Saving Seafood

Final Report on South Fork Wind Farm Cautions of Impacts to Fishing Industry

August 18, 2021 — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has completed its environmental review of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, and is expected to release its final decision on the project in October.

The agency said negative impacts to commercial and recreational fishing would be “major” and found there would be “minor to moderate” beneficial impacts in terms of jobs and investment in the local economy.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on the project, released on BOEM’s website Monday, Aug. 16, examines the potential environmental impacts of the proposal to build up to 15 wind turbines and an offshore substation in federal waters about 35 miles off the coast of Montauk. BOEM says in the FEIS that it prefers an alternative proposal to protect habitat by carefully siting just 11 turbines there.

The project, expected to be under construction by next year, would deliver approximately 130 megawatts of power to the South Fork, coming ashore at Beach Lane in Wainscott en route to a substation in East Hampton. It would be the first offshore wind farm to provide power to New York State.

The FEIS found the greatest potential for adverse impacts would be to the commercial and recreational fishing industry, “due to increased port congestion; changes to fishing access, primarily through reduced fishing opportunity when construction activities are occurring; damage to or loss of fishing gear; and impacts on the catch due to changes in target species abundance or availability during construction activities.”

“The “reef effect” of WTG foundations and associated scour protection would have minor beneficial impacts to for-hire recreational fisheries, depending on the extent to which the foundations enhance fishing opportunities,” they added. “Overall cumulative adverse impacts would be major.”

Read the full story at the East End Beacon

MAFMC Revises Black Sea Bass Commercial State Allocation Recommendations

August 9, 2021 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council approved a 1% increase in New York’s black sea bass commercial allocation, bringing New York’s baseline share of the coastwide quota to 8%, during a meeting last week with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (Commission) Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board (Board). This action modifies the state commercial quota allocations that had been previously approved through the Council’s Black Sea Bass Commercial State Allocation Amendment and the Commission’s Addendum XXXIII to the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP).

The Amendment and Addendum, approved in February 2021, address significant changes in the distribution of black sea bass that have occurred since the original allocations were implemented in 2003. Among other things, these actions changed Connecticut’s baseline allocation from 1% to 3% of the coastwide quota to address its disproportionally low allocation compared to the increased availability of black sea bass in state waters. The Amendment and Addendum also added the state-by-state allocations to the federal FMP.

In March, New York appealed the allocation changes approved by the Board in February, arguing that its baseline quota should increase similarly to that of Connecticut as it too had experienced a significant disparity between allocation and the abundance/availability of black sea bass in Long Island Sound, which is shared by New York and Connecticut.

The Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board (Policy Board) considered the appeal in May. Finding that it was justified, the Policy Board remanded the section of Addendum XXXIII addressing baseline allocations back to the Board for corrective action to address impacts to New York’s baseline allocation in a manner comparable to the consideration given to Connecticut. Based on the Policy Board’s decision, the Board was required to increase New York’s baseline allocation by up to 2%.

The Council considered the implications of this decision during their June meeting and agreed to revisit these allocations with the Board, with the goal of maintaining the same final recommendations in the Council’s Amendment and the Commission’s Addendum.

During last week’s meeting, the Council and Board considered various potential increases in New York’s baseline quota. Both management bodies ultimately approved a 1% increase. The Council will forward its revised recommendations to NOAA Fisheries for final approval. A table containing the revised state allocations of the black sea bass commercial quota can be found below.

For more information, visit http://www.mafmc.org/actions/bsb-commercial-allocation or contact Julia Beaty, Fishery Management Specialist, jbeaty@mafmc.org, (302) 526-5250.

*These allocations represent the baseline quota plus the regional biomass distribution based on the results of the 2021 Operational Stock Assessment. These allocations will be updated if future assessments indicate a change to the biomass distribution.

Coast Guard Hosting NY Bight Port Study Public Meetings

August 6, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

From June 29, 2020, through June 28, 2021, the Coast Guard conducted the Northern New York Bight Port Access Route Study (NNYBPARS) and is requesting public comments on a draft version of the study report. The goal of the study is to evaluate the adequacy of existing vessel routing measures and determine whether additional vessel routing measures are necessary for port approaches to New York and New Jersey and international and domestic transit areas in the First District area of responsibility.

The First Coast Guard District will host three in-person public meetings starting next week and invites the public to provide oral comments.

  • U.S. Coast Guard Station Point Judith Boathouse, Narraganset, RI
    August 10 at 4 p.m. EST
  • Montauk Fire District, Montauk, NY
    August 24 at 4 p.m. EST
  • Portuguese Holy Ghost Society, Stonington, CT
    August 25 at 4 p.m. EST

Meeting details can be accessed here.

Comments on Study Due August 30, 2021

The First Coast Guard District will consider all comments and material received on or before August 30, 2021. To submit your comment online, go to this link on Regulations.Gov and then click “Comment.”

Questions?

