Tag Archives: from Virginia to Massachusetts
NJ’s lucrative clam fishing industry is threatened by climate change – and the wind farms meant to fight it
The Atlantic surfclam fleet fishes year-round from Virginia to Massachusetts and out to the edge of the continental shelf. The fleet sold $27 million worth of surfclams to processors last year, federal data shows, and the sector is largely based out of New Jersey — three-fifths of last year’s haul was brought ashore in the Garden State. Surfclam meat is used for chowders, clam strips and other products, including tinned products. Muscles that the clams use to pull themselves around the seafloor, which are called tongues or feet, are the most highly valued parts. The product unloaded in Point Pleasant Beach was destined to be shucked at the processing plant and delivered to manufacturers like Campbell’s, Bumble Bee Foods and LaMonica Fine Foods. more, >>click to read<< 10″57
Offshore wind farms expected to reduce clam fishery revenue
An important East Coast shellfish industry is projected to suffer revenue losses as offshore wind energy develops along the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic coasts, according to two Rutgers studies. The studies examined how offshore wind farms planned for the eastern United States could disrupt fishing of the Atlantic surfclam, a major economic driver from Virginia to Massachusetts that generates more than $30 million in direct annual revenue. Total fleet revenue declines measured by the studies ranged from 3 percent to 15 percent, depending on the scale of offshore wind development and response of the fishing fleet. In New Jersey, losses could be as high as 25 percent for fishing vessels based in Atlantic City. >click to read< 15:36
