Saving Seafood

Plenty of fish in the sea? Scientists can now count them using DNA

December 7, 2020 — One liter of ocean water can not only unlock the recent presence of dozens of species — it can also reveal the relative number of these fish.

According to the most extensive comparison of its kind, the relative abundance of DNA from different species found from ocean water samples taken off the coast of New Jersey correlates well with the data gathered by the more expensive and destructive technique of bottom trawling.

“It’s really going to be a game change for ocean science, with many applications,” said Mark Stoeckle, an environmental genetics researcher at Rockefeller University in New York City. He added that as DNA analysis becomes cheaper and more accurate, analyzing environmental DNA could be used for everything from tracking fluctuations in fish stocks due to fishing operations, to cataloguing the effects of climate change on species diversity and abundance.

Read the full story at ABC News

New Jersey Releases Offshore Wind Strategic Plan

October 29, 2020 — The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved and published online the New Jersey Offshore Wind Strategic Plan on Sept. 9. The 500-plus-page document is the state’s comprehensive map for achieving 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2035. It makes recommendations on establishing an offshore wind industry that achieves net economic benefits while also protecting the environment, commercial and recreational fishing interests, and mitigating the impacts of climate change.

While developing the state’s offshore wind resources, the state Department of Environmental Protection is tasked with identifying and prioritizing the research and monitoring the industry with ongoing habitat surveys as well as fish and wildlife studies.

Chief to the success of the industry is the offshore wind renewable energy certificate (OREC) funding mechanism, the method by which New Jersey ratepayers will fund offshore wind projects and how revenues from these projects will be refunded and delivered to ratepayers. OREC funding mechanism rules mandate that the OREC price reflect the total capital and operating costs for an offshore wind project, offset by any state or federal tax or production credits and any other subsidies or grants, as approved by the board.

Read the full story at The Sand Piper

New Jersey forms offshore wind working group

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Read the full story at Windpower Engineering & Development

Illness Fears Thwart NJ Oyster Colonies That Would Aid Water

May 17, 2019 — The fear of poachers stealing oysters from polluted waters and making consumers sick has long thwarted efforts to grow them in New Jersey and use their natural ability to filter and improve water quality.

A proposed remedy could actually make matters even worse by removing state oversight and potentially causing the very illnesses regulators have long feared, some say.

The bill pending in the state Legislature would allow oyster colonies to be planted in polluted waters for research, water quality improvement or shoreline stabilization purposes. It also would block the state Department of Environmental Protection from regulating the patches, which even the most ardent supporters in the environmental community agree would be going too far.

“We’re throwing the baby out with the clam broth,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

A state Senate committee was supposed to consider the bill Thursday, but after hearing criticism from both sides, lawmakers agreed to table it for amendments.

No DEP official spoke during the hearing. The department said it would issue a statement later in the day.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Thousands of dead fish wash up in N.J. river, bay area over weekend

March 18, 2019 — Thousands of dead fish washed up in creeks that are part of the Shrewsbury River estuary in Monmouth County over the weekend after the large school of menhaden were pursued by predatory fish and depleted the oxygen from the shallow water, state environmental officials said.

The adult menhaden, a species in the herring family, were found near boats in docks in Oceanport Creek, Parker’s Creek and Blackberry Bay in Oceanport early Saturday, the state Department of Environmental Protection said Monday. The fish kill numbered in the “thousands and thousands,” Hajna said.

Read the full story at NJ.com

What you should know before eating fish from the Delaware

February 21, 2018 — You can eat even more of those fish you’ve caught in the Delaware River and Delaware Bay, state officials said Tuesday.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, citing improved water quality, has eased many of the restrictions it had in place on the amount of certain fish it says are safe to consume from those waters.

“These changes reflect an ongoing trend in which contaminants from past pollution such as PCBs and pesticides continues to decline,” Acting DEP Commissioner Anne McCabe said.

McCabe said anyone catching fish from the river or bay should review the DEP’s fish advisories so they can make “sound decisions” on what type of fish they should eat and how much.

Among the key changes include removing all advisories for weakfish for both the general population and those considered to be at higher risk.

The DEP also increased the acceptable consumption limit for all finfish caught in the Delaware River south of the Delaware-Pennsylvania border to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to three meals per year compared with the previous limit of one fish meal per year.

High-risk individuals, which include women of child-bearing age and children, continue to be advised to eat no fish from this area.

