Reader Commentary: NOAA cares about whales — until wind farms are involved

January 20, 2024 Mid Atlantic, National, New England

Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing? Remember a couple of years ago when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration proposed draconian new speed rules for commercial and recreational vessels up and down the entire Atlantic Coast? This rule attempted to extend to vessels between 35 and 65 feet in length the existing requirement that vessels over 65 feet in length reduce their speed to 10 knots in what is called Seasonal Management Areas along the Atlantic Coast. Fast forward to now, and we find that NOAA has received a request from U.S. Wind, LLC, for a “letter of authorization for incidental take regulations” (basically killing) of members of several marine mammal groups over a period of five years (2025-2029) during the construction of the wind farms off the coast of Maryland. By Carol Frazier, more, >>click to read<< 10:16

a “letter of authorization for incidental take regulations”, by Carol Frazier, draconian new speed rules, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, North Atlantic right whale, offshore wind farms, Reader Commentary, subsea cables, U.S. Wind LLC, US Wind, Ørsted

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The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet

It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

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