Tag Archives: Virginia
I’m a fishing boat captain. Green energy companies, government want to put me out of business
Offshore wind energy might be killing whales, but there’s no question it’s killing American fishermen. I’ve been a fishing boat captain for over 20 years. I live on an island in Maine and sail out of New Bedford, Mass. My brothers and cousins are lobstermen. Fishing is the trade our family has plied for generations. We’re proud to practice the founding craft of our nation. When colonists first settled New England, they looked to the sea to sustain them. And so it is for our coastal communities four 
centuries on. But for how much longer? Federal regulators and foreign green energy companies seem determined to drive us off the water and lay waste to the communities that depend on fishing. If their well-laid development plans succeed, biblical calamity will follow for working people across New England. Consider the mechanics of fishing. Photos, Video, >click to read< 10:06
Maryland, Virginia race to save dwindling commercial fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay
Alarmed by plummeting stocks of commercial fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay, officials in Maryland and Virginia are scrambling to control invasive fish species that are causing at least part of the problem. On Thursday, Gov. Wes Moore asked the federal government to carry out an evaluation to determine if the situation amounts to a declaration of a “commercial fishery disaster,” which would qualify the state for federal assistance. In a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Moore said the state is increasingly concerned about the explosive growth of invasive fish species in the Chesapeake Bay, including blue catfish, flathead catfish and snakehead. >click to read< 09:11
Extended Va. Oyster Season Poised for Largest Harvest In 35 Years
With Virginia watermen enjoying their most bountiful wild harvest in 35 years, state fisheries managers have agreed to extend the season by two weeks. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) voted unanimously to allow wild oyster harvests for an extra 10 working days in areas where commission staff judged the bivalve populations abundant enough to withstand additional fishing pressure. “We’ve had a great oyster season, and it’s still going strong,” said J.C. Hudgins, head of the Virginia Waterman’s Association. “It’s been good everywhere we go.” Looking back, it’s quite a turnaround. >click to read< 07:36
2 whales found dead along Atlantic Coast were likely hit by boats, NOAA says.
Necropsies on two whales found dead along the Atlantic coast this week revealed that both marine mammals showed evidence of vessel strikes. Both whales, a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale and a humpback, were already beginning to decompose, but preliminary results show internal injuries consistent with the blunt force trauma of a vessel strike, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday. The deaths are among a flurry of 21 whale deaths along the length of the Atlantic coast since Dec. 3. >click to read< 09:20
Virginia: General Assembly bill could help end debate of whether menhaden are overfished in the Chesapeake Bay
The state Senate passed a bill Wednesday to fund a study by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to calculate menhaden populations in the state. The study would survey the number of fish over 18 months and the amount of bycatch, the unintended fish caught in the nets. The menhaden population along the Atlantic coast is considered healthy according to the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission, but groups such as the Virginia Saltwater Sport Fishing Association and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation want to know the numbers in the bay. Other fish, including striped bass, dine on menhaden. >click to read< 11:38
Here’s why workers are digging Chesapeake Bay blue crabs out of the mud this month
On a recent gray January morning, they were working a section of the upper Chesapeake Bay off Rock Hall on the Eastern Shore. Capt. Roger Morris, a Dorchester County waterman who works under contract with the state’s department of natural resources, dropped a Virginia dredge off the stern of F/V Mydra Ann, his 45-foot Bay workboat, and let the attached chain pay out until the dredge hit bottom 20-some feet below, jolting the boat. A Virginia dredge refers to an eight foot wide piece of equipment with an attached net that gets dropped into the water to dredge for crabs. Morris eased the throttle forward and dragged the dredge through the mud for one minute at three knots, then hauled it back up, pausing to rinse the mud out before bringing it on board. photos, >click to read< 19:08
Virginia Agrees to Compensate Fishing Industry for Damage from Offshore Wind Farms
Nine states, including Virginia, have agreed to establish a major compensation fund to pay their private commercial and recreational fishing companies for damages caused by offshore wind turbines. Three guesses where the money comes from. The announcement, made December 12, hints at it coming from project developers, but in Virginia of course that is a monopoly utility guaranteed by law to collect all costs from its customers. If the worst fears over CVOW’s impact on commercial fishing prove correct, a shrinking supply of seafood from the continental shelf will likely raise the prices on what is still coming to stores and restaurants. People may pay more both ways. >click to read< 07:31
