Today black sea bass are climate
change winners. They are more abundant
due to warming water like this fish caught off Rhode Island by Capt. Dave
Monti.
Fishermen suggest regional panels to eye cumulative wind farm impacts
It’s very hard to get a handle on
offshore wind. We have twenty or so lease areas from Massachusetts to the Carolinas,
six of them (all granted to developers now) are off Rhode Island and
Massachusetts. The kicker is that each of these lease areas will house multiple
projects. Projects that could harm or
help habitat and fish in their area.
However, the big question being asked by fishermen and scientists alike,
is what cumulative impact they will they have on fish and habitat when they are
all built, up and running?
For the past few months Vineyard
Wind has been in negotiation with fishermen on a mitigation plan for one
project… eventually many projects will be built on the east coast. The permitting process and various stages of
approval for any one wind farm is daunting including, hundreds of meetings, hearings,
permits, negotiations, etc. Who knows
what effect several projects in an area will have, developers have been just trying
to get their project up and running.
Offshore wind farm developers are
much like land developers. They acquire
or lease a parcel and then develop it with ocean wind farms as they have the
electricity sold. Much the same way that
a land developer would develop a large parcel of land only building what they
have good reason to believe they can sell in stages.
Last month during mitigation negotiations
Rhode Island fishermen on the Fisheries Advisory Board (FAB) of the
Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC) approved a $16.7-million negotiated
mitigation agreement with Vineyard Wind.
The settlement provides funds for research to study safe effective
fishing in the project area as well as research that may help future projects
and their relationship to fishing. The
agreement also includes $4.2 million in payments spread over 30 years for
assistance with direct impacts of the wind farm on fishing in Rhode Island.
The Fisheries Advisory Board of CRMC,
the Anglers for Offshore Wind (AFOW) which is a recreational fishermen’s group
that supports the responsible development of ocean wind, and the Rhode Island Saltwater
Anglers Association (RISAA) all expressed concern to the Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management (BOEM) about cumulative impacts.
All expressed concern at public hearings and in writing after hearings pertaining
to Vineyard Wind’s Environmental Impact Statement on the project.
RISAA and the AFOW both suggested
that BOEM establish regional fisheries advisory committees. The committees would look at wind farms on a
regional basis taking into account any negative or positive cumulative impacts
on habitat and fish multiple wind farms in a region may have together.
Renewable energy in the form of
offshore wind is vitally important for our nation to help stem the tide on
climate change and provide clean, affordable energy for all Americans. However, we have to stay on top of things and
make sure we do no harm to fish or habitat in the process.
I believe regional committees that
keep an eye on individual projects and cumulative impacts of multiple wind
farms in a region makes a lot of sense.
Like other fishermen I hope BOEM takes this suggestion under advisement
and forms such committees. For
information on ocean wind farms visit https://www.boem.gov/Offshore-Wind-Energy/
.
Warming
water impacting fish volume, down 15 to 35% in some regions
A study titled ‘Impacts of historical
warming on marine fisheries production’ was released in Science magazine last week at http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6430/979. The study was led by Christopher M. Free of
the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University along with a number
of collaborating scientists.
The study abstract relates Dr. Free
and his associates “used temperature specific models and hindcasting across
fish stocks to determine the degree to which warming has, and will, affect
fish.” The study found that overall fish
yield has reduced over the past 80 years.
The study said, “Furthermore, although some species are predicted to
respond positively to warming waters, the majority will experience a negative
impact on growth.”
The study used temperature-dependent
populations models to measure the influence of warming. Some populations responded significantly
positively and others responded significantly negatively to warming. Hindcasts indicate that the maximum
sustainable yield of the evaluation populations (235 of them) decreased by 4.1 percent
from 1930 to 2010, with five ecoregions experiencing loses of 15 to 35 percent.
In
a Rutgers Today interview, study
co-author Dr. Malin Pinsky said, “We were stunned to find that fisheries around
the world have already responded to ocean warming. These aren’t hypothetical changes sometime in
the future.” Rutgers Today said the study reports that the effects of ocean warming have been
negative for many species, but also finds that other species have benefited
from warming waters.
“Fish populations can only
tolerate so much warming, though,” said senior author Olaf Jensen, an associate
professor at Rutgers. “Many of the species that have benefited from warming so
far are likely to start declining as temperatures continue to rise.”
Black
sea bass and scup are examples of species that have benefited from warming in
our region, however, as study scientists related even these species (as well as
other species in our region) may start to decline as temperature continues to
rise.
Public hearing Monday, March 11 on
regulations
The
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and the RI Marine Fisheries
Council is holding a public hearing on a number of proposed commercial and
recreational 2019 regulations Monday, March 11, 6:00 p.m., Corless Auditorium,
URI Bay Campus, Narragansett.
Regulations covered at the meeting will include black sea bass, summer
flounder, scup, striped bass, bluefish, cod and others. For the meeting agenda and a copy of the presentation
that will be given at the hearing visit www.dem.ri.gov/programs/fish-wildlife/marine-fisheries/rimfc/index.php.
Stripers
Forever advocates for reductions in striper mortality
In
a press release last week Stripers Forever, an organization that advocates for striped bass conservation measures,
said, “The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
(ASMFC) announced in January that the striped bass resource is significantly
overfished and that the spawning stock biomass has dropped back to levels last
seen in the early 1990s.”
Stripers
Forever president Brad
Burns said “Stripers Forever supports significant reductions in recreational
fishing mortality beginning this season.” According to Stripers Forever the commercial fishery has comparatively small
socio- economic benefits, and it is concentrated on large breeding-age fish
which are the sector of the resource that is in the greatest trouble.
Burns said that “Stripers Forever
feels that all commercial fishing activity for stripers should end either
through a buyout program paid for by the sale of a striped bass stamp, or
phased out by grandfathering those commercial fisherman who have had a
minimum average amount of sales over the past several years and not issuing any
new licenses.”
Stripers Forever expects the ASMFC to announce in May
that regulatory changes will be imposed in 2020 to reduce striped bass
mortality; specifically minimum sizes will be increased for recreational
fishing and a decreased commercial quota for the commercial fishery. Some
states may take immediate actions to reduce striped bass mortality, especially
release mortality, such as Massachusetts, where circle hooks may become
mandatory for bait fishing and gaffing of live striped bass may be prohibited.
Where’s
the bite?
Cod
fishing. Party
boats sailing for cod this time of year includes the Frances Fleet at www.francesfleet.com , the Seven B’s
at www.sevenbs.com, and the Island
Current at www.islandcurrent.com .
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