December 11, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Offshore Wind Transit Working Group is inching closer to developing transit lanes for fishing vessels in Northeast Wind Energy Areas.
Members of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), as well as other fishing industry representatives, offshore wind developer lease-holders, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the U.S. Coat Guard, convened in Newport, Rhode Island, earlier this month for the Working Group meeting, which aimed to develop fishery transit lanes through the Wind Energy Areas (WEA) in federal waters off of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Currently there are concerns about commercial fishermen safely traveling across WEAs to access fishing grounds. According to RODA, safety risks “greatly increase” due to the long distances that fishing boats may be required to take in order to get around or through the WEAs. To solve the issue, the working group is developing transit lanes.
The goal is for the group to come up with a transit lane option that preserves the most important routes to the historic fisheries. Some route options have been identified, but so far nothing has been finalized.
This story was originally published by SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.