NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - NBC on Earth: Fishing for Energy

Episode Date: April 21, 2018

Fishermen have been pulling in a different kind of catch in the Florida Keys: lobster traps and fishing gear lost at sea. Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent Anne Thompson reports on how some of that debris is being turned into energy.

Hidden under the aquamarine waters of the Florida Keys, debris from last year's Hurricane Irma. Thousands of damaged lobster traps littering the sea floor, abandoned fishing ropes twisting among its crucial coral reefs. This marine debris is a threat to wildlife and a hindrance to the economic welfare of those who make their living from the sea. But could an initiative to clean it all up turn the tide? On the Gulf of Mexico, I'm Ann Thompson, and this is NBC on Earth. So this is what they're catching. This is a spiny lobster. And unlike the lobsters of New England that have the big claws, these don't. And they are spawned in the Caribbean, and then they come up, and they grow spawned in the Caribbean and then they come up and they

grow up here in the Florida Keys. But now fisherman Jeff Kramer is hauling in a different kind of catch. So where are we headed? We are headed right here. There's a few scattered traps from the hurricane. We usually just come up to a single trap and we'll pull it up and it's fairly easy. Now, are these traps where they should be? No, no. These were displaced from the hurricane.

They could have come from 10 miles away and pushed through the bridge and over here. Actually, this area we're in right now, there was probably 1,000 traps moved from the ocean side into here and what we do is normally what we and what we did this storm is we'll bring our traps from the ocean side as many as we can get you know because with the weather forecasting you don't really know until a couple days really where it's gonna go you know so we try and move start moving our traps but it takes it takes a long time it takes 30 days for me to get my traps in so you know it takes a while to get them moved in so we'll put them in here because in a

normal hurricane this is protected and the traps will be in perfect we put them in a line here before the hurricane and I can come back out to the hurricane they're in a perfect line what happened what happened this time? This time, all that traps came from the ocean side, what was out there, and it came through the bridges, and it just got, and all these traps moved, and it was just giant, just everywhere. How many traps did you lose? I lost about 1,300 traps out of my 3,400 traps. So you lost more than a third? Yes, yes. And some guys lost half

and I've heard of some guys losing even more than that. So losing more than a third of your traps, what did that do to your business? Well, it definitely impacted my business quite a bit. We rushed to get as many traps as we could back in place and because usually after a hurricane the traps will get full of seaweed and mud and everything that got stirred up just goes inside of the traps you know so they can't catch anything so we got to go pick them up and try as much as we can but you got to get your crew back after the hurricane and the people aren't buying lobster because their facilities are down you know know, for three weeks.

So really, we couldn't really get out and do much. For Captain Jeff, his hair bleached by sun and age, Hurricane Irma was a disaster. This hurricane here, I've been fishing 40 years, and I've never seen anything like this one. And he wasn't alone. Across Florida, more than 300,000 traps were displaced by the hurricane. Losses for the creatures above and below. Pamela Gruver and your title? Biological scientist Ford. First of all, talk to me about how big a problem is fishing debris in the ocean here in Florida. In

Florida, it's a huge issue. You know, gear becomes lost in Florida from passing storms that can move traps miles. We've got, you know, boaters that will unintentionally cut off a buoy. We've got barges that can go over a line of traps and displace them that way. So there's a lot of gear that gets lost in Florida. And what does that do to the marine life? It can entangle endangered species like sea turtles and manatees. It can get wrapped around a coral reef and entangle mangroves and things like that. Is there one problem that you've had here that's sort of like the seminal problem of fishing debris in the water? You mentioned

manatees, you mentioned coral reefs, is there something? Yeah, I think in the Keys specifically, the coral reefs are a huge concern. But in general, just having gear out catching organisms, you know, ghost fishing, continuing to catch them and kill them, that's a big problem down here. And what does that do to the fishing business itself, this ghost fishing? It reduces the harvest that's out there for the commercial fishermen and can impact their livelihoods. So actually they're helping themselves by pulling this stuff out of the ocean? Absolutely. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has worked closely with the commercial fishing industry for years. They are

self-regulating. They saw this as a problem almost before we did and asked for our help and cooperated with us to get this gear out of the water every year. How much have you removed here in Florida? FWC, each year we come down to the Keys and other locations throughout the state, and during the closed season we remove any trap that's still in the water. In the Keys alone, we remove about 5,000 traps a year. Wow, that's a lot.