N.J., N.E., to Consider Fund to Compensate Fishermen for Revenue Lost to Offshore Wind Development
New Jersey is one of nine states that will consider a plan to establish a fund that would compensate commercial fishermen for losses that could be sustained due to impending offshore wind development. The states – Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia – on Monday released a Request for Information (RFI) aimed at receiving input from impacted members of the fishing industry, offshore wind developers, corporate and financial management entities, as well as interested members of the public, to inform efforts to establish a regional fisheries compensatory mitigation fund administrator. “Mark off the area and then compensate us,” commercial fisherman Jim Lovgren, of Point Pleasant, said at a meeting on the topic five years ago,,, Photos, >click to read< 07:38
Virginia Regulators to Consider Changes to Menhaden Fishing Regulations
Virginia regulators will consider changes to commercial menhaden fishing in the Chesapeake Bay following requests from recreational anglers to put an end to the fishery. The proposals follow repeated requests from the Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association to stop menhaden fishing in the Bay, including a petition of 11,000 signatures that was presented to the office of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin earlier this year. Reedville-based Omega Protein, the lone player in the Bay’s menhaden reduction fishery, which processes catches into fishmeal or fish oil, says the new regulations take away available fishing grounds that include uninhabited areas. Taking operations completely out of the Bay into less safe conditions in the ocean would ultimately force the company to stop operating. >click to read< 11:51
Feds: Whales Must Be Protected from Turbines
Soon after a group of opponents to proposed East Coast offshore wind projects hired a law firm with environmental regulation expertise, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced a new plan to protect North Atlantic Right Whales and put it out for public comment. The opponents, with Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy as part of the coalition, had been pointing to the impact of the project on the whales for months and this protection and mitigation plan admits the problem is significant. One apparent result of that will be a major delay in publication of the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on Dominion Energy Virginia’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project off Virginia Beach. >click to read< 09:48
Public comment period opens on draft offshore wind areas
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Wednesday announced that a 30-day public comment period has begun on eight draft offshore wind energy areas, including off the North Carolina coast. BOEM said it will hold virtual public meetings to engage the fishing community and environmental organizations to gather more information on the proposed areas and discuss next steps. The proposed areas cover about 1.7 million acres off North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. The distances to their closest points range from about 19 to 77 nautical miles offshore. >click to read< 08:10
Bill introduced to ban controversial fishing method in Virginia
A bill has been introduced for the next session of the Virginia General Assembly to place a two year moratorium on Atlantic menhaden reduction fishing in Virginia’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay. State Delegate Tim Anderson is sponsoring the bill. Menhaden are a baitfish that serve as forage for a wide number of larger and sportfish species. The method of fishing has been criticized by sportfishing and conservation groups. Omega Protein operates a fishing fleet that targets menhaden. Critics say menhaden numbers have been driven down in the Chesapeake because of it, and that sportfish numbers have dropped as a result. Video, >click to read< -09:37
Panel hears debate on whether dead fish are pollutants
A Fourth Circuit panel heard arguments Tuesday over whether dead fish dumped back into the water by shrimping boats counts as pollution under the Clean Water Act. “You never know what you’re going to pull up fishing,” attorney Brian David Schmalzbach of McGuireWoods, who argued on behalf of shrimp fisheries, told the three-judge panel.,, And, your honors, contrary to the briefing from the appellees, this is right down the middle of the barrel of the Clean Water Act,” said attorney James L. Conner of Calhoun Bhella & Sechrest, who represents the North Carolina Coastal Fisheries Reform Group, at Tuesday’s hearing. “Are you still arguing that putting live fish back in the water is a pollutant?” Conner began to respond but Rushing interjected with a follow-up question. “You’re not arguing that live fish are a biological material? Only dead fish are a biological material?” she asked. >click to read< 20:00
