NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NE-209
Impacts to Marine Fisheries Habitat
from Nonfishing Activities
in the Northeastern United States
Showing posts with label habitat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label habitat. Show all posts
Mar 27, 2016
Feb 19, 2016
Virtually visit lobster homes in 3 Penobscot Bay harbors. Sunday March 6th Rockland
For Immediate release 2/19/16
Contact: Friends of Penobscot Bay 207-691-7485
ROCKLAND. For more than a century, Penobscot Bay has been the salty heartland of the wild Maine lobster. On Sunday March 6th, from 2 to 4pm, join the Friends of Penobscot Bay at Stella Maris House in Rockland as they inspect the lobster habitats of Rockland Harbor, Searsport Harbor and Rockport Harbor, using underwater videos they've made and acquired of the bayfloors of these places.
Since the 1840s Penobscot Bay has dominated New England's lobster fishery. Come see lobsters hanging out beneath rocks and algae, sunken -into mud burrows, hiding hastily from an approaching video diver. Inspect the lobsters' "prairie dog town"-style burrow communities
"West Penobscot Bay's lobster fishery alone brings in around $130 million at the dock yearly", said Ron Huber executive director of Waterkeeper Alliance affiliate Friends of Penobscot Bay. "There's an economic multiplier up to about 650 million dollars circulating within Penobscot bay area communities. Lobsters are our area's real renewable resource!"
The Friends of Penobscot Bay believe that keeping this fishery healthy requires keeping the watery homes of Penobscot Bay's lobsters - from the intertidal hideouts of juvenile lobsters to the bay's sunken boulders and mudfloors.
"Seeing is believing" Friend's leader Huber said. "Come to Stella Maris House in Rockland on Sunday March 6th from 2-4pm and get to know the lobster habitats of Rockland Harbor, Searsport Harbor and Rockport Harbor"
Stella Maris House is located at 148 Broadway, Rockland, adjacent to St Bernard's Catholic Church. Plenty of parking. Snacks will be served.
For more information, contact Friends of Penobscot Bay at 207-691-7485 or by email at coastwatch@gmail.com
Friends of Penobscot Bay: a Waterkeeper Alliance affiliate. Caring for Maine's biggest Bay
Jan 9, 2008
Sears Island - at risk of LNG again?
Someone asked me recently
In 2004, LNG was kiboshed at Sears Island, after PBW's 2003-2004 FOAs of Governor Baldacci on the topic revealed his covert support for the proposal; outraged upper bay residents pressured him into agreeing to abide by a Searsport plebiscite, which rejected LNG at Sears Island.
The LNG issue then moved downeast, was swiftly thumbs-downed in Winter Harbor, but took root with the Passamaquoddy Nation and with another group of investors, only to run into the opposition of the Canadian government, which may well doom the two proposals there by barring LNG vessels entry into Passamaquoddy Bay by the only route that is even
remotely safe for large vessels.
Now? Over the last year and a half, the Maine Department of Transportation, state planning office and others, have managed to browbeat, outnegotiate and otherwise wear down most Sears Island protectors/opponents of the LNG proposal into signing off on an agreement to allow port development on 1/3 of Sears Island. In exchange for....a no-development easement on the rest of the island, and permission to build a visitors center.
What kind of port? That wasn't agreed upon. Could it be LNG once more? Possibly. Now that the LNG proposals on the shore of Passamaquoddy Bay are showing signs of defeat, Sears Island is the only logical site left in Maine.
And this time, most of the area environmental community, having signed off on that Sears-Island-port-is-okay agreement**, will have no legs to stand opposed on, for the agreement they signed pledged them not to oppose any port proposal for the island, as long as the port wannabes follow the regulatory process.
Oh...Governor Baldacci's promise still stands, but something like an 'energy emergency' or other plausible claim could well get him to backtrack on THAT.
** The agreement reached by the now-defunct stakeholders group stated specifically that
" 1) Inappropriate Uses for Sears Island: The Steering Committee acknowledges the position of Governor Baldacci that no LNG facility will be sited over the objection of local residents, and acknowledges that the majority of Searsport residents have clearly objected to siting such a facility within their community. The Steering Committee therefore agrees that no LNG facility of any kind would be an appropriate use for Sears Island."
As aforementioned, this Steering Committee no longer exists...but one hopes its agreements linger on.