Contact Craig Lapiejko, Waterways Management at the First Coast Guard District, (617) 223-8351

New York’s Black Sea Bass Baseline Commercial Quota Increased to 8% under Addendum XXXIII

August 6, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board (Board) approved a 1% increase in New York’s black sea bass commercial allocation, bringing New York’s baseline share of the coastwide quota to 8%. This action modifies the state commercial quota allocations that had been previously approved through Addendum XXXIII to the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan. The final 2022 state-by-state commercial shares can be found in the table on page 2.

Addendum XXXIII, approved in February 2021, addressed significant changes in the distribution of black sea bass that have occurred since the original allocations were implemented in 2003, while also accounting for the states’ historical harvest of black sea bass. Among other things, the Addendum changed Connecticut’s baseline allocation from 1% to 3% of the coastwide quota to address its disproportionally low allocation compared to the increased availability of black sea bass in state waters of Long Island Sound (LIS). The remaining state shares (with the exception of Maine and New Hampshire) were allocated using their adjusted historical allocations (to account for the Connecticut change) as well as a portion based on the most recent regional biomass distribution information from the stock assessment.

In March, New York appealed the allocation changes approved by the Board in February. The Commission’s appeal process provides states/jurisdictions the opportunity to appeal management decisions if a state/jurisdiction finds a Board decision has not been consistent with language of an FMP, resulted in unforeseen circumstances or impacts, did not follow established processes, or was based on flawed technical information. Through its appeal, New York argued that its baseline quota should increase similarly to that of Connecticut as it too had experienced a significant disparity between allocation and the abundance/availability of black sea bass in LIS, which is shared by New York and Connecticut.

In May, the Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board (Policy Board) considered the appeal and found it was justified based on New York’s arguments. This included data showing New York’s historical allocation was based largely on its ocean fishery. Since 2010, there has been an exponential increase of black sea bass in LIS. This increased availability has resulted in an expansion of New York’s commercial black sea bass landings from LIS from 24% (2004-2008) to 51% (2015-2019) of the state’s total landings.

The Policy Board remanded Section 3.1.1 of Addendum XXXIII (which only addresses baseline allocations) back to the Board for corrective action to address impacts to New York’s baseline allocation in a manner comparable to the consideration given to Connecticut. The Policy Board’s action specified the Board must increase New York’s baseline allocation by up to 2%, while maintaining Connecticut’s baseline allocation of 3%. No other aspects of these allocations, and no other alternatives in the associated Addendum, may be revised by the Board.

Based on the Policy Board’s directive, the Board considered a number of motions with various increases in New York’s baseline quota and ultimately approved a 1% increase. As a joint partner in the management of black sea bass, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council also approved the same changes to New York’s commercial quota share. The Council will forward its revised recommendations, which include adding the state-by-state shares to the federal Fishery Management Plan, to NOAA Fisheries for final approval.

For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, Fisheries Policy Director, at tkerns@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Offshore Wind Industry Faces Pushback From Commercial Fishing Groups

August 2, 2021 — Wind farms along the Atlantic coast — including offshore Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey — are facing major opposition from commercial fishermen.

Since the Block Island Wind Farm began operating off the coat of Rhode Island in 2016, many commercial fishermen have pushed back against the industry. They claim the turbines are navigational hazards and obstacles to ocean access.

Michael Marchetti, a Rhode Island commercial fisherman, said commercial fishing requires larger areas of space to accommodate fishing gear. He said the turbines are an obstacle to catching fish.

“There’s no way you’re going to build a major series of structures over any large amount of water without impacting commercial fisheries,” he told Zenger.

Marchetti said commercial fishing takes places year-round, in all weather conditions. Even with radar technology, he said, wind turbines can be navigational hazards in the fog and rain.

Jon Grant, a lobsterman based out of Block Island, said most of the commercial fishermen and lobstermen he knows are against offshore wind farms.

Meanwhile, recreational fishermen tend to support the offshore wind industry because the underwater structures act as artificial reefs and attract fish.

Read the full story at The Tennessee Tribune

Shark Sightings Off New York Coast Linked To Climate Change: Scientists

August 2, 2021 — Repeated shark sightings off New York’s Atlantic coastline are causing concerns this summer, especially after another sighting at Long Island’s popular Jones Beach State Park on Thursday morning. Scientists say warming waters, caused by climate change, are helping to drive the sharks farther north.

Just a day before a shark was spotted at Jones Beach, a neighboring beach was closed after multiple sharks were seen about 20 yards off the coast.

“Our guards spotted numerous — not just one, but numerous blacktip reef sharks,” said Hempstead town supervisor Don Clavin. “These are really unique sharks…they’re Caribbean sharks. They’re known to come close to the shoreline in feeding areas. So the concern is obviously with swimmers.”

Read the full story at WSGW

White House nominates Jainey Bavishi, climate adaptation expert, to key NOAA post

July 29, 2021 — The White House has picked Jainey Bavishi, a leading expert on responding to the challenges of climate change, to a top leadership position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Bavishi will serve as one of the two top deputies to NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, an ocean scientist, who was confirmed by the Senate last month after being nominated by President Biden in April.

