FISHERYNATION.COM

September 12, 2024

Floating around (sorry!) is the surprising story that the fiberglass that is being donated gratis to our oceans by the offshore wind industry is harmless because the fibers that make it up are chemically inert. Reassuring, isn’t it?

Well, in words made immortal by George and Irwin Gershwin in Porgy and Bess, “it ain’t necessarily so.”

To put those immortal words in the proper real world (not NOAA or BOEM scientist’s) perspective, the asbestos fibers that are still being used legally in a whole bunch of manufacturing processes today are chemically inert on their own. You can chomp on and swallow asbestos fibers to your heart’s content, as long as they stay in large chunks, with no ill effects. According to the National Library of Medicine “asbestos fibers are basically chemically inert, or nearly so. They do not evaporate, dissolve, burn, or undergo significant reactions with most chemicals.”

So what’s the problem with asbestos? Why is keeping us living, breathing, etc. critters as far as possible from any exposure to asbestos dust, asbestos powder, asbestos shavings, asbestos scrapings, asbestos dreams, etc. so important? Most simply, because finely divided asbestos dust, powder, etc., when it is ingested or inhaled (or added to a poultice or an ointment when the moon is full, for all I know) is definitely not good for any of us, contributing to quite a few rather unpleasant maladies/conditions that we’d all be better off without.

Obviously, knowing what we know now a material being “inert” is no guarantee that it is completely harmless to inhale or to ingest. Believing otherwise is to hearken back to the long-gone days of alchemy. Back then when a substance was considered bad, it was considered bad in any way, shape or form. While today asbestos, when in big enough chunks is probably ok (just don’t chew it for too long), in little, eensy, weensy amounts it’s a killer. Those microscopic bits and pieces of asbestos can raise hell with some living tissues that they come into contact with. And they often do.

That’s the problem with asbestos.

So what’s the potential problem with glass fibers embedded in a plastic matrix that we call fiberglass (or fiber reinforced plastic–FRP)? You know, the stuff that an almost 1,000 foot tall “windmill” just inadvertently “enriched” a whole bunch of our ocean waters surrounding Nantucket Island with.

I’ve written before about what effective grinding machines our oceans are. They are particularly so in areas of high oceanic energy. While the ocean depths are fairly calm and stable, with not a lot of turbulence or currents, the margins of the ocean basins are an entirely different proposition. Big rocks are turned into smaller rocks which are turned into sand which is turned into silt. All because of the friction of being rubbed together with other rocks, with shell fragments, by the natural processes that go on in the shallow waters that characterize the ocean margins.

So what happens when a huge fiberglass rotor on an offshore generator (300+ feet long and still enlarging as wind generators become larger-and more efficient) delaminates and takes a dive into one of our oceans? In fairly short (geologically speaking) order it’s broken into thousands of smaller glass fibers embedded in a possibly “defective” plastic matrix held together with possibly “defective” adhesives. It gets ground up. And it’s very likely that a significant amount of it gets ground up into silicon “shards”-some of which become incorporated into the plankton.

That’s very possibly one of the initial steps in turning giant wind turbine blades into what will eventually become microscopic glass microfilaments.

Many of the filter-feeders out there, either living in or attached to the bottom, or floating around as part of the plankton, have been gifted by evolution with the ability to (sometimes) pick and choose amongst planktonic food and a bunch of non-food that has been cluttering up the oceans for eons. The food gets eaten. The non-digestibles either get dumped or get incorporated into the oceanic food chain.

We don’t have much of a clue about the effects on living creatures- including Homo sapiens-of these silicon shards once the ocean currents have been grinding them up with an endless procession of waves. (According to Wikipedia, “silicosis is a form of occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust. It is marked by inflammation and scarring in the form of nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs. It is a type of pneumoconiosis. Silicosis, particularly the acute form, is characterized by shortness of breath, cough, fever, and cyanosis.” There is no known cure.)

Likewise, we don’t have a clue about whether those oceanic filter feeders are evolved enough (pls forgive me, C. Darwin!) to be able to discriminate between harmless and “dangerous” microfibers, whether glass or asbestos, without incorporating them into their own tissues (and subsequently into ours). And it appears as if Scandinavia’s most gifted engineers and most canny investors aren’t concerned in the slightest. (We also shouldn’t forget our own home court “heroes” in NOAA and BOEM.)

Suppose that those filter feeding mollusks (clams and oysters) that various organizations are so assiduously trying to reestablish in New York harbor or various other estuaries that were once home to extensive shellfish beds, are finally re-established? Being filter feeders, they are going to pump in bad (contaminated) water, extract sustenance from it as they tirelessly pump it in and out, and then dump the indigestibles pseudo feces (as they’re called in the technical literature) “over the side.” Do you think there’s a chance that among those indigestible pseudofeces there might be some silicon shards? Do you think anyone knows? Do you think anyone cares? President Biden and Governor Murphy and a few other kindred souls-as well as a bunch of Scandinavian technical types and investors-don’t seem to be all that interested, but maybe they should be.