The effect of other kinds of industrial ports on Penobscot Bay marine ecology would be similar to that of an LNG terminal - if not worse: (ballast water-mediated invasives, loss of eelgrass meadows important for groundfish larvae, among other impacts.
Arguably the most important thing to be done for Penobscot Bay right now is ensuring that the new federal regulation is finalized that designates Gulf of Maine coastal shallows, including those of Penobscot Bay, as Habitat Area of Particular Concern for juvenile Atlantic cod. See http://www.penbay.org/bm/hapcme.html
Once this process passes through its regulatory reviews, developers that want to impinge on the coast will have to demonstrate that their runoffs and discharges will not harm the prey of juvenile cod, let alone the juvenile cod themselves. The prey for freshly hatched cod -
amoebas and other soft protozoans -- are very susceptible to pesticides, and oil-tainted runoff. The timeline for that regulation is sometime late this year or early next.
Is the LNG issue still at large?
He was referring to Penobscot Bay, after reading an undated penbay.org webpage from 2004, on the then-proposal to build an LNG port on Sears Island; for all he knew, it was recent news.
My answer to Is the LNG issue still at large?
Yes and no. (But the yes has been increasing recently) Let's take a look back:He was referring to Penobscot Bay, after reading an undated penbay.org webpage from 2004, on the then-proposal to build an LNG port on Sears Island; for all he knew, it was recent news.
My answer to Is the LNG issue still at large?
In 2004, LNG was kiboshed at Sears Island, after PBW's 2003-2004 FOAs of Governor Baldacci on the topic revealed his covert support for the proposal; outraged upper bay residents pressured him into agreeing to abide by a Searsport plebiscite, which rejected LNG at Sears Island.
The LNG issue then moved downeast, was swiftly thumbs-downed in Winter Harbor, but took root with the Passamaquoddy Nation and with another group of investors, only to run into the opposition of the Canadian government, which may well doom the two proposals there by barring LNG vessels entry into Passamaquoddy Bay by the only route that is even
remotely safe for large vessels.
Now? Over the last year and a half, the Maine Department of Transportation, state planning office and others, have managed to browbeat, outnegotiate and otherwise wear down most Sears Island protectors/opponents of the LNG proposal into signing off on an agreement to allow port development on 1/3 of Sears Island. In exchange for....a no-development easement on the rest of the island, and permission to build a visitors center.
What kind of port? That wasn't agreed upon. Could it be LNG once more? Possibly. Now that the LNG proposals on the shore of Passamaquoddy Bay are showing signs of defeat, Sears Island is the only logical site left in Maine.
And this time, most of the area environmental community, having signed off on that Sears-Island-port-is-okay agreement**, will have no legs to stand opposed on, for the agreement they signed pledged them not to oppose any port proposal for the island, as long as the port wannabes follow the regulatory process.
Oh...Governor Baldacci's promise still stands, but something like an 'energy emergency' or other plausible claim could well get him to backtrack on THAT.
** The agreement reached by the now-defunct stakeholders group stated specifically that
" 1) Inappropriate Uses for Sears Island: The Steering Committee acknowledges the position of Governor Baldacci that no LNG facility will be sited over the objection of local residents, and acknowledges that the majority of Searsport residents have clearly objected to siting such a facility within their community. The Steering Committee therefore agrees that no LNG facility of any kind would be an appropriate use for Sears Island."
As aforementioned, this Steering Committee no longer exists...but one hopes its agreements linger on.
The effect of other kinds of industrial ports on Penobscot Bay marine ecology would be similar to that of an LNG terminal - if not worse: (ballast water-mediated invasives, loss of eelgrass meadows important for groundfish larvae, among other impacts.
Arguably the most important thing to be done for Penobscot Bay right now is ensuring that the new federal regulation is finalized that designates Gulf of Maine coastal shallows, including those of Penobscot Bay, as Habitat Area of Particular Concern for juvenile Atlantic cod. See http://www.penbay.org/bm
Once this process passes through its regulatory reviews, developers that want to impinge on the coast will have to demonstrate that their runoffs and discharges will not harm the prey of juvenile cod, let alone the juvenile cod themselves. The prey for freshly hatched cod -
amoebas and other soft protozoans -- are very susceptible to pesticides, and oil-tainted runoff. The timeline for that regulation is sometime late this year or early next.
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