No Offshore Wind: WV to work with VA on nuclear technology
Virginia lawmakers and West Virginia lawmakers are in talks on how to collaborate on expanding nuclear energy and innovating nuclear technology. Earlier this month, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced his new energy policy, which seeks to expand the state’s nuclear energy capabilities by constructing small modular nuclear reactors, also known as SMRs, to provide power. The state may work with its neighbor West Virginia on getting these reactors up and running. “These units can be built on old coal mining sites, and we already know we have the skilled machinists, engineers, welders and fabricators who can support the nuclear industry,” West Virginia House Speaker Roger Hanshaw. >click to read< 17:00
Proposed Virginia offshore wind farm threatens North Atlantic Right Whales
The proposed Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project is directly in the NARWs’ annual migration path. Dominion Energy has applied to erect 176 wind turbines, covering an area of approximately 10 miles by 15 miles—equal to the size of 85,000 football fields or the city of Tampa, Florida—located 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. Each turbine will sit atop a monopole extending a minimum of 80 feet into the water and about 120 feet into the ocean floor, and its height above the water will top 620 feet. That’s higher than the Washington Monument, which is 555 feet tall. “How to kill whales with offshore wind?” Wojick asks. “Just push them into traffic. The collision deaths would not be directly attributable to the wall of noise created by the OSW project, so who would know?” >click to read< 08:55
NEFMC to decide next moves on scallop license allocation leasing in Gloucester Tuesday
Scallop allocation leasing, the practice of boat owners selling days and tonnage from a fishing license to other vessel owners to harvest in restricted zones, has been at the center of debate in the Port of New Bedford since the NEFMC held two scoping meetings at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on May 11 and May 25 respectively. NEFMC invited stakeholders to attend nine meetings in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia, and two webinars. According to the Council, the vast majority, 78%, of the 286 commenters (several repeated, inflating the total number to 305) spoke against the proposed allocation leasing project during the scoping process. >click to read< 14:45
Regulators to vote on controversial scallop leasing plan Tuesday – After months of heated debate between scallop fleet owners, captains and crew, fisheries regulators are set to decide on a proposal to allow leasing in New England’s lucrative scallop fishery. More than 75% of the nearly 300 people who commented during the public process said they opposed leasing — most of them captains and crew out of New Bedford, >click to read<
This invasive fish population is exploding as native Blue Crab populations hit record lows.
The invasive species in question is the blue catfish, a species so large it has become known as the “River Monster of the Potomac ” and other major Chesapeake Bay tributaries. The catfish’s diet includes native Blue Crabs. A November 2021 study from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science reports the catfish consumed as many as 2.3 million crabs per year from a study area in the lower James River. The first blue catfish were intentionally imported into the James River in Virginia during the 1980s. The species is native to the Mississippi valley. The fish are huge and consume almost any other species of wildlife they can encounter, catch and swallow, including crabs and other shellfish, Love said. Researchers have found the blue catfish will even eat ducks. >click to read< 07:59
A seismic shock – Dominion May End $10B Offshore Wind Project Over Performance Clause
The giant utility Dominion Energy has found itself in a disagreement with state regulators over a proposed performance guarantee for its $10 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, one of the largest planned wind farms in the U.S. development pipeline. The clause is enough of a concern for Dominion that it has threatened to scuttle CVOW altogether and walk away, a seismic shock for the budding U.S. offshore wind industry. However, the Virginia State Corporation Commission, a regulator with a broad mandate governing insurance, railroads and utilities, has made a decision that may make CVOW untenable, according to Dominion. The SCC will allow Dominion to bill the cost of CVOW’s development to household ratepayers in the form of a miniscule rider fee, but only if its turbines perform at a 42 percent capacity factor or better in any three-year period. Any shortfalls would be Dominion’s to cover. >click to read< 07:32
North Atlantic right whales at Risk – Offshore wind farms bring a lot of unknowns
