June 21, 2016 — LONG BRANCH, N.J. — A proposal to build a wind farm off the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey is concerning some local fisheries, which say that the farm could hurt their livelihood.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held its first of four public meeting in Long Branch Monday night to education the public on what environmental impacts a wind farm in the ocean could have.
Local fisherman Arthur Osche says that the proposed building site for the farm is right where he usually fishes for scallops. Scallops make up about 40 percent of his fishery business.
“My boat typically does about $3 million a year, so it would be like $1.2 million,” he says.
Osche says that although he does support renewable energy sources, he does not want to see them build where he and other fisheries fish.