In addition, the DEP announced Tuesday it has revised its recommendations for consumption of bluefish caught in Delaware Bay from one meal per year for fish that are less than six pounds or smaller than 24 inches to a new recommendation of one meal per month for any fish less than 20 inches long for all groups.

Read the full story at NJ.com

 

NEW JERSEY: State distributes 20K free hooks to help protect summer flounder

July 27, 2017 — Fourteen county bait and tackle shops will participate in a state push to reduce summer flounder mortality by giving away large J-hooks supplied by the Department of Environmental Protection.

The larger hooks are part of a DEP campaign to educate the fishing public on how to safely release summer flounder that do not meet minimum size requirements, according to a statement.

“We are asking all anglers to help protect summer flounder for future generations,” DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said. “New Jersey is fully committed to doing the right thing by using science and public education to conserve a species that is critical to the fishing culture and economy of New Jersey.”

The “If You Can’t Keep It, Save It!” campaign focuses on the proper methods and gear to use to reduce unintentional mortalities that can occur when flounder that do not meet minimum length requirements are returned to the water, he said.

Read the full story at Shore News Today

New Jersey’s fluke question will be answered next week

July 7, 2017 — New Jersey will get an answer to the question of whether the state is out of compliance with its 18-inch summer flounder regulation next week.

State officials from the Department of Environmental Protection were able to plead their case to NOAA Fisheries on a June 27 conference call.

“We were able to go into great detail about the data behind New Jersey’s management measures that will conserve more fish and reduce the number of larger breeding females removed from the fishery, and therefore provide stronger recruitment for the future,” said NJDEP Spokesperson Bob Considine.

Biologists with the DEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife have provided NOAA information demonstrating that an 18-inch size limit would result in far fewer discard mortalities than the 19-inch limit, which was the regulation adopted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission on Feb. 2, in order to reduce the coastwide catch of summer flounder by 30 percent.

NJ adopted its own summer flounder rules in May. In June the ASMFC made a recommendation to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to find New Jersey out of compliance with those rules.

Toni Kerns, the ASMFC’s director of the interstate fisheries management plan, said the ruling is expected on or about July 12.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

N.J. fishermen make their case to feds as fluke battle rages on

June 20, 2017 — With New Jersey’s summer flounder fishing industry on the line, Garden State officials made their case to NOAA fisheries on Tuesday afternoon.

In a hearing with the federal agency, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection officials argued that the state’s regulations for summer flounder (or fluke) fishing reach conservation equivalency with new federal regulations.

The cornerstone of New Jersey’s argument: That the state’s proposed regulations will actually preserve more of the summer flounder stock than the measures being put forth by the feds.

Tuesday’s call was closed to the press, but in a statement following the call NJDEP spokesperson Bob Considine described it as a “good discussion.” He added that New Jersey emphasized its plan would protect more breeding females, thus making a brighter outlook for the future of the fluke stock.

The showdown between NOAA and New Jersey fishermen has been building throughout the spring. On June 1, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission declared New Jersey to be out of compliance with fluke regulations.

The dispute is now being considered by NOAA Fisheries, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, for a final decision. If the out-of-compliance finding is upheld, a moratorium on fluke fishing in New Jersey could be instated until the state returns to compliance.

Read the full story at NJ.com

New Jersey has good reasons to resist federal rules on fluke

June 7, 2017 — If federal fisheries managers got fan mail from some flounder these days, would it side with their catch limits or New Jersey’s defiant alternate rules?

State and local officials and the N.J. congressional delegation pushed hard against this year’s federal plan to reduce the catch of summer flounder, also called fluke, by 30 percent. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission wanted to require fish to be an inch bigger to be kept — 19 inches in the ocean and nearby waters and 18 inches in Delaware Bay.

Since last year’s limits were already tough on fishers and marine businesses, the plan prompted an uproar. Rep. Frank LoBiondo said “unelected bureaucrats in Washington use questionable methodologies and outdated science to cut us off at the knees.” He and fellow Rep. Frank Pallone introduced bipartisan legislation to prevent the new flounder quotas from taking effect.

The state Department of Environmental Protection also went all in, telling the U.S. secretary of commerce the new rules would destroy recreational flounder fishing in the state, an important part of its summer tourism appeal. It asked for a return to 2016 rules and a new full assessment of the flounder stock.

Read the full editorial at Press of Atlantic City