwed.”

Read the full story at Long Island

 

Report detailing enforcement abuses barred from fisherman’s trial

January 29, 2018 — The first criminal trial of a Long Island fisherman charged in connection with a federal probe of a controversial fish-auction program is set to begin, but a report detailing fisheries enforcement abuses by the government has been barred from the trial.

Lawyers for Northport fisherman Thomas Kokell, charged in a multi-count indictment with overharvesting fluke, argued in pretrial motions that a 2010 federal inspector general’s report detailing abuses and “overzealousness” by the National Marine Fisheries Service was vital to the defense.

The Environmental Crimes unit of the U.S. Department of Justice has reached plea agreements with seven Long Island and New York City fishermen and fish dealers in connection with the six-year probe.

Most have been charged with mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and false reporting crimes. Five received prison time or home detention, including a 74-year-old Mattituck fisherman charged with taking $78,000 in illegal fish. Fines and restitution have ranged from $150,000 to $932,000 and most lost their fishing or dealer permits.

In November 2016, Kokell was charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and falsification of federal records in connection with the illegal harvest of more than $400,000 worth of fluke. He is the first to fight the charges in court. The trial is set to begin next month.

His lawyers have argued that Kokell’s case should be handled as a civil, not criminal, case, citing findings from the inspector general’s report and the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act, which governs the fisheries.

Kokell, who was fined $120,000 in a 2006 case involving overfishing, had been a vocal critic of the marine fisheries agency‘s enforcement and legal practices.

He and his wife appeared with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) at a Port Washington dock to demand action against the fisheries agency, a unit of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at Newsday