Tag Archives: Bonnie Brady
Deepwater Wind to be purchased by Danish energy giant Orsted
The agreement, announced by both companies Monday morning, would create a combined company with offshore wind leases and projects across the Eastern United States. Orsted, formerly known as DONG Energy (Danish Oil and Natural Gas), has offshore wind lease rights off the coast of Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey. But at least one group saw cause for concern. “These are foreign oil and gas companies that are coming to the U.S. and taking our fisheries away from us without any mitigation or negotiations,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, an industry group. “It’s ridiculous. You want to talk about a job killer. This is the biggest threat to the U.S. commercial fishing on the Eastern Seaboard.”>click to read<17:22
South Fork Wind Farm : Plea to fund fishing survey has still not been granted
Several months after they asked East Hampton Town for $30,000 to collect data aimed at protecting fishing grounds and compensating commercial fishermen when they are unable to work, that request has still not been granted, the director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and the liaison chosen by East Hampton Town’s fisheries advisory committee to communicate with Deepwater Wind complained to the town board on Tuesday. While the liaison, Julie Evans, and Bonnie Brady of the fishing association addressed the board, Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company planning to construct the 15-turbine South Fork Wind Farm approximately 30 miles off Montauk, is in the midst of a projected four-month survey at the site and along the transmission cable’s route to shore. >click to read<09:04
A mighty wind, by Kevin Gray – The more you read, the dirtier it gets.
Jeff Grybowksi likes to tell the story about the whale.,,, For Grybowksi and his surrogates, as well as for the powerful environmental groups blowing wind into his green-energy sails, this is a handy anecdote, one they frequently recycle to journalists and policy makers. In the face of commercial fishermen’s warnings that Deepwater’s wind farms will kill their industry, Grybowksi’s parable portrays the company as a true steward of the environment. At the same time, the story underscores the brinksmanship that has propelled Grybowski’s company from startup obscurity to leading player in the booming domestic offshore wind trade: They are ready to go down to the wire for the sake of their hedge-fund investors.,,, But not everyone out here is impressed by Deepwater’s plans, or by Grybowski, or his whale. >click to read<10:52
Bay State Wind alters layout for offshore wind farm, but fisheries call foul
Bay State Wind LLC is changing the turbine layout of its 800-MW Bay State Offshore Wind Project to accommodate the U.S. commercial fishing industry’s ability to work between turbines. But fisheries say the changes are too little, too late and underscore their growing frustration with the offshore wind sector. However, the commercial fishing industry is not satisfied with Bay State Wind’s changed layout. Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Rhode Island-based frozen seafood producer Seafreeze Ltd., said one-mile-wide transit lanes can make it dangerous for trawl vessels to fish with their nets without hitting other boats or project infrastructure. Buffer zones for each side of a transit lane are also needed due to potential radar interference from the turbines. >click to read< 09:48
Montauk Trying To Save Long Island Shore From Wind Farms – Residents are against it and need more support.
July 11, at the Montauk Playhouse just beneath the Montauk Manor there was an open town hall meeting featuring representatives of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management concerning a project to produce 2,400 megawatts of power by 2030 (12 years from now.) The plan is to construct “eventually” clusters of wind farms along the 100-mile south shore of Long Island from 3 to 200 miles out. The project is to start off Montauk. The large hedge fund putting up a reported $560M has tried to frame the debate as “commercial fishermen worried about their fishing grounds versus clean wind power energy,” but that just is not the case. >click to read<07:53
Fishing is a family business – Three couples know everybody needs to pitch in to make a living
Long Island’s fishing families know how to adapt. They have to if they want to keep making their living from the water. Many have succumbed to the sea of quotas and regulations. Fewer and fewer are hanging on. In the past eight years, the number of commercial food fish licenses has dropped by double digits —11 percent — from 1,030 in 2018 to 916 so far this year, state data show.,, Most of the families still in commercial fishing run mom-and-operations, Brady said. “Some can go back 15 generations, some have been here since the ’70s,” she said, “and some are just starting out” The Phillipses, the Osinskis, and the Lofstads. >click to read<08:51
Now We’re Talking!! BOEM dressed down, wind farm companies get an earful at a meeting
Federal officials in charge of leasing ocean bottom land to offshore wind farm companies got an earful at a meeting with commercial fishermen Wednesday – and much of it was R-rated. There isn’t merely significant opposition to offshore wind farms; there is 100-percent agreement among the fishermen that the wind turbines will eventually put them out of business.,, Deepwater Wind, which has a project slated off the coast of Montauk called South Fork Wind and runs the Block Island Wind farm, was the subject of much of the ire and criticism,,, Ryan Fallon said he has spent his life on the water. “Everyone is against [the wind farms]. This is my life, my daughter’s life. I almost brought her here so you could look her in the eyes,” said Fallon, whose father was a commercial fisherman and bought him his first boat. “I’ve been doing this since I was 12. I’ll die before I let you take it away.” >click to read<20:37
Deepwater Wind Offers Offshore Information, Fishermen Want Compensation
The Providence-based company recently announced a program to inform fishermen of where and when construction and other work occurs at the site of three wind facilities and their electric cables. The offshore wind developer hired liaisons to offer dockside information to fishermen at main fishing ports such as New Bedford, Mass., Point Judith, and Montauk, N.Y. Daily activity will be posted online about surveys, construction, and maintenance work. The updates will also be broadcast twice daily on boating radio channels, according to Deepwater Wind. Bonnie Brady, president of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said the outreach by Deepwater Wind is window dressing. Deepwater Wind is “not doing anything at all. it’s a big, giant schmooze,” she said.,, Richard Fuka, president of the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance, said he speaks with fishermen daily in Point Judith and he’s hearing the fishing stocks are down around the Block Island Wind Farm. >click to read<19:53
East End forum on potential offshore wind turbine sites turns tense
A public forum on potential offshore wind farm sites turned tense as East End commercial fishing representatives railed against the renewable energy source and its potential impact on their industry. The forum, held Wednesday at the Montauk Community Center, was dominated by commercial fishermen who largely said none of the proposed sites were fitting. “These should be removed off our fishing grounds completely,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. Those who spoke declined to suggest the western sites as appropriate, saying they didn’t want to hurt colleagues’ livelihoods either. >click to read<13:56
Reckoning Day for the South Fork Wind Farm is upon us.