The Biden administration has made confronting climate change one of its top priorities, and the appointment of Bavishi is fitting at an agency responsible for environmental prediction and monitoring and protecting the nation’s coasts, oceans and fisheries.

Bavishi most recently served as the director of the New York Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency, where she led a team that prepares the city for impacts of climate change. The office is working on several initiatives to protect the city’s structures and inhabitants, including installing a 2.4-mile flood protection system consisting of flood walls and floodgates and improving underground interior drainage systems in Manhattan.

“The Biden administration has picked a tremendous climate champion to serve the American people,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in an emailed statement. “Jainey’s leadership and vision has transformed New York City’s coastline and has helped to protect New Yorkers from destructive flooding and deadly heat waves.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Scallop fishermen seek buffer zone around New York Bight wind power areas

July 27, 2021 — Plans to open more of the New York Bight to offshore wind development will threaten the East Coast scallop fishing industry that brings in more than $425 million in dockside value annually and much more to the larger U.S. economy, fishing advocates say.

They say one immediate step should be creating a 5-nautical mile buffer zone between the southeastern edge of the Hudson South Lease Area that’s been proposed by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and the Hudson Canyon Access Area, highly productive scallop grounds that have supported the industry’s immense success over the last 20 years.

In the late 1990s, fishing pressure, declining scallop numbers and fishermen catching smaller scallops brought the fishery to crisis. But fishermen, scientists and regulators regrouped, creating a system of rotational scallop area management that federal scientists say has added more than $1 billion in revenue to coastal communities.

The Biden administration drive to develop more offshore wind, avidly supported by state governments in New York and New Jersey, will threaten that progress, representatives of the Fisheries Survival Fund and the port of New Bedford, Mass., told BOEM officials in a July 20 online conference, the group said.

“Proposed lease areas need to be thoroughly re-evaluated to reduce impacts to scallops and scallop fishermen, who operate in the most valuable federally managed fishery,” according to a statement issued by the group this week.

The proposed buffer zone would create a 5-nautical-mile strip inside BOEM’s mapped Hudson South wind energy area, standing off any future turbine construction from the southeastern edge that borders the Hudson Canyon scallop access area, said David Frulla, a lawyer with the Washington, D.C., firm Kelley Drye & Warren, which has represented the fund and other fishing groups.

“The buffer zone’s purpose is to make sure there is not a wind farm hard up against an access area,” said Frulla.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NEW YORK: Scallop Disaster Declared, But Some Hope for 2022

July 22, 2021 — Ask any bayman, and all would agree that the bay scallop fishery in the Peconic Bay estuary system in the past two years was a total calamity. As such, it was no surprise to learn that the United States Department of Commerce recently declared the events of 2019-20 a fishery disaster.

The declaration makes the fishery eligible for disaster assistance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Baymen may also qualify for disaster assistance from the Small Business Administration, according to the Department of Commerce. The department has balances remaining from previously appropriated fishery disaster assistance and will determine the appropriate allocation for the Peconic Bay fishery, which can also include funding of habitat restoration and additional research efforts.

“Fisheries are essential to our communities and economy, and we want to ensure America is in a position to remain competitive on the global stage,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement. “These determinations allow us to lend a helping hand to the fishing families and communities that have experienced very real and difficult setbacks in the last few years.”

But there is also some good news, for now, regarding the popular bivalve. While it’s still early, there have been no signs of a die-off this summer among scallops that were spawned last year, according to Stephen Tettelbach, a Long Island University ecology professor who heads Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Peconic Bay Scallop Restoration Program. Dr. Tettelbach’s team conducts periodic dives of the bottomland in several locations during the year to check on the status of the growing scallops.

Dr. Tettelbach was equally enthused about the number of larval scallops in local waters. “We did the first sampling of our larval spat collectors last Monday and saw the largest scallop set in the last 17 years,” he said. “There are small bugs all over the bays.” Small or newly-hatched scallops are commonly called “bugs.”

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

NEW YORK: Mixed reviews for South Shore wind farm

July 19, 2021 — If Long Beach residents are concerned about a private company’s $3 billion proposal to build a 174-turbine wind farm 15 miles off the South Shore, few of them voiced it at a virtual hearing on the matter on July 8.

Only a handful of people commented at the second hearing held by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on a proposal by the Norway-based Equinor to build the Empire Wind project.

Equinor has been awarded contracts by New York state, the first of which was granted in 2019 to supply 816 megawatts of power to the state grid, connecting in Brooklyn. A second contract, for 1,260 megawatts, was awarded in January for Long Island’s South Shore.

What is key for Long Beach is a part of the project that calls for two offshore substations to collect the power, which would be routed by cables to one or more of several potential sites in Brooklyn. A Long Beach cable would also be connected to an Equinor substation, and to the Long Island Power Authority grid by way of a substation in Island Park. That cable could run under the barrier island.

Long Beach would not be involved in the overall approval process, but would have a say in the underground cable’s location.

Read the full story at the Long Island Herald