Daily Archives: May 21, 2019

New York’s energy policy depends on an impossible fantasy

Last Wednesday, the Cuomo administration blocked construction of the proposed Northeast Supply Enhancement project, a 24-mile gas pipeline that would run from New Jersey across New York Bay to near the Rockaways.,, was cheered by environmental groups,..Wind-energy projects, too, are facing fierce opposition.,,, What about offshore? Cuomo wants 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind installed in New York waters by 2035. But the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and other fishing groups are adamantly opposed,,,In short, renewables can’t replace natural gas. >click to read<20:58

Rep. Zeldin Blasts NY’s ASMFC Delegates for Failure to Deliver for NY Fishermen

Today, Congressman Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1) blasted New York’s delegates to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) following the conclusion of this month’s spring meeting, during which no progress was made in rectifying New York’s already inequitable quotas for species across the board, including Black Sea Bass, Striped Bass and Fluke. >click to read<19:10

Luciano: Could Asian carp help a desperate Maine lobster market?

Officials in Illinois and Maine hope to soon announce a breakthrough that in both states could help solve aquatic challenges and boost economics. The news could especially bring a boon to central Illinois. In Illinois, invasive Asian carp choke the Illinois River. In Maine, the lobster industry faces a crisis for a sudden lack of lobster bait. If all goes well, commercial fishers in Illinois soon could be harvesting and shipping tons of Asian carp to Maine. >click to read<

New Brunswick fishermen get $2M to test gear to prevent whale entanglements

Snow crab fishermen in northern New Brunswick are getting more than $2 million over three years to help test technologies aimed at reducing the risks of North Atlantic right whale entanglements in fishing gear.The funding for the Acadian Crabbers Association comes through the $400-million Atlantic Fisheries Fund, which is jointly funded by Ottawa and the region’s provincial governments. >click to read<17:08

Rep. Young fights fish farms

In his 46 years as Alaska’s lone representative in Congress, Don Young helped toss out foreign fishing fleets from Alaska waters with the onset of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976, and today he is intent on doing the same with offshore fish farms. The MSA established an ‘exclusive economic zone’ for US fleets fishing from three to 200 miles from shore. Young’s effort follows a push that began a year ago by over 120 aquaculture and food-related industries to have lawmakers introduce an Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act, which failed to get any traction. The campaign is organized under a new trade group called Stronger America Through Seafood and includes Cargill, Red Lobster, Pacific Seafoods and Seattle Fish Company.  >click to read<15:50

They’re just pouring money into it -“A Big Fugazi”: Why Fishermen Still Can’t Get Behind Offshore Wind

“This is going to affect every fisherman and fishes around these windmills,” Schneider says. “These crabs, these lobsters, seismic activity bothers them I believe and it’s not benefiting any one of us except a foreign company.” Schneider’s not alone. Fisherman along the Rhode Island and Massachusetts coast fear they could lose a significant portion of their catch. This is especially true for squid fishermen because the wind farm area will be constructed near their fishing grounds.,,,Dr. Kevin Stokesbury is a professor of fisheries oceanography at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He says the wind farms will be installed in a fairly large homogenous environment in the sea floor, which will change the environment. >click to read<13:29

Exploring Potential Changes in Bluefin Tuna Management

NOAA Fisheries announces the availability of a scoping document on Amendment 13 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan and our intent to prepare an environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act.  Issues and options paper The issues and options paper explores management options with a focus on: Refining the Individual Bluefin Quota Program. Reassessing share distribution and allocation of bluefin tuna quotas, including the potential elimination or phasing out of the Purse Seine category. Other regulatory provisions regarding the directed and incidental bluefin fisheries. >click to read<11:19

Efforts to plug oil leak in British WWII tanker torpedoed by U-boat off US coast

A team has been working to stop oil leaking from a British tanker sunk off the US coast during World War Two. The Coimbra was carrying more than two million gallons of oil when she was torpedoed in January 1942 by a German U-boat. She sank about 30 miles off the coast of Long Island, New York, and became one of 148 petrol tankers and other ships sunk by the U-boats near the coast. But in 2015 there were reports of what appeared to be an oil sheen in the area. >click to read<10:44

Oil Being Extracted from Tanker Sunk off Long Island Coast by German U-Boat in WWII – >Video, click to read<

50 boats, coast guard, searching for man overboard off P.E.I. North Shore

The Canadian Coast Guard, local fishermen, firefighters and police are searching off the North Shore of eastern P.E.I. for a fisherman who went overboard. Maj. Mark Norris, officer in charge of the Joint Rescue Centre in Halifax, said the call came in just before 5:30 a.m. about a man in his early 20s who went into the water near Naufrage. “There were quite a quite a few local vessels in the area at that point. There was about 40 vessels in the vicinity that commenced searching almost immediately,” said Norris. >click to read<09:45

Protected sea lions causing trouble at Northwest ports

A big rebound in the sea lion population along the West Coast in recent years has created a constant battle to wrangle the protected animals. They’re smart and fun to watch from a safe distance, but also noisy, smelly and proving to be a headache for some coastal marinas.  “It’s a free zoo kind of, just don’t pet ‘em!” observed Dennis Craig of Olympia,,, The flip side of these flippered fish fiends can be seen in the mounting bill to the marina, including the cost of busted docks, broken electric stanchions and lost business. >click to read<09:05