Saving Seafood

Lawmakers seek pause in offshore wind energy amid whale deaths

September 30, 2024 — House lawmakers are seeking a pause in offshore wind energy projects amid a string of whale deaths along the coasts of Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Maine. [FoxNews]

Last week, a deceased whale beached off Maryland’s coast, the second whale carcass discovered in the area in three weeks. In 2023, 37 humpback whales carcasses were discovered along the East Coast.

While a definite cause of death could not be determined, wind-energy proponents continue to argue the deaths have nothing to do with offshore wind farms.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) hosted a public hearing in August in which experts testified about the danger installing wind turbines poses marine wildlife. Harris called for an end to offshore wind energy in Maryland.

Read the full article at CalCoastNews.com

NEW YORK: NYSERDA head gets update on state’s largest offshore wind farm at Port of Coeymans

September 16, 2024 — Officials gathered Thursday at the Port of Coeymans to showcase the significant progress of construction work for New York’s largest offshore wind farm.

Groundbreaking took place in July for Sunrise Wind, a 924-megawatt MW offshore wind farm located roughly 30 miles off the coast of Long Island. The project, first announced in 2019, is piloted by Ørsted, the largest energy company in Denmark.

It’s expected to come online in 2026. Officials say once in operation, Sunrise Wind will represent the largest infusion of renewable offshore wind energy from a single project in U.S. history.

President and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority Doreen Harris says every resident will benefit from the wind farm project. She adds that 84 platforms comprising more than half of the so- called advanced foundation components for Sunrise Wind are being built at the Coeymans offshore wind hub.

Read the full article at WAMC

New York lobster exporter accused of money laundering, collusion with Chinese government

September 4, 2024 — The owner of Forest Hills, New York, U.S.A.-based seafood company Foodie Fisherman has been charged with money laundering – among other crimes – and his wife, a New York political official, has been charged with taking payoffs in exchange for pursuing actions that benefited China.

On 3 September, Christopher Hu was arrested along with his wife, Linda Sun, who’s accused of acting as an agent of the Chinese government in her earlier role as an aide to former New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Why Is New York Paying So Much for Wind Power?

August 26, 2024 — New York state signed a contract in June to buy electricity generated by two large wind farms, Empire Wind 1 and Sunrise Wind, off the coast of Long Island. The projects are expected to begin in 2026 and 2027, with power delivered to Brooklyn (Empire) and Long Island (Sunrise). The state will pay $155 and $146 per megawatt-hour, respectively. These prices are steep, at least four times the average grid cost paid over the past year. New Yorkers should be asking why.

States agree to pay wind-power operators—known as the “offtake price”—based on a project’s “break-even cost,” the estimated bill for building and operating the wind farm over its useful life. That is undoubtedly part of the problem. The offshore wind business off the East Coast is in turmoil. Operators have canceled projects from Massachusetts to Maryland that were due to be constructed in the next four years. Some have been delayed, while others have renegotiated their contracts at prices 30% to 50% higher than originally promised.

Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal

NEW YORK: Turbine blade debris from Nantucket wind farm may wash up on Long Island

August 22, 2024 — Pieces of a 300-foot blade that broke off a wind turbine south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, a month ago may soon begin washing up on Long Island beaches, according to an alert today from the Town of East Hampton.

The turbine debris is from Vineyard Wind, a wind farm located in the ocean about 22 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Parts of the shattered blade that broke off its turbine on July 13 soon turned up on the shores of Nantucket, temporarily closing beaches. Now, officials anticipate debris is honing in on Montauk.

“We have been made aware that debris may wash up on the shores of Montauk,” reads the alert posted on Instagram by the Town of East Hampton. “The debris has been described as ‘non-toxic fiberglass fragments.'”

Read the full article at the Greater Long Island

Construction Underway on New York’s Largest Offshore Wind Project

July 31, 2024 — Construction is underway in New York on what will be the state’s largest offshore wind farm.

