Category Archives: Mid Atlantic
Lobster industry is anxious over upcoming North Atlantic right whale protection rules
The federal government is working on new rules designed to reduce risk to North Atlantic right whales,,, One of the threats the whales face is entanglement in ropes that connect to lobster and crab traps in the ocean. Early indications show that the changes required by the rules could be significant. They’re also vulnerable to ship strikes, and face the looming threat of warming oceans. Acting NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Paul Doremus said in June that the U.S. and Canada, which also harvests lobsters, must “take and sustain additional efforts to reduce right whale mortalities and serious injuries.” >click to read< 10:39
100s of offshore wind farm turbines greenlighted for New Jersey coast – Groucho Marx is all in!
Two wind farm projects were approved, and would provide enough power for 1.1 million homes,,, sure they will! The two projects are a 110-turbine wind farm by Atlantic Shores, which is owned by European power companies Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America, and a 82-turbine farm by Ørsted called Ocean Wind 2. Atlantic Shores’ farm will be located about 10.5 miles off the coast of shore towns north of Atlantic City. Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 2 will be nearly 14 miles off Cape May. >click to read< – If Wind Farm Is Constructed You May Soon Forget It Is There – I’m going to have to buy Groucho Marx glasses, complete with a large nose, mustache and huge eyebrows, to dare show my face on LBI after writing this column. But stupid or brave, here I go. I support the Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind proposal,,, Better wind than fossil fuels or nuclear. Natural gas pipelines can blow up; as for nuclear, I have only six words – Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Do you remember when the Ocean County Health Department used to distribute potassium iodide pills in case of an incident at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station? Stupidity abounds. >click to read< Bill Gates says you’re all wrong! Game Changer: Bill Gates Backs Safe & Reliable Next Generation Nuclear Power Plants – >click to read<
Waterman Allen Ray Crockett of Tangier Island has passed away
Mr. Allen Ray Crockett, beloved husband of Jeanette Bowden Crockett, passed away Monday, June 28, 2021. Allen was the son of the late Merrill Ray Crockett and the late Ruth Hall Parks Crockett. He was born Dec. 26, 1936, on Tangier Island, where he remained a pillar of the community throughout his 84 years. Allen’s lifelong career as a waterman began when he was just a boy standing on a crate as he worked alongside his father. Over the years he would travel to Crisfield, Md., to sell his Dad’s crabs, where the buyer always greeted him by saying, “Look out! Here comes Merrill’s boy.” Throughout his career, he owned three boats, The Wellington K., The Jeannette C., and finally, The Claudine Sue, which is now proudly owned and operated as The Samantha Paige, by his grandson, Thomas Reed Eskridge. >click to read< 17:26
Commerce Department Announces 2021 Appointments to the Regional Fishery Management Councils
The U.S. Department of Commerce today announced the appointment of 31 members to the regional fishery management councils that partner with NOAA Fisheries to manage marine fishery resources. Established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, councils are responsible for developing region-specific fishery management plans that safeguard and enhance the nation’s fisheries resources. Each year, the Secretary of Commerce appoints approximately one-third of the total 72 appointed members to the eight,,, >click here to read< 15:03
‘Free’ Offshore Wind Farm Power Costs Six Times the National Average Cost of Power in USA
Americans are fast learning that the cost of wind power is staggering, and the cost of offshore wind power is astronomical. Joe Biden and his Squad are eager to plant thousands of these things up and down the Atlantic coast, claiming that offshore wind power is ‘free’ and getting cheaper all the time. It’s a myth, to be sure, as Willis Eschenbach carefully details below. Block Island Wind Farm – And what are the economics of the Block Island Wind Farm? (insanity!) How much is that energy worth? The nationwide average to the customer is around 13 cents/kWh,,, And how much is Rhode Island paying for this “inexpensive” wind energy? Hang on to your jaw so it doesn’t hit the floor … they’re paying 24.4 cents/kWh, six times the national average, and it’s going up by 3.5% per year … so in ten years it will be 34.4 cents/kWh. But wait, there’s more.,,, Oh, plus the surcharge to pay for the transmission cable,,, >click to read< 09:54
Senate Approves Bill Exempting Commercial Fishermen from State Unemployment Tax
“Currently, New Jersey’s commercial fishermen are on the hook for unemployment taxes, but they are not paid hourly wages, and they have never been able to collect unemployment benefits,” stated Testa. “This bill will have significant impact on the state’s vital fishing industry that has been extremely hard-hit by the pandemic.” According to a release, Testa’s bill (S-3501) would exempt commercial fishermen who are paid on the percentage of fish caught or a percentage of the selling price of those fish from the state unemployment law and its costly tax on earnings. >click to read< 07:52