The race is on to get offshore wind farms built off the U.S. East Coast, and North Carolina is one of the leading states with three projects planned for the Tar Heel Coast, two roughly 20 miles south of Bald Head Island in Brunswick County and one, which will be built first, about 27 miles off Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks. And they might not be the last for the state’s coastal waters. While visiting a National Governors Association event in Wilmington last month, Gov. Roy Cooper was asked if he’d support more offshore wind built off the N.C. coast. “Absolutely,” he responded emphatically. >click to read< 09:26
Decline in Chesapeake crab population sparks hunt for answers
Commercial crabbers in Maryland and Virginia aren’t catching their limits, and the harvest in the first few months of the season was so meager that some gave up trying. “Crabs are so scarce that me and my son are still catfishing,” Billy Rice, a Charles County, MD, waterman, said in June. “We’re making more money catfishing than we would be crabbing.” Based on what they see on the water, crabbers have no shortage of theories about why the Bay’s most prized catch is hard to find: Changes in water quality, climate change and an influx of crab-eating fish top the list. Whatever the case, said J. C. Hudgins, president of the Virginia Waterman’s Association. “Mother Nature has throwed a wrench in the barrel.” >click to read< 14:23
Chesapeake Bay blue crabs in trouble, tighter harvest restrictions loom
With the Chesapeake Bay’s crab population at its lowest ebb in more than 30 years, Maryland and Virginia are moving to curtail harvests in one of the region’s most valuable fisheries. Fisheries regulators in both states have proposed new catch restrictions, with plans to finalize them by the end of June. In Maryland, tighter limits for both commercial and recreational crabbing would take effect in July and for the first time would limit commercial harvests of male crabs, not just females. New commercial restrictions in Virginia would begin in October and continue until the crabbing season ends Nov. 30. >click to read< 08:17
A Place Called Guinea – In Gloucester County, a centuries-old culture with its own dialect endures.
This place is where watermen weathered rugged conditions all day every day, fishing the rivers, dredging the oysters, and hauling in crab pots to harvest the seemingly endless bounty of the Chesapeake Bay. Smelling like fish, dismissive of their swollen hands and knuckles, these same men would later gather in a general store, you could find one on almost every corner, and swap stories over whose catch was the biggest. “Whoever was louder was the winner,” says fireman Nick Bonniville, whose father, grandfather, and a generation of great grandfathers all worked the Guinea waters. >click to read< 08:15
Gasoline, diesel prices put squeeze on Hampton Roads commercial fishing
“It’s going to get to a point where the customers won’t want to buy because it’s so outrageously expensive,” said Kyle Robbins. “Everyday it costs me about $150 to $200 just in fuel to leave the dock,” Robbins said. Six days a week, Robbins ventures out on a crabbing boat to haul in hundreds of pounds of crabs from the Chesapeake Bay. But the rising cost of fuel for those boats has caused his crabbing habits to change. “In certain times, maybe we can travel another 10 to 15 miles to catch more crabs, but we’re not wanting to spend the fuel, so we’re traveling only two to three miles,” he said. “It’s a lose-lose situation.” Video, >click to read< 08:15
Energy Insecurity: Biden’s Policies Leave Americans Vulnerable to Unreliable Wind & Solar
With the magnitude of the renewable energy-driven disaster playing out in Europe hard to ignore, it seems incredible that American Green New Deal Democrats remain fixated on chaotically intermittent wind and solar. And yet, they show no signs of relenting on their determined path to inevitable energy insecurity; an approach that borders on National treachery. The only winners are, of course, the rent-seekers and crony capitalists who stand to profit from an endless stream of subsidies directed to the owners,,, Paul Driessen focuses on Virginia, It mostly means thousands of onshore and offshore wind turbines and millions of solar panels, covering 10-25 times the area of Washington, DC, Virginia’s 5,200 MW of offshore wind alone will require nearly 20,000 tons of copper. At an average of 0.44% copper in ore deposits worldwide, the copper alone would require mining and processing 4.5 million tons of ore, after removing some 7 million tons of overburden to reach the ore bodies. >click to read< 14:29
‘Let’s Go Brandon’ boat wins holiday parade contest, then is stripped of award
“Let’s go, Brandon”, a boat bedecked with a coded insult to President Joe Biden, won the Yorktown Lighted Boat Parade contest Saturday evening. At least initially. Hours after the festive event, the Yorktown Foundation, the non-profit organization that sponsors the parade, disqualified the winning vessel for its “overt political message” and stripped it of its award. A member of the Yorktown Foundation’s board of directors, Walt Akers, apologized to the community and event sponsors Monday for what he called “a huge mistake,,, “And we’re going to take actions to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.” >click to read< 22:00 The mistake is all yours, Walt!
