Daily Archives: June 15, 2018
Wind Farms Are Not Only Expensive They Are Terribly Noisy
Northeast States are turning to wind farms hoping for relief from high energy bills, they’re finding out wind energy is not only expensive but very noisy. Brazil, the world’s eighth largest producer of wind power, has erected wind turbines off its Atlantic coast where the wind blows consistently and the noise is constant. Recently, officials in Massachusetts and Rhode Island announced contracts for two large offshore wind farms off Martha’s Vineyard.,,, The wind developers are rushing the projects to benefit from a federal tax credit for offshore wind projects before it expires in 2020. As with other offshore wind projects, fishermen are wary of the detrimental impacts that the wind turbines, the associated subsurface cables and the subsequent noise will have on their livelihood. >click to read<20:35
LeBlanc offers fall season to fishermen squeezed by right whale measures
The federal fisheries minister says he has offered lobster harvesters from New Brunswick and Quebec a previously unscheduled fall fishing season, to make up for measures aimed at protecting endangered right whales. Dominic LeBlanc said he told the Maritime Fishermen’s Union that he plans to open a harvesting zone in the last half of September because of the 15-day closure of a 1,400-square-kilometre portion of ocean that begins Sunday. LeBlanc said the offer will go to about 62 fishing vessels in New Brunswick and 60 from the Gaspe Peninsula whose lobster harvest will be largely shut down as the whales pass through. >click to read<18:45
Wind Turbine Development and the future of fishing? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet USA
Let’s start with commercial fishing perspectives on wind farms in the North Sea: Seventeen fishing vessels docked in the centre of Amsterdam, a city that built its wealth and prosperity on the herring fishery. Between 600 and 700 fishermen from Holland and Belgium arrived in the city for a peaceful but highly visible protest that was followed by dozens of journalists.,,, In spite of the fact that in the U.S. our experience with producing electricity with offshore wind turbines is virtually nonexistent, we are apparently well on the way to committing billions of dollars to the effort – and most of that effort is going to be in the waters off New England and the mid-Atlantic. How much experience do we have with offshore wind turbines in the United States? >click to read<12:23
Halibut landings up, so Maine halibut landings to go down
Just as in the physical world, it’s a quirk of the regulatory world of fisheries management that when something goes up, something must go down, and it isn’t always the same thing. Last week, the Department of Marine Resources held a series of public hearings in Ellsworth, Machias and Augusta on a proposed regulation that would shorten the Maine halibut fishing season by 20 days, cut the number of allowable hooks for halibut fishing on each boat and ban possession of halibut by fishermen who have state-issued halibut tags who have been fishing outside the three-mile state waters limit. >click to read<10:55
Commentary: Questions abound with industrial oyster farm bill, It’s dirty – plain and simple.
Wonder what all the heartburn is about with the oyster restoration bill sponsored by local legislators Sen. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, and Rep. Beverly Boswell, R-Dare? It’s dirty – plain and simple. And although the who, what and how parts are now visible, there are a ton of questions about various entities that are yet to be answered. The North Carolina Coastal Federation is taking the heat for the oyster aquaculture bill, H361, that contains a few needed fixes but primarily was written to benefit one company – a foreign company with a murky record in other states where it does business. But the Coastal Federation and the collaboratory that was appointed to map out a plan to grow the state’s oyster industry didn’t write the bill. >click to read<10:14
Feds weigh costly new regulation for Maine lobstermen
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requested comment on the proposal in a notice posted to the Federal Register on Wednesday. Maine is the only state that doesn’t require all lobstermen to report catch-level information after each haul, and the policy change is expected to receive backlash from its powerful fishery lobby. “We’re going to get a lot of probably negative comments on this because it’s going to be a burden for people,” said Peter Burns, a lobster policy analyst with NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. “The lobster industry is very strong. For the longest time, they wanted to protect their fishing information, their proprietary business information.” >click to read<09:15
