Tag Archives: Maryland Department of the Environment
US Wind to offer compensation package to local fishermen
This week, US Wind’s senior director of external affairs, Nancy Sopko, confirmed that the company is developing a mitigation program for commercial and for-hire recreational fishermen. The announcement comes a week after the Worcester County Commissioners shared concerns about a potential agreement. “US Wind is adopting a compensation program to benefit commercial and for-hire recreational fishermen, a measure BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) recognized as effective in our FEIS (Federal Environmental Impact Statement),” Sopko said. “US Wind and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources signed a Letter of Intent in July 2024 to develop a fisheries compensatory mitigation program by early 2025. Such a mitigation program could include financial assistance, assistance with equipment upgrades or training, and other services. We look forward to working with the state on outreach to the fishing community to further develop details of this mitigation program.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 18:09
Susquehanna River Debris Has Crabbers Concerned After Heavy Rains
The slew of debris from as far as upstate New York is now hitting our region after officials were forced to open gates on the Conowingo Dam in the Susquehanna River. This is due to the rain that pounded the area last week. For Blair Baltus, he’s bearing the brunt of that debris. “When that flood water came down, it killed most of the crabs that were in the pots.” President of the Baltimore Watermens Association, Baltus says these months are supposed to be the peak of crab catching season. “With these gates opening up it pretty much flushed away everything we had.” Baltus said. >click to read<11:07
St. Mary’s Watermen: One License Revoked, Another Charged with Fraud
A St. Mary’s County man had his commercial oyster license revoked after he was convicted last Thursday of harvesting oysters from polluted waters. Andrew Phillip Nelson, 20, of Hollywood, was charged in May with catching oysters from St. Inigoes Creek off the St. Mary’s River, an area closed to harvesting by the Maryland Department of the Environment because of pollution. A St. Mary’s County waterman has been criminally charged with running a commercial fishing fraud scheme, the Maryland Natural Resources Police reported. Robert Maurice Lumpkins, 62, of Piney Point, was charged Friday with perjury, false entry in a public record and theft between $10,000 and $100,000 for illegally obtaining the striped bass allocation of an ailing waterman and then allowing an employee to temporarily use the allocation. Read the rest here 15:41