Is the debris situation worse this year because of what happened last year? Absolutely. We're going to be seeing hurricane impacts, I think, for a long time. There's gear that was immediately visible that had been displaced, but there's also gear that's been held down for now, and that may pop up in a few years. And so we'll be dealing with this for some time. There's about 300,000 traps that were lost and 3,500 miles of rope to go along with that. And so even where we know where it's at, it's taking time just to address

everywhere that it's been lost. 3,500 miles of rope? 3,500 miles of rope. And that's an estimate. 300,000 traps. So the, you know, the fishermen have lost a huge source of their income, but it's posing a huge risk for entanglement and damaging sensitive habitat. And the boaters, it can be a navigational hazard if you drive up on a cluster of traps. It's windy out on the water, stirring up the waves and sediment, making the typically clear water murky. Tough going for the fishermen. Diver Chase Grimes searches underwater for the damaged traps and ropes. The visibility is poor, but he finds a few. A winch hauls in the trap and pulls it onto the boat. Also on board is Holly Bamford, the chief conservation officer for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

They're partnering with NOAA and local fishermen like Captain Jeff to catch some of that gear and turn it into energy. More about that part later. So what kind of difference does it make to pull old traps out of the Gulf of Mexico? A significant difference. This type of effort is so key to supporting fish and wildlife in the ocean. I mean, most people focus on what they see on the surface. This is a hidden danger to fish and wildlife, protected species and so forth. So this is a very critical component to success in terms of cleaning up the ocean. You've been doing this for what, 10 years now?

Ten years, yes. I've been doing this for 10 years. Can you see it making a difference? We can. This program offers, Fishing for Energy, really offers a multifaceted approach. One, it allows removal, so getting the stuff out of the ocean as quick as we can so we can protect it. But it also allows an education component. People on the water see us doing this work and they see the value of it. They also see the impacts it can have so we try to also reduce the amount in the ocean. And you've got the same people who are putting this stuff in the ocean taking it

out as well. Absolutely. That's why it's a critical public-private partnership. You need the federal and state agencies because they know the waters, but you need the fishermen. They're the ones that know these waters best and they know the gear and they know where the gear is at. What kind of difference, you said it's been 10 years and you do see it making a difference. But beyond the education part, from an environmental standpoint, is it cleaning up what we can't see?

It is. And this program also offers an innovation and technology component. There is universities out there developing new gear that has biodegradable panels so it doesn't continue to fish. That's one of the biggest impacts with derelict gear. It's what we call ghost fishing. And so ghost fishing, basically these things are meant to fish, and they continue to do so after they're lost at sea.

And so what's happening is there's a technology component to looking at gear and developing in a way that doesn't continue to catch the species. What kind of danger does debris like this pose to the marine life? Well, one, it smothers healthy habitat. And so this is a big impact for the seagrass. Second, when storms come and high winds, this stuff moves around and actually bumps up to coral reef tracks, which are endangered around here. And third, it's actually a significant impact to navigation. In shallow waters, vessels can hit this and mess up their propellers. So economically and environmentally, the gear can have a significant impact.

And then why send this to an incinerator to be burned? Right, so this is old gear creating new energy. It really is an opportunity to reduce the amount of debris going into landfills. It produces clean energy for the communities, and it allows free disposal for fishermen to bring gear back to the shore so it can be deposited within these facilities. You've done this for 10 years.

You have it in 10 states, is that correct? Yes, we have it in 44 different locations and ports around the country in 10 states. And it is a phenomenal growth over the years in terms of educating the communities, pulling debris out of the ocean. We have about 1,500 tons of debris that we've pulled up since the beginning of this program. What's the most dangerous thing that fishermen leave in the ocean to wildlife or to marine life? Well the biggest thing we see is, and again a lot of people focus on what they can see on the surface, it's really the dangers under the water and it's mainly the the traps and these guys here, these panels simply come off and it

allows animals to come in and out, but some of the other crab traps aren't as, break down as quickly. And so they create a significant impact to marine life because they're self-baiting. Once an animal goes inside, the other fish want to go inside as well. And if crabs go in, so it starts to self-bait itself. When I think of this issue, I think of the pictures of dolphins or seals entangled in nets. Is that the real danger here? Absolutely. We see that all the time across the U.S. when we pull up these gear.