How long would it take a bunch of glass microfilaments that started out as part of a 300+ foot long propeller spinning around in a wind driven generator off Nantucket to end up as “crystalline silica dust?” How much of that dust might render those clams or oysters that have incorporated it into their tissues toxic–either to fish lovers or to other edible critters swimming or crawling around out there-that we might have occasion to eat? And how many independent researchers are concerned?

Perhaps our near-shore worries should be directed towards just a bit more than stumbling by luck over some errant bits of flotsam and jetsam which have been released into our coastal waters or washed up on our beaches.

In a scientific report released in December 2023 by Associate Professor Grace Saba, and Professor Josh Kohut using underwater robots, called “Gliders” to track ocean water quality, specifically, oxygen concentrations and PH levels, the researchers discovered that large areas of the New York Bight suffered a hypoxic event last summer. The research used three different Gliders, with one of them tracking inshore waters from Long Branch to Cape May, out to about fifteen miles offshore, while the other two gliders worked together, and tracked down the southern edge of the mud hole out to about 30 fathoms where they then followed that depth in a southerly direction working 20 to 40 miles offshore.

From their study; “Coast wide, hypoxic levels of dissolved oxygen [concentrations less then 3 mg/liter] were observed at shallower, more inshore locations. In addition to low ph measured in bottom waters, which is indicative of acidification, aragonite saturation state [a relevant metric for biological impacts of ocean acidification] was calculated to be less than one in several locations. Normal, more optimal levels in seawater typically include dissolved oxygen concentrations greater then 7 mg/liter,ph of 8.1 and aragonite saturation states greater than 3.” Glider #28 which tracked the inshore course, found hypoxic levels along its whole route, while gliders 39 and 40 found low aragonite levels at multiple locations along their offshore course. The researchers also were informed by fishermen of dead sea creatures being caught in their lobster pots along the mud hole, and also reports of more dead sea life off the near shore waters of southern Monmouth County, both areas of extensive offshore wind sonar and seismic testing.

From their study, “Mortalities were reported of American lobster, Jonah crab, Atlantic rock crab, spider crabs, Black Sea Bass, and tautog were reported not only in pots where trapped organisms would not have been able to escape poor conditions, but also on the open bottom. This observation suggests that if low dissolved oxygen and /or ph were indeed the culprit for these reported mortalities, the area may have been extensive enough that they could not escape in time.” The study suggests that any of a number of factors could have caused these conditions, including a change in normal ocean stratification, increased input of nutrients which increase phytoplankton production, increased sea temperatures, and a few more. Conveniently missing from the possible causes of this hypoxic event is the impact of the
offshore wind research vessels that have been extensively using high powered sonar and seismic devises throughout the New York bight area for over a year now. Also ignored was any outreach to the scallop fishermen along the coast who have been reporting unusual amounts of “clappers”, which are dead scallops, in their tows.

In an article posted in the spring of 2023 in Fisherynation.com, “Is the Great Fishkill of 1976 About to be Repeated?“, I suggested that the New York bight could see an environmental catastrophe that could rival or surpass the great fish kill of 1976 and would be caused by the decomposing bodies of the dead sea creatures killed by the seismic and Sonar assault on the ocean bottom by offshore wind research vessels. Throughout this past year, numerous accounts of dead sea creatures washing up on the beaches of Nantucket, and New Jersey have been reported, all of them while offshore wind vessels were surveying nearby. The dead marine mammals are well known casualties to the public, but authorities deny any connections between offshore wind and the strandings, while they refuse, even when perfect opportunities present themselves, to perform inner ear autopsies on these creatures that might discover the true cause of death. Likewise for years NOAA and BOEM have refused to perform any studies concerning the effects of loud sonar and seismic on marine mammals, leaving that to the US Navy, which was forced to by lawsuits. As a former member of the Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council, I heard a term used by many fishermen in regard to NOAA/NMFS science, “Garbage in, garbage out.” This means if all information is not properly presented or not even included in a study, the result is useless garbage, usually to conform to a desired result. This Rutgers study, at this point, is very near to being in that category, because one of the most probable causes of this hypoxic event has been ignored and not even considered.

The great fish kill of 1976 may not ever been known about without the efforts of the commercial fishermen who observed the dying clams and other benthic organisms coming up in their dredges while working their historic fishing grounds and brought it to the attention of the authorities. That kill was caused by the continued use of the ocean as a cesspool for human excrement and environmental conditions that caused a large algae bloom and ultimately a large area of hypoxic ocean. Today, thanks to government [mis] management there are very few commercial fishermen left to report such conditions. The observations of scallop fishermen and the alarming amount of dead scallops they see in formerly healthy fishing grounds, that had recently been pounded by offshore wind vessels, has been ignored. Rutgers out reach to them has been nonexistent, yet a simple telephone call to any of the docks in New Jersey could have resulted in many more reports of dead sea creatures throughout the bight area. So this study is garbage by omission, with what appears to be an effort to blame the hypoxic event on global warming. Myself, I think that the conditions I cited in the Fisherynation article, water temperature in the 80’s, and a lack of storms to mix the water column during the tranquil summer months were not met. There could be many causes for last summer’s hypoxic event, but what is probably the real cause has not even been considered.