A groundbreaking ceremony on Long Island officially kicked off the start of the project, which will support more than 800 direct jobs during its construction phase. It is said the project will stimulate economic benefits from the Capital Region to Long Island – including a $700 million investment in Suffolk County. Once completed, the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind project will provide enough clean energy to power approximately 600,000 New York homes.

Developed by Ørsted, it will be built under “industry-leading project labor agreements” which officials say will ensure local union labor’s participation in all phases of construction.

Read the full story at Newsweek

NJ is facing a potential lawsuit over alleged failure to protect endangered fish

July 26, 2024 — The state of New Jersey is facing a lawsuit for allegedly failing to protect the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, according to the Delaware and Hudson Riverkeeper Network.

New Jersey, as well as New York and Delaware, are being accused of failing to obtain incidental take permits when operating within the habitat of the Atlantic sturgeon species, according to the lawsuit, that has yet to be officially filed. These permits will ensure commercial fisheries operate within Endangered Species Act and federal law, said Maya van Rossum, the leader of the Delaware River Network.

The suit claims the three states have allowed fisheries to kill the Atlantic sturgeon through bycatch, the act of catching and discarding of species that fishers may catch, but do not want, cannot sell or are not allowed to keep.

The lawsuit claims the states are violating the Endangered Species Act by not requiring and approving the permits.

The Riverkeeper Networks say a permit would avoid the illegal taking of the fish and would establish the tracking of the number of the fish killed in an area.

Read the full article at NorthJersey.com

Riverkeepers take legal action to save sturgeons

July 22, 2024 — Individuals and group riverkeepers from New Jersey, New York, and Delaware announced that they plan to sue on behalf of the endangered Atlantic sturgeon. They claim that the taking and discarding of sturgeons due to bycatch has drastically caused the species’ decline.

Riverkeepers are privately funded non-governmental advocates who work to protect the public’s right to clean water. According to sources, the groups hope to prevent commercial fisheries from taking or discarding sturgeon as bycatch while out trawling the ocean for striped bass, flounder, and other fish. They claim that bycatch has impeded the recovery of the species specifically in the Hudson River.

The Hudson currently supports the largest population of Atlantic sturgeon along the Atlantic coast, estimated to be between 1000 and 1500 fish. In 2012, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared five distinct population segments of the Atlantic sturgeon endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Blade collapse, New York launch and New Jersey research show uneven progress of offshore wind

July 18, 2024 — Three events Wednesday highlighted the uneven progress of the offshore wind industry in the Northeast, including the start of a major project in New York, research aimed at preventing environmental damage in New Jersey, and a temporary shutdown of a wind farm in Massachusetts after a broken turbine blade washed ashore on a famous beach.

The federal government ordered a wind farm operator off the coast of Nantucket in Massachusetts to suspend operations while cleanup continues after a wind turbine blade fell into the water, broke apart, and washed up on beaches at the popular vacation spot.

Vineyard Wind said Wednesday that it has removed 17 cubic yards of debris, enough to fill more than six truckloads, along with several larger pieces that washed ashore. The debris was mostly non-toxic fiberglass fragments ranging in size from small pieces to larger sections, typically green or white.

Read the full article at the Associated Press 

NEW YORK: Ground Broken on Long Island’s Sunrise Wind, the largest offshore wind farm in the nation

July 18, 2024 — There was a historic groundbreaking Wednesday for New York’s next offshore wind farm, which will be seven times bigger than the first one.

Years in the making, winds of change are coming to the state’s energy grid. Months after South Fork Wind went live, the far bigger Sunrise Wind will have 84 turbines to generate 924 megawatts, making it the largest wind farm in the nation.

Ocean winds will be supplying the project’s clean energy by 2026.

“Six hundred thousand homes. That is the metric and that is a true game changer for Long Island,” said Doreen Harris, president of the New York State Research and Development Authority.

Read the full article at CBS