A lot of times these here typically trap some of the crustaceans, but the nets are so dangerous. We see dolphins entangled, we see other mammals entangled, we see fish entangled into those gear. And so that's why it's very, very important to remove it from the ocean because these have a significant impact on the wildlife. I heard there's a new study out that says, what, there's some 700,000 tons, is that correct, of fishing debris in the world's oceans? Yeah, so there's a number of estimates, but right now the closest estimate we have in terms of total debris in the ocean is about 150 million tons of debris. 150 million tons?

And it's estimated approximately 20% of that is what we call ocean-based debris, and of that about 10% is the fishing gear. Okay, so of the ocean-based, what is ocean-based debris? So ocean, yeah, exactly. So ocean-based debris are those things that come off of vessels or are used for extraction in terms of coastal water, in terms of fishing. So it's things that are coming from the ocean through mainly vessels or offshore platforms. The 80% is what we see typically bottles, bags, things like that, that are coming from terrestrial land and getting washed into the shore.

And can you put a number on what's the estimate about the fishing debris that's in the oceans? That's a difficult one, but if you assume that it's about 150 million tons of debris and about 10% of that, it's about 15 million tons of debris would probably be from fishing. Wow. That's a lot. It's a lot. Are we... And that's a global number.

That's a global number. That's a global. Not U.S. That's correct. Now for the energy part of the Fishing for Energy program. At no cost to them, the fishermen's catch is hauled away and taken to a Covanta plant. There's one in Miami, where recyclables are separated and the rest mixed in with giant mountains of trash, then burned to power 45,000 Miami homes.

This is what comes out of the community, out of your kitchen if you will, that hasn't been left on the curb for recycling and the like. That's Paul Gilman, the Chief Sustainability Officer for Covanta. Paul, we're here in the control room of this waste facility and behind me I see all kinds of cameras or behind you I see all kinds of cameras, or behind you I see all kinds of cameras with trash going in that. Of all the trash that comes through here, some 4,600 tons a day, how much of that comes from the Fishing for Energy program?

Well, actually a very small part of it. It's sort of a specialty program that we've done with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the federal government. It's a small part, but it's a very important part because it's very destructive in the environment. Can you put a percentage on it? Oh, it's tiny. It's well less than a percent.

Less than one percent. Yes. And yet you do this, so it can't be a moneymaker for you, I would think. Oh, no, no, no. It's a money coster. Really? How much does it cost you? Well, we contribute to the overall program to establish facilities around the country to pick up this gear.

The fishermen can't necessarily afford to dispose of this. They typically are going to send it to landfills. It's pretty expensive. So we pick up the tab on that. And I think most folks have recognized that we can recover metal from it, we can recover energy from it, and really do something sustainable with the waste. Of the waste that you pick up, what percentage is recycled and what percentage is burned? Oh, uh... Of the fishing.

Of the fishing. Fishing waste. Oh, probably by weight, much more than half of it is recycled as metal. It depends on the particular load, but the rest we do energy recovery on. So there's some form of recovery virtually on all of it. So explain to me what's energy recovery. Energy recovery is a step that we take right after you've done your three R's, reduce, reuse, and recycle.

When that's done, we do energy recovery. So materials that would otherwise maybe go in a hole in the ground and not have any value for the future, perhaps even making methane gas, we take them and we recover the energy from it, and we usually recover a considerable amount more metal as well. So I guess, as you said, this is is not a this isn't a money maker for Covanta it's actually an expense so why is what's in it for Covanta then? Well our business really is about helping communities be more sustainable. When the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation came to us and said would we partner they recognized that what we'd be doing with the waste was a more sustainable

route to go than just landfilling it so we were happy to to join in do something good for the ocean something good for the fishermen it gives us a chance to tell our story as i'm telling it to you so explain to me what actually happens to once the once the fishing gear is sorted out and the metals go off to be recycled, what happens to the waste that is not going to be recycled? That waste is, at this facility, that waste is taken. It's then shredded so that it can be a very combustible fuel, burned cleanly. It's shredded and then it's put in the combustion machine, if you will, and steam is made from that.