An Organized Act of Civil Disobedience: East Hampton Baymen Take to ‘Truck Beach’ to Protest Court Ruling
East Hampton baymen and their supporters drove a caravan of 39 trucks onto what is popularly known as Truck Beach on Napeague on Sunday morning to assert what they believe is their right to use, and drive on, the ocean beach there. A panel of four New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division judges determined in February that the 4,000-foot stretch of beach is owned by landward residential property owners. Baymen had promised such action in the wake of a June 4 injunction reiterating the Appellate Division panel’s Feb. 3 affirmation,,, >click to read< 07:39
“They just took our democracy away, folks,” – Heroic Ocean City BLASTS Bill to Fast Track Offshore Wind Farm
City Council on Thursday night blasted state legislation that would speed up development of a proposed offshore wind energy farm as a blatant power grab that strips Ocean City and other local communities of New Jersey’s longstanding tradition of home rule. “Essentially, they’ve taken our right to home rule away from us,” said Councilman Michael DeVlieger, the governing body’s most outspoken critic of the wind farm project. In the latest salvo by Ocean City opposing the wind farm, Council voted 7-0 to approve a resolution that denounces state legislation that would make it easier for the Danish energy company Orsted to build the project off the South Jersey coast.,, “A foreign entity is driving the political machine,” >click to read< 19:34
Say No for the Ocean, Citizens! Impact of Offshore Wind on Commercial Fishing Industry Discussed
Scallop fisherman and Viking Village fleet owner Jim Gutowski laid out the scope in size of one offshore wind farm turbine as a backdrop to his talk on “The Impact of Offshore Wind Farms on Our Commercial Fishing Industry”,,, Gutowski traveled to England and Scotland about five years ago to meet with commercial fishermen affected by wind turbines Asked by an audience member for details about any pros and cons of wind power that he heard there, Gutowski said, “From a fisherman’s standpoint I don’t think I heard too many pros. I heard tons of cons. I heard that ‘fish used to live here and now they don’t.’ I heard that ‘they told us we can fish inside of there and now we can’t.’ I heard ‘we can fish inside of them, but there’s no way we can do it.’ I saw Ramsgate in England, that was a bustling fishing port, and now it’s kind of a ghost town.” >click to read< 13:37
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 82′ Steel Stern Dragger, 525HP Cummins KTA 19 M
To review specifications, information, and 10 photos, >click here< , To see all the boats in this series >click here<11:46
Cuomo’s Closure of Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant a big step backwards to reduce CO2 emissions.
April 30th, the Indian Point nuclear power plant 30 miles north of New York City was shut down. For decades the facility provided the overwhelming majority of the city’s carbon-free electricity as well as good union jobs for almost a thousand people. Federal regulators had deemed the plant perfectly safe. New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, a key figure behind the move, said that the shuttering of Indian Point brought us “a big step closer to achieving our aggressive clean energy goals”. It’s hard to reconcile that optimism with the data that’s recently come out. The first full month without the plant has seen a 46% increase in the average carbon intensity of statewide electric generation,,, >click to read< 13:53
Raimondo picks Janet Coit, a source of trusted counsel, to lead the National Marine Fisheries Service
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Coit’s former boss in the Rhode Island State House, announced the selection of Coit to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries office.,, But the work of the fisheries service is getting even harder as it’s faced with stepping into a brewing fight over coastal waters between fishermen and the developers of offshore wind farms. Coit wouldn’t say much about the expectations for her new job in Washington as she waited for the official word to come down from the Commerce Department. But she was certain that offshore wind will be in the mix. “That’s going to be such a hot-button issue that I’m heading into,” she said. >click to read<16:46
Tropical depression making its way toward Nova Scotia
Claudette, a tropical depression, may affect Atlantic Canada on Tuesday. The depression claimed 12 lives Saturday at it passed through Alabama and brought flooding to a number of southern U.S. states. According to the Canadian Hurricane Centre, the depression is moving over the southeastern U.S. today and tonight and is expected to move back over the ocean overnight and regain tropical storm strength off the Carolinas. >click to read< 16:26
The First Montauk Blessing Of The Fleet Post COVID Brings Great Joy
The message that permeated on every vessel that took part in the first Montauk Blessing of the Fleet post COVID was that it was in fact a blessing it was happening at all. A year ago, the whole country was locking down, so many traditional East End events were canceled, and there was no annual Blessing of the Fleet in Montauk.,, On the F/V Anna Mary, the boat of Captain Anthony Sosinski and Fisherman John “Johnny Loads” Aldridge, family and friends celebrated with cold beverages, pasta salads, chips and dips, and an assortment of tasty home baked cookies. Sosinski displayed his talent of navigating the boat throughout the 75 or so commercial boats of all sizes that paraded from in the Harbor out to the Block Island Sound. Aldridge and his family and friends know what it is to feel God’s mercy. Eight years ago, “Johnny Loads” fell overboard only to be recused the next day by a 
