October 31, 2019 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
U.S. offshore wind energy development is moving at a fast pace. The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council has created a new offshore wind updates email list to distribute updates on offshore wind energy developments that may affect Mid-Atlantic Council-managed fisheries.
These email updates will be sent about once per month and will contain relevant updates from the previous month; however, the Council makes no guarantees that they will contain the most current information or all potentially relevant updates.
To sign up for this list, go to http://www.mafmc.org/email-list, enter your email address and check the box for “Offshore Wind Updates.” If you are already subscribed to any other Council email lists, this will not affect your other subscriptions.
The first offshore wind update for October 31, 2019 is included below. If you do not sign up for the offshore wind updates list at the link above, you will not receive future updates on this topic.
Updates for October 31, 2019
1. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is seeking public comments on draft guidelines for lighting and marking of structures supporting renewable energy projects, including offshore wind projects. More information is available here.
2. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) finalized contracts with Equinor Wind US LLC for the Empire Wind project in the New York Bight and with Sunrise Wind LLC (a joint venture of Ørsted A/S and Eversource Energy) for the Sunrise Wind project south of Rhode Island.
- Click here for the Fisheries Mitigation Plan for the Empire Wind Project.
- Click here for the Fisheries Mitigation Plan for the Sunrise Wind Project.
3. NYSERDA published a report titled Launching New York’s Offshore Wind Industry: Phase 1.
4. Equinor Wind created a brochure describing feedback they have received from the fishing industry to date on the layout of offshore wind turbine arrays for their Empire and Boardwalk Wind projects off New York/northern New Jersey.
5. A graduate student at the University of Rhode Island is conducting an online survey of members of the commercial fishing industry on their preferences for offshore wind farm layouts. Click here to take the survey.
More Information
For information on specific projects, please see the individual developer webpages linked at: http://www.mafmc.org/northeast-offshore-wind.
All recent notices to mariners (e.g., notices of survey activities) received by the Council are posted at: http://www.mafmc.org/offshore-wind-notices.
If you wish to suggest an item for inclusion in the next month’s update, please email wind@mafmc.org.
Wind updates from the New England Fishery Management Council are included in their periodic news roundups. To sign up for New England Fishery Management Council updates, please email Janice Plante at jplante@nefmc.org.