That steam then drives turbines and that's what makes our electricity. And how many households does it power here in Miami? We power about 45,000 households. About 45,000? Yes. That's a fairly big number. Oh yes, nationwide we power about a million households.

About a million households. You mentioned that it's energy recovery and I know you like to call it clean energy, but environmentalists say, look, there is nothing about this that is clean. It still produces emissions. It still produces sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, greenhouse gas emissions. So what do you say to that? Well first of all, our best friend is the Clean Air Act. It's made us have to build air pollution control systems

that really were leading edge in the United States, technologies that hadn't been used by even coal-fired power plants. And the result is we produce power in a way with the emissions that we regulate under the Clean Air Act that are really on a par with even the cleanest source of fuels that utilities use today like natural gas. I was going to say, how do you compare to more traditional power fuels such as coal,

oil and natural gas? Oh, we're cleaner than coal, we're cleaner than oil and we're really on a par for sulfur compounds, nitrogen compounds, CO2, and for particulates with natural gas. Our real great story is our climate story. The CO2 emissions on a life cycle basis from a facility like this are actually negative. So there are some, you say it's actually a negative greenhouse gas story. There are some environmentalists say, look, it would just be better to put this in a landfill and let it decompose as it would.

You say no. Well, put it in a landfill and it decomposes. What does it do? It makes methane gas. Methane gas is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It's 30 times plus more potent. So that climate effect is greatly increased by the generation of methane gas. And when you send your waste here, you avoid that.

Is there a type of fishing waste that's particularly difficult to either recycle or incinerate? Well, those lines, all that rope, if you will, that can be very troubling for a mechanical sort of a system. So we have to take the time and trouble to shear those and make sure they're really in bite-sized pieces. So because they can get tangled up and tangled up in your machinery the same way they do in the ocean. Exactly.

Is there something about helping the helpless, if you will, the marine life that gets tangled up in this stuff that is worthwhile? Oh, it's really why people at our facilities love to participate in this program. They understand that it's both a benefit to the fishermen in the community and it's a benefit to the fish and other wildlife that get trapped in the abandoned nets and traps. And it's part of that larger ocean marine debris issue that so many people are now starting to understand. It's nice to be able to call attention to that.

Is there a dollar amount you can put on what this costs you? Oh, in terms of the cost of the bins that we put out for the fishermen, the hauling of them, the time and effort of our folks at our facilities is probably hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. But it's an expense you think that is worth putting out. I mean, why would a company spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on something that doesn't make them money? Well, we do it because it makes us a better neighbor in our communities. They give us really the license to operate in the community. We need to run our plants cleanly and safely so that we can be a good neighbor in the community.

And when we do projects like this in the community that help people who work in the community, that address issues they care about, the cleanliness of the oceans. It all goes together to make us a better neighbor. That's always been the argument in this country, that if people know that they can send their trash out to create energy, they're not going to recycle. Oh, well, to get people to recycle, one of the keys anyone will tell you is you need to educate folks to the benefits of recycling.

That's a constant issue, and you have to keep at it all the time. So anyone who runs a good recycling program is always trying to educate people what they need to do to recycle. What we do is post-recycling. And the communities where we operate actually have recycling programs that perform at higher levels than does the United States on average. So a community will build a facility like this they really understand what it is

to have sustainable waste management. Always as a part of that system typically is a very good recycling program. Back on the water, I still can't get over the number Holly gave. 150 million tonnes of garbage in our oceans. Against that astounding number, fishing for energy seems like just a drop in the ocean. But Holly sees hope. Are we getting better at not using our oceans as a garbage disposal? Oh yeah, I think now that a lot of this has been in the news for years, everybody hears

about the Great Garbage Patch out in the Pacific, I think that people now understand the impact that we can have on the ocean and people actually can do something about it. This program allows removal, but there's also a prevention aspect, and it's the education understanding what this type of debris does to our oceans and how we can prevent it from getting in. For more on this story, you can visit NBCNews.com. I'm Anne Thompson, and you've been listening to NBC on Earth.