The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s October meeting will be held October 5-8, 2020. The meeting was originally scheduled to be held in Riverhead, NY. Due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19 and public safety, the meeting will be held via webinar. Briefing materials will be posted below as they become available. AGENDA
Questions? Contact Mary Sabo at msabo@mafmc.org, (302) 518-1143.
Public Comments
Written comments must be received by 11:59 p.m. on September 23, 2020 to be included in the briefing book. Comments received after this date but before 5:00 p.m. on October 1, 2020 will be posted as supplemental materials on the Council meeting web page. After that date, all comments must be submitted using an online comment form available at https://www.mafmc.org/comments/october-2020-public-comments.
REGISTER NOW
The Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean (MACO) will host a public webinar on Oct. 8 at 2 p.m. that features discussion from U.S. Coast Guard representatives about port access and navigation safety studies that the agency is leading along the Atlantic Coast as offshore wind development proceeds. The free session will also include a panel discussion with representatives of the port, maritime ind offshore wind industries.
The Coast Guard is currently conducting four Port Access Route Studies (PARS) for areas including the Northern New York Bight, the New Jersey coast and Delaware Bay approaches, the Chesapeake Bay approaches, and the North Carolina coast. The purpose of the studies is to evaluate the adequacy of existing vessel routing measures and determine whether changes are necessary in these areas due to factors such as offshore wind development, current port capabilities and anticipated improvements, increased vessel traffic, existing and potential anchorage areas, effects of weather and navigational difficulty. The Coast Guard is also evaluating a potential system of fairways intended to ensure that traditional navigation routes along the East Coast are kept free from obstructions that could impact navigation safety.
The webinar will begin with presentations on the studies by George Detweiler, Michele DesAutels and Capt. Maureen Kallgren of the U.S. Coast Guard. Nick Napoli and Karl Vilacoba of the MARCO Data Portal team will demonstrate interactive maps showing the study areas online. Afterward, a panel of industry stakeholders including Will Fediw of the Virginia Maritime Association, Stuart Griffin of the Pilots’ Association for the Bay and River Delaware, Jeff Kaelin of Lund’s Fisheries, and Tom Vinson of the American Wind Energy Association will provide perspectives on navigation safety. The panel will be moderated by Tony MacDonald of the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute. Members of the audience will be welcome to take part in an open Q&A session with the speakers.
BOEM is hosting a Virtual New York Bight Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force meeting on April 14 and 16, 2021, which will include an update on BOEM’s renewable energy planning activities and an opportunity for the public to provide input on a draft Proposed Sale Notice for the New York Bight.
For more information and to register for the Task Force Meeting, visit the New York Bight Task Force Virtual Meeting Room. Times will be announced soon.
Sincerely,
NYSERDA Offshore Wind Team
BOEM is hosting a Virtual New York Bight Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force meeting on April 14 and 16, 2021, which will include an update on BOEM’s renewable energy planning activities and an opportunity for the public to provide input on a draft Proposed Sale Notice for the New York Bight.
For more information and to register for the Task Force Meeting, visit the New York Bight Task Force Virtual Meeting Room. Times will be announced soon.
Sincerely,
NYSERDA Offshore Wind Team
Monday, May 3, 2021 12:30 – 4:00 PM
Tuesday, May 4, 2021 9:30 AM – 3:00 PM
Wednesday, May 5, 2021 9:15 AM – 1:45 PM
Thursday, May 6, 2021 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM
For more information please visit the Forum web page.
You are invited to The Great Atlantic Climate Conveyor Belt and How It’s Changing — the second in a series of webinars on Climate-Induced Ocean Changes. Our speakers include:
- Dr. Rick Lumpkin, Acting Director of the Physical Oceanography Division of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, who will present on “Observing the structure and variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation“
- Dr. Thomas Delworth, Senior Scientist at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory), who will present on “Model-based predictions and projections of North Atlantic climate variability and change“
You are invited to The Causes and Consequences of a Warming Ocean on Thursday, July 29 — the third in a series on climate-induced ocean changes. Our speakers include:
- Dr. Hillary Scannell, a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, on “Drivers and mechanisms of marine heatwaves in the Northwest Atlantic“
- Dr. Andrew Pershing, Director of Climate Science at Climate Central, on “Impacts of ocean temperature extremes on northeast ecosystems and economic”
Join us on July 29th at 9:30 am as we continue to explore how a changing climate is impacting the ocean water of the North Atlantic. “Scientists estimate that the oceans have absorbed more than 90 percent of the heat trapped by excess greenhouse gases since mid-century . . . This excess heat is increasing not only baseline ocean temperatures but also the frequency and duration of marine heat waves,” (New York Times, March 4, 2019).
Please register in advance of the webinar at https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/3380567658244280336. This webinar series is being co-sponsored by NOAA’s Eastern Region Climate Team, the Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean (MACO) and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association of Coastal and Ocean Observing Systems (MARACOOS).
Join BOEM online as industry subject matter experts discuss updates to offshore wind and maritime activities that have occurred since the 2018 Offshore Wind and Maritime Industry Knowledge Exchange, share how past recommendations and approaches were incorporated in offshore wind and marine transportation co-existence, and continue discussing measures to minimize risk to safety and disruptions to maritime transportation operations while supporting the development of domestic renewable energy.
REGISTER for the upcoming webinar – August 19 – Marine Spatial Planning for the Maritime Sector
In person at the Westin Annapolis (100 Westgate Circle Annapolis, MD 21401) and online via Webex webinar.
This meeting will be conducted as a hybrid meeting. Council members, other meeting participants, and members of the public will have the option to participate in person at the Westin Annapolis or virtually via Webex webinar. Both virtual attendees and those attending the meeting in person will use the “raise hand” function in Webex to comment, ask questions, make motions, and vote. We are recommending that all in-person attendees either be vaccinated or receive a negative COVID test prior to meeting attendance. We are also encouraging attendees to wear a mask when moving around the hotel and meeting space.
Webinar Information
The virtual portion of the meeting will be conducted via Webex webinar. No pre-registration is required. The webinar link will be the same for all four meeting days.
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Click here to join the webinar (if prompted, enter meeting number: 2330 933 4966; Meeting password: ncKMj56xX6p)
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Join by phone: For those who will not be joining the webinar but would like to listen in to the audio portion only, dial 1-415-655-0001 and enter access code: 2330 933 4966#). When asked for your attendee ID, enter #. Participants connected by phone only will need to enter *6 on their keypad to unmute/mute themselves and *3 to raise/lower their hands.
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Need Help? If you need technical assistance, please check the Webex Participant Guide. For further assistance, contact Mary Sabo at msabo@mafmc.org or 302-518-1143 (call or text).
We will also be live streaming the meeting to our YouTube channel.