All is not lost though, this is an ongoing study, that hopefully will be performed each year, because the data that is gathered is very important in understanding what is happening in our ocean waters. Professor Saba is seeking information from anyone who has observed unusual sea creature mortalities over the past summer and can be contacted at [email protected]. I urge all fishermen, and citizens to report what they have observed this past year to her. Perhaps one of her students will take it upon themselves to research those studies from Australia that I cite in the fish kill article from last spring. Without such information this study becomes just another in a long line of advocacy science that has been produced in the last two decades.

The Rutgers report can be found on the Rutgers website https//www.rutgers.edu in the Department of marine and coastal sciences department.

Augusta – Governor Janet Mills and Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Commissioner Patrick Keliher today announced that Maine has received $17,252,551 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to help improve data on endangered North Atlantic right whales (NARW).

The money was the result of The Consolidated Appropriations Act passed by Congress in December of 2022 which established a $26 million fund for states with lobster fisheries.  This fund is administered by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission which divided the money among states based on active lobster harvesters.

“Maine’s lobster industry has a long and proud tradition of responsible harvesting practices and good environmental stewardship, including significant investments by lobstermen in to protect right whales,” said Governor Mills. “These funds will ensure that federal regulators can no longer burden this vital industry with management decisions based on poor data that threaten the livelihoods of thousands of Mainers. I thank Maine’s Congressional Delegation for its work to secure this important funding.”

“The goal of this research is to collect data that tells us what is happening in the Gulf of Maine, so we can be protective of whales in a way that also doesn’t devastate Maine’s critically important lobster industry,” said DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher.

The lack of data on NARW presence and fishing effort in the Gulf of Maine (GOM) has resulted in high uncertainty in existing models that the federal government uses to determine the risk of serious injury and mortality to right whales by lobster gear. This funding will allow DMR to expand NARW research and improve the assessment of risk to NARWs posed by fixed gear fisheries in advance of future federal rulemakings.

“That uncertainty has caused federal regulators to make assumptions that have resulted in sweeping regulations which have caused significant economic hardship for Maine’s critically important lobster industry,” said DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher.

DMR will use the funds to improve data on NARW presence by conducting passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) at 26 sites throughout the Gulf of Maine (GOM). These sites will be in addition to eight PAM moorings deployed since 2020 in collaboration with Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the University of Maine.

In addition, DMR will conduct surveys of NARWs in the GOM by boat and airplane, as well as surveys of the primary food source for NARWs, a species of zooplankton known as Calanus finmarchicus.

Federal regulators use a model, known as the Decision Support Tool (DST), which incorporates data on whale density and lobster fishing gear location and configuration to assign the risk of serious injury and mortality to NARWs. The model allows federal regulators to assess how that risk changes under different management scenarios.

Maine’s recently enacted reporting and tracker requirements for state and federally permitted lobster harvesters is a critical component of this work, and it will greatly improve available data on fishing effort in the Gulf of Maine.

“Having better data on whale distribution in addition to gear location and configuration will vastly improve the ability of the federal government to focus their efforts on the areas of greatest risk” said Commissioner Keliher. “DMR’s approach is to not use assumptions, but rather the best available data so NOAA understands that the Maine lobster fishery is not the threat they make it out to be. This will allow them to develop more targeted management measures, which will reduce the burden on this industry.”

DMR anticipates that these funds will continue be available into the future.  DMR plans to use future funds to build on its research program and to develop a new approach to risk modeling that incorporates data on changes in lobster and NARW populations and habitat use. DMR will also investigate the use of dynamic management, an approach in which temporary closures are only established in specific areas if whales are detected.

“This federal funding is critical to improving the flawed and incomplete data that is being used to create unnecessary, burdensome requirements for Maine lobstermen and women,” said Senator Collins.  “As the Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, I am committed to continuing to advocate for this funding that supports the imperative work the Maine Department of Marine Resources is doing to support the future of Maine’s iconic lobster industry.”

“The funding for this important work is due to the extraordinary efforts of Maine’s Congressional delegation and Governor Mills, who coordinated closely last year to ensure the necessary time and funding to conduct this critically important research,” said Commissioner Keliher.

This funding is the result of the Fiscal Year 2023 government funding package passed by Congress in December 2022, which included a regulatory pause for Maine’s lobster industry and is in effect until December 31, 2028.  This government funding package also established a $26 million fund for states with lobster fisheries administered by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.  Senator Collins, Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee, played a key role in advancing this funding and regulatory pause.

Additional supportive statements can be found here. 

More information on DMR’s North Atlantic right whale and alternative gear research can be found at https://www.maine.gov/dmr/science/right-whale