Coast Guard helicopter as almost every commercial Montauk fishing craft was out there searching for him. >click to read< 12:25
Montauk Blessing of the Fleet – This drone footage by Joanna Steidle shows decorated vessels passing by robed clergymen, who give the boats their blessing. Onlookers can be seen gathered on the docks and shoreline. >click to watch<
New Jersey: Local Lawmakers Criticize Legislation to Fast-Track Offshore Wind Farm
“Suddenly, we’ve got a private, foreign company that is determining our position here. For the Legislature and governor to consider taking away home rule is shameful,” Cape May County Board of Commission Director Gerald Thornton said. Thornton and other critics of the wind farm proposed by the Danish energy company Orsted are also troubled by its possible harmful impacts,, Ocean City Council President Bob Barr said the legislation is “eliminating” decades of years of home rule for New Jersey towns in favor of Orsted. “It’s not even an American company”. “This unholy alliance was formed to steal sovereign U.S. territory in our 200-mile exclusive economic zone off our beloved Jersey Shore to build risky, unreliable, unwanted, unnecessary industrial wind farms,” said Tricia Conte, founder of Save Our Shoreline. >click to read< 09:46
New Jersey: Legislators Propose Bill To Limit Local Say Over Offshore Wind Farm Projects
The bill comes at a time when Ørsted’s proposed offshore wind project has been gaining opposition from several coastal communities concerned about the cables running underneath New Jersey beaches, including Ocean City and Long Beach Island. Assemblyman John Burzichelli, a southern New Jersey Democrat who sponsored the bill,,, “I can assure you, having been at ground zero of these discussions, we will allow nothing to happen that will disrupt Ocean City and the true gem that it is,” Burzichelli said at the state Assembly hearing during which the bill was advanced. >click to read< 08:45
Leave Our Ocean Alone – Pursue Energy Technologies on Land
Onshore alternatives exist that can make use of existing infrastructure and not impact our ocean resources. I urge readers to look into these alternatives. While moving the turbines farther offshore will reduce visibility impacts, it does not resolve the issues associated with industrializing the ocean’s resources. There will be environmental issues to be considered. The Atlantic Shores project proposed off Long Beach Island could include some 200 massive wind turbines, standing 850 feet above sea level and only 9 to 10 miles off our beach, presenting a “wall” of turbines obstructing our view to the horizon. The impact on the environment, including that on the endangered right whale,,, >click to read< by Jim Binder 08:22
Herring Fishermen lose challenge to rule requiring at-sea monitors
A federal judge in Washington D.C. on Tuesday denied the bid of New Jersey-based herring fishermen who sued the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) last year to block a new regulation that will require them to pay for third-party “at-sea monitors” who will survey by-catch. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the agency had not acted in violation of the MSA,,, About half-a-dozen small fishing vessel operators, including the Loper Bright Enterprise, brought the lawsuit last year. >click to read< 11:57
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 65′ Gladding Hearn Offshore Lobster Boat, 385HP Cummins, Fed Lobster Permit-Area 3
To review specifications, information, and 37 photos, >click here< , To see all the boats in this series >click here<11:21
The smart New Jersey residents fighting the state’s irresponsible wind farm plan
Tricia Conte, the founder of Save Our Shoreline, is dead set against the wind farm. “I was initially concerned about the view,” she said. “And then the more research I did I realized there were greater issues than the view.” She said, “In other areas where there has been green energy installed, California, Germany and Denmark, there was significant increases in the cost of electricity.” Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, said initially there will be a cost increase but “we have to take the long view on offshore wind, and it’s a huge opportunity for our state’s economy and it’s the only way we’re going to be able to fight climate change.” >click to read< 09:40
Coast Guard, CDC: We’ll change mask rule, but for now won’t enforce masks on fishing boats, commercial vessels, ferries
The Centers for Disease Control and U.S. Coast Guard, reversing their position from less than a month ago, said the federal agencies will no longer enforce its rule for wearing a mask in “outdoor areas of transportation conveyances or while outdoors at transportation hubs.” That means commercial vessels like cruise ships, ferries, fishing boats, and charters won’t require passengers to mask up for those who are outdoors. And people don’t have to wear masks at “transportation conveyances,” such as train stations. To be clear, the rule still exists, but the agencies will not enforce it. Earlier this year at a fishing conference, Sen. Dan Sullivan called the fishing crew mask rule “stupid.” >click to read< 20: 14
