April 10, 2018 — BOSTON — Fishing officials are calling for the New Bedford Port Authority to be the “central facilitator” for discussions between the offshore wind industry and fishermen.
Monday’s letter to Gov. Charlie Baker was sent by the National Coalition for Fishing Communities, a project of Saving Seafood, a group that New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell previously said was created by industry players in his city.
New Bedford is both the nation’s top fishing port as measured by the value of catch, mostly owing to the scallop fishery, and offshore wind developers have agreed to use the Whaling City’s harbor facilities as a staging area, so it is on its way to becoming an offshore wind hub, as well.
In the letter, officials also urged him to make the state’s first offshore windfarm “as modest in size and scope as possible” so that its effects can be studied and called for a possible delay in the selection of offshore wind partners.
“Three separate, developer-led outreach efforts have been launched, and all are stumbling to produce meaningful dialogue or move us closer to real solutions in areas ranging from navigation, access, cable routes, radar interference, and gear loss,” the coalition wrote. “Equally troubling, it has become clear that offshore wind developers are unwilling or unable to coordinate their interactions with commercial fishermen to tackle issues that cut across multiple project areas.”
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times