Daughter of Reedville Fisherman’s Museum Founder Named President
Passion, love of a cause and, and energy – Becky Haynie of Reedville, Va. checks all three boxes for the Reedville Fishermen’s Museum where she was recently elected president of the board of directors. Becky’s passion and love of the job comes from her late father Wendell Haynie who passed away Dec. 20, 2020. Wendall, his brother Braxton and Alice Butler spearheaded the formation of the Greater Reedville Association in 1988, which led to the creation of the museum.,, “My father grew concerned that so many artifacts were disappearing off the boats and that there would not be any left for posterity,” she said. “He wanted to create a home to secure and display them. I want to make sure that home is secure too. >click to read< 09:05
Waterman Allen Ray Crockett of Tangier Island has passed away
Mr. Allen Ray Crockett, beloved husband of Jeanette Bowden Crockett, passed away Monday, June 28, 2021. Allen was the son of the late Merrill Ray Crockett and the late Ruth Hall Parks Crockett. He was born Dec. 26, 1936, on Tangier Island, where he remained a pillar of the community throughout his 84 years. Allen’s lifelong career as a waterman began when he was just a boy standing on a crate as he worked alongside his father. Over the years he would travel to Crisfield, Md., to sell his Dad’s crabs, where the buyer always greeted him by saying, “Look out! Here comes Merrill’s boy.” Throughout his career, he owned three boats, The Wellington K., The Jeannette C., and finally, The Claudine Sue, which is now proudly owned and operated as The Samantha Paige, by his grandson, Thomas Reed Eskridge. >click to read< 17:26
A century before civil rights, Black oystermen in Suffolk forged economic independence
One by one, 6 feet apart, the many granddaughters and friends of Marie Hill climbed the three brick steps of her porch in mid-February to pay their respects. They waved through the front door of the Suffolk home where Hill had lived for more than 80 years. “Happy birthday to you. Happy 100th birthday to you,” For multiple generations, Hill’s family, including her husband, Ernest Hill, Jr., had oystered out of Chuckatuck Creek. At its peak in 1910, the village was home to nearly 500 people. With money earned working farms and once-prosperous oyster beds, Hobson residents were able to live in relative independence. photos, >click to read< 17:32
New Fees at Cape Charles Harbor Hit Hard for Virginia Commercial Watermen
“We as commercial fishermen feel like we are just kind of systematically being driven out of the harbor,” Scott Wivell said of continually rising harbor rates and expectations from harbor management that make him, as a waterman, feel unwelcome. The Cape Charles town council approved the new harbor management agreement Sept. 17, 2020, which took effect at the beginning of the new year. According to the town harbor management vision statement, the Cape Charles Yacht Center pledged “to improve the appearance, function, and financial position of the Town Harbor,” which is deteriorating and struggles to break even, much less turn a profit. >click to read< 07:59
Oyster Prices Plummet As Diners Stay Home Amid Pandemic
With several hours of daylight to spare, Ronnie Robbins and his son, Jason, had already docked their 36-foot deadrise workboat on Hooper’s Island and started unloading their briny cargo.,,, It isn’t a supply problem. Watermen in Maryland and Virginia alike say they are having no trouble landing their daily wild oyster quotas.,,, “We got lots of oysters, and they’re excellent quality,” said Bill Sieling,,, The problem is decreased demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. >click to read< 09:31
