April 30, 2024 — Roughly 14 miles from the nearest beach, in a semi-secluded Stockton University classroom, the impact of planned offshore wind power farms on the commercial fishing industry’s ability to safely navigate took center stage during a U.S. Coast Guard meeting soliciting feedback on its plan for safe shipping fairways along the eastern seaboard. Among the concerns raised are how the size, scope and proximity of wind farms will alter traffic flow on the water.
“We appreciate the fact that commercial fishing is still going to be allowed to occur within the fairways,” Scot Mackey, executive director of Garden State Seafood Association, said at the April 17 meeting. “We do question the decision with the design of the fairways and the collision analysis, whether or not the amount of lost fishing grounds and lost space that occur in the process has been included in the analysis.”
The association represents 1,200 commercial fishermen, supporting docks and supporting facilities. Mackey was one of 11 members of the public to address the Coast Guard during the 70-minute meeting.
A shipping safety fairway is a lane or corridor in which no fixed structure is permitted, setting aside areas of sufficient depth and dimensions to accommodate vessels and to allow for the orderly and safe movements of vessels transiting to or from ports. Safety fairways were identified in the Atlantic Coast Port Access Route Study and are expected to safeguard reliable transit for vessels in an area with well-established traffic patterns and routes.
However, vessel operators would not be required to use the safety fairways.
“What is going to happen is the commercial fishing that is still being placed out there isn’t going to be able to happen,” Mackey said of areas the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has set aside in offshore wind lease zones. “The spacing of those turbines is too close. … We asked for transit lanes through most of them. We didn’t get it in the first four (offshore wind projects) off New Jersey. So, New Jersey’s scallop fishing will be impacted against the rest of the coast.”