Though it’s been the subject of numerous public hearings and board meetings for two years — not to mention endless conjecture and innuendo — Deepwater’s Wind’s offshore wind farm is still in its infancy. Deepwater’s proposal has become controversial and contentious. Some environmentalists question the cost of the project. Fishing groups fear the turbines and underwater cable will harm some fish species and disrupt fishing around the turbines. Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and a board member of the Center for Sustainable Fisheries, has been an early and persistent opponent. >click to read<10:59
Highest Hurdle For Deepwater May Be Winning The Trust Of The Region’s Fishing Community
Deepwater Wind faces two years of review by some 20 state and federal agencies, and millions of dollars in scientific survey work covering hundreds of square miles of the ocean, to answer the questions the agencies will pepper them with about the wind farm’s effect on the ocean around it.,, Part of the federal process that the company must follow, in attempting to show that the 15 wind turbines they want to build in the ocean east of Block Island can coexist with those who make a living at sea, requires that they appoint a “fisheries representative” >click here to read< 09:47
Plan details NY state’s vision for offshore wind energy
New York state on Monday released the blueprints for a plan to harness the power of wind through offshore farms.,,, Adrienne Esposito, of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, says the extensive report was long-awaited.,,, “We need to move forward with renewable energy, and stop the oil and gas drilling that is planned for the East Coast.”,,, Bonnie Brady, from the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said in a statement to News 12, “Through eminent domain, they are taking away historic fishing grounds and now they are destroying it in the name of green energy. The only green here is about making money.”>click here to read< 10:25
Montauk fishermen rescue dovekie, a tiny sea bird
A Montauk fishing boat traveling 60 miles south of Long Island rescued a penguin-like sea fowl called a dovekie struggling in the waters Thursday. Doug Davidson, a crew member of the Montauk-based Caitlin & Mairead, saw the tiny bird “having trouble in the waves” and used a shovel to help it aboard, said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. Brady said 30-mph winds had whipped up 13- to 15-foot seas the night before, perhaps disorienting the dovekie. Her husband, Dave Aripotch, captains and owns the boat. >click here to read<18:28
Hearing – National Ocean Policy: Stakeholder Perspectives, Tuesday, December 12, 2017 2:30 p.m.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, will convene a hearing titled “National Ocean Policy: Stakeholder Perspectives,” at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 12, 2017. The hearing will examine the state of the National Ocean Policy and the program’s interaction with existing laws and regulations for ocean management. Witnesses: – Ms. Bonnie Brady, Executive Director, Long Island Commercial Fishing Association – Mr. Christopher Guith, Senior Vice President, Global Energy Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce – Mr. Dan Keppen, Executive Director, Family Farm Alliance – Ms. Kathy Metcalf, President and CEO, Chamber of Shipping of America click here to read, and the link will open to watch the proceedings tomorrow @ 2:30 pm
DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos says NY commercial fishermen ‘getting a raw deal’
New York commercial fishermen are “getting a raw deal” in federal fisheries quotas, and the state will follow through on a lawsuit early next year if meetings in December don’t fix the problem, the state’s top fisheries official said last week. At a meeting at the East Hampton Public Library on Thursday, Basil Seggos, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, listened to two full hours of complaints about state and federal regulations and management of fisheries, including restrictive quotas, inaccurate fish-population data, difficulty in getting and transferring permits, and “Gestapo”-like tactics of federal observers on local fishing vessels. click here to read the story 10:10
Strained Fluke Quotas, Hurricanes and Safe Harbor
Less than a month after a bill granting vessels safe harbor in New York was signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a fishing vessel bound for North Carolina carrying 6,000 pounds of fluke has tested the new policy, straining New York’s federally designated fluke quotas. The F/V Rianda S., which has long been a part of the Montauk fleet, was in transit to land its fish in North Carolina, where it has fishing licenses, on Sept. 17 after fishing in federal waters when it encountered the rough seas generated by Hurricane José and requested safe harbor in Montauk. New York’s fluke fishery is closed for the month of September, due to banner fluke landings this summer that strained the state’s already low federally mandated quotas. click here to read the story 08:25
For New Commercial Fishermen, Licensing Hurdles Are High
For Sag Harbor native Aaron Rozzi, embarking on a career as a commercial fisherman was always going to be a steep uphill climb. Increasingly stringent regulation of fish stocks, and the ever-escalating costs of equipment, fuel and simply living on the South Fork make the life of a traditional bayman a hard path to follow in today’s world.,,, Stian Stiansen, a Hampton Bays fisherman who died at the age of 85 when his boat capsized while returning from fishing into Shinnecock Inlet in 2013, thought he had made all the necessary arrangements to transfer his licenses to his nephew, Norman Stiansen, before he died. Norman, also a Shinnecock Bay-based dragger captain, like his father and uncle, intended to take Stian’s licenses and transfer his own licenses to his son, Peter, who was nearing the age when he would take over a boat and go to work for himself. click here to read the story 09:34