Exciting times, eh, commercial fishers? BOEM kick-starts New York Bight offshore wind farm auction
The Biden-Harris administration published a preliminary sale notice today for a wind auction off the coasts of New York and New Jersey. The proposal includes provisions to help commercial fishers, vocal critics of offshore development, including the designation of large lanes to ease navigation for fishing boats. “The Biden-Harris administration recognizes the urgency of this moment, and the development of renewable energy resources is an important piece of addressing this reality,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. >click to read< 08:27
Fisheries Survival Fund: Change Offshore Wind Farm Areas to Protect Scallops
The Fisheries Survival Fund , is requesting that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is responsible for leasing areas for offshore development, incrementally change its lease plans for the New York Bight. Currently, two BOEM Wind Energy Areas, Hudson South and Central Bight, are located in particularly sensitive areas for scallops. In their current form, these areas, including hundreds of thousands of acres of ocean, will have a serious negative impact on the fishery. BOEM’s proposed eastern-most lease areas in Hudson South are directly adjacent to the Hudson Canyon Scallop Access Area, one of the most important scallop grounds in the Northeast. >click to read< 19:06
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 36′ Northern Bay Lobster Boat, 375 HP John Deere 6081 Diesel
To review specifications, information, and 15 photos, >click here< , To see all the boats in this series >click here<11:15
N.J. fishing industry to get another $9.5M for Coronavirus relief
An incoming tide of federal dollars aims to lift a few boats, bait shops and seafood markets in the Garden State. New Jersey is set to receive another $9.5 million in COVID-19 relief money for the state’s fishing industry,,, The influx of cash comes from the $900 billion relief package passed by Congress and signed by former President Donald Trump in December. The money will be given to New Jersey by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, after the state Department of Environmental Protection gets a spending plan for the money approved. The DEP plans to submit its plan in coming days. >click to read< 17:50
Half Male – Half Female Chesapeake Blue Crab
This crab, known as a bilateral gynandromorphism, is about 4.5 inches long and is estimated to be in its third year. It has both blue and red claws at the tip and an apron (lower abdomen) split in the middle. Typically, male gazami crabs have blue toes and a T-shaped apron, while females have a red tip and a wide apron. Gynandromorphic crabs have not been reported on the East Coast for at least 15 years. Gynandromorphism does not occur in mammals, but has been observed in lobsters, crabs, snakes, butterflies, bees, chickens and other birds. Video, >click to read< 10:19
The Last Watermen
In April 2002, the city ordered Alexander “Skip” Parkinson, a crabber, to leave his permanent slip under its first-come, first-served docking policy, making him the last waterman, and his boat the last workboat, at City Dock.,, One Saturday last August, I paddleboarded from Spa Creek in Annapolis to Back Creek in Eastport, landed on Cap’n Herbie Sadler Watermen’s Park,, There, I met Pat Mahoney, Jr., the “last waterman of Annapolis.” Mahoney not only owns Wild Country, along with his father, Pat Mahoney Sr., but he catches the seafood they sell and takes great pride in keeping the “last waterman” title in the family. For him, the word means more than just making a living from the Bay. “It’s about keeping a tradition alive, adapting to challenges, and loving the water,” says Mahoney. >click to read< 10:15
Whales Are Shrinking. Scientists Blame Commercial Fishing Gear
The findings, published today in the journal Current Biology, reveal that when fully grown, a North Atlantic right whale born today would be expected to be about one meter shorter than a whale born in 1980. The stunted growth of the whales coincides with an increasing rate of entanglements. A 2012 study from the New England Aquarium revealed,,, Researchers acknowledge that entanglements do not explain all of the reduced growth. Other factors might be climate change, collisions and noise from ships, and the shifting availability of tiny crustaceans called copepods, their primary food source. >click to read< 13:30
Athearn Marine Agency Boat of the Week: 49’x16′ Scalloper, Cat 3406, with Federal Permits
To review specifications, information, and 12 photos, >click here< , To see all the boats in this series >click here<11:14
With the Ocean Wind Offshore Wind Farm on the horizon, a storm is building
Ocean Wind, according to those closely following the project, is headed for a series of turf wars, loud debates and protracted legal battles, even before the first turbine is sited off the coast of southern New Jersey.,, even supporters and opponents of the proposed wind farm at times disagree among themselves on how to move forward. Environmentalists, commercial fishermen, recreational boaters, labor unions, homeowners, boardwalk businesses, NIMBYs and ratepayer advocates are all circling Orsted, the Dutch wind power company behind what could be one of the largest wind farms in North America. Local, state and federal officials are also starting to feel the heat. Just about everyone involved, including David Hardy, CEO of Orsted US, worries the project could devolve into chaos. >click to read< 13:11
