Daily Archives: December 22, 2022

Markey, Moulton push for national fund to compensate fishermen for losses due to offshore wind

With both offshore wind development and dissent from fishing groups ramping up along the East Coast, Senator Ed Markey and Congressman Seth Moulton announced a plan Wednesday to establish a national fund to compensate potential economic loss suffered by the fishing industry. Currently there is no federal framework that requires offshore wind developers to compensate fishermen for potential damages. Those include gear loss, habitat degradation, loss of historic fishing grounds and new fishing restrictions in areas leased for wind farms — all of which compound, fishermen say, to spell serious economic challenges to their industry. >click to read< 19:31

Two East Coast Fishermen Sue Biden Administration Over Mid-Atlantic Fishing Restrictions

The lawsuit comes as legal challenges to the so-called administrative state, which is made up of officials who aren’t appointed by the president or subject to political accountability, become increasingly common. Raymond Lofstad of Hampton Bays, New York, and Gus Lovgren of Brick Township, New Jersey, are both fourth-generation commercial fishermen running small-scale operations in the Mid-Atlantic region. Lofstad has fished off Long Island for more than 45 years. Lovgren, who recently took over his father’s fishing boat, has operated out of New Jersey for more than 20 years. Both have the permits required to fish for flounder, scup, and black sea bass in federal waters in the Mid-Atlantic. >click to read< 13:29

Maine Pols Brag About Stopping Unscientific Lobster Regs in Monsterous $1.7T Omnibus Bill

Maine’s Congressional Delegation and Gov. Janet Mills gave themselves a hearty pat on the back Tuesday for convincing Members of Congress to temporarily halt an unscientific regulatory crusade on the Maine lobstering industry. Maine’s Congressional Delegation has in recent years also voted to massively increase NOAA’s funding, meaning Maine lawmakers helped fund the very crusade they’re now bragging about halting, temporarily. All told, NOAA’s funding has increased by more than $6 billion since President Joe Biden took office, all with the support of Maine’s elected officials. >click to read< 11:09

Defra announces EU fishing deal to increase fishing opportunities to £750m

Defra has announced the UK fishing industry will benefit from 140,000 tonnes of fishing opportunities next year, following the conclusion of negotiations with the EU. The deal, announced yesterday, represented a 30,000-tonne increase on pre-Brexit volumes and would present UK boats with opportunities worth over £280m in 2023 in EU waters. This brought the total value of fishing opportunities secured for the UK fleet in 2023 in the three main negotiation forums to £750m, a £34m increase from last year, Defra said. >click to read< 09:15

Pioneer Seafoods forced out of Redwood City port, leaving its future on the line

The F/V Pioneer, a 76-foot-long seafaring trawler, has left its dock in Redwood City and relocated to Richmond after its permit was terminated by the Port of Redwood City. The boat was where Pioneer Seafoods’ owner, Giuseppe Pennisi, sold his fresh-caught fish directly to customers, an enterprise that is now in jeopardy, he says. Set to replace Pioneer Seafoods is a new commercial fishing tenant that will come to the port in the next few weeks to start selling fish, says Kristine Zortman, executive director of the Port of Redwood City. The reason he hasn’t been fishing, says Pennisi, is that he has been injured and is dealing with complicated hernia problems. “I was just told, basically, if you don’t get fishing, you’re going to get kicked out of here,”, >click to read< 08:26

‘It’s not ‘us versus the whales’’: Delayed crab season weighs heavily on Central Coast fishermen

It was six days before Christmas and the December sun shone brightly off the placid waters of the Santa Cruz Harbor, illuminating towers of empty crab pots stacked on the edge of the docks. Inside a nearby meeting room, more than a dozen fishermen from Santa Cruz, Moss Landing and Monterey grabbed donuts and gray plastic chairs to discuss their most urgent concern: how to deal with the economic impact of a Dungeness crab season that, now more than a month behind schedule, had yet to open. >click to read< 06:47