Saving Seafood

Is offshore wind for the birds?

July 7, 2021 — The northbound spring migration of shorebirds through the New Jersey coast raises an obvious question: What happens if there are 850-foot-tall wind turbines spinning in their flyway between South America and Canada?

The prospect of dozens, perhaps hundreds of wind turbines on the East Coast outer continental shelf raises questions of how those structures may affect the red knot, considered a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Developers Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind LLC engaged one of the world’s top experts to find out.

“The birds jump off from Cape Cod, Brigantine, Stone Harbor,” said Larry Niles, ticking off coastal Massachusetts and New Jersey feeding grounds for the red knots. “We know the birds are going through the wind (power) areas.”

I met Niles years ago when he was chief of New Jersey’s Endangered and Non-Game Species Program and started the Delaware Bay Shorebird Project, now in its 25th year of monitoring the migration. Today he has a consulting firm, Wildlife Restoration Partners, with years of experience assessing the health of red knots with other shorebirds and working on wind power studies.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

UPDATE: Atlantic Shores Awarded Largest Single Project in New Jersey

July 2, 2021 — The following was released by Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind:

The Atlantic Shores Offshore wind team is excited to share some breaking news with you! On June 30th, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities issued an order awarding Atlantic Shores a 20-year OREC (Offshore Renewable Energy Certificate) for our 1,510 MW offshore wind project, which is the largest single project award in the state and second largest awarded offshore wind project in the U.S., enough to power over 700,000 homes. In addition to affordable, renewable energy, our project includes millions of dollars in key investments for New Jersey workers, top academic institutions, environmental and community organizations, as well as the creation of a turbine nacelle assembly facility and the launch of an innovative 10 MW green hydrogen pilot. With these commitments, New Jersey is well on its way to being a national leader in green energy and innovation.

Read the full release here

Latest offshore wind award to triple megawatts off South Jersey

July 1, 2021 — The state awarded the right to build another 2,600 megawatts of offshore wind electric generation to two companies Wednesday, a milestone Gov. Phil Murphy celebrated during his regular COVID-19 media briefing.

“We just approved the largest combined offshore wind award in history,” Murphy said of the action by the state Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday morning. “It will triple our total capacity and strengthen our commitment to securing good union jobs and make New Jersey a national leader in the offshore wind industry.”

BPU President Joe Fiordaliso, who attended Murphy’s briefing, said Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind will build a 1,510 megawatt farm off the coast between Long Beach Island and Atlantic City, and Ørsted’s Ocean Wind will build 1,148 megawatts of the new solicitation in its leasing area in federal waters southeast of Atlantic City.

“Combined, once these turbines are in the water, they will supply power to 1.1 million homes in New Jersey,” Fiordaliso said.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

New Jersey awards 2,658 megawatts in biggest U.S. pact

July 1, 2021 — The EDF/Shell Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind venture and a second phase of Ørsted’s Ocean Wind project were awarded a combined 2,658 megawatts of capacity by New Jersey utilities regulators Wednesday, in what state officials call the largest U.S. combined award to date.

The vote by the state Board of Public Utilities raises the state’s total planned capacity to over 3,700 MW, nearly half of a goal of 7,500 MW by 2035 set by Gov. Phil Murphy.

The board allocated 1,510 MW to Atlantic Shores and 1,148 MW to Ocean Wind II for their neighboring federal leases off Long Beach Island and Atlantic City, N.J.

Both developers will build new manufacturing facilities at the New Jersey Wind Port planned at the mouth of the Delaware River in Salem County, and use a foundation manufacturing facility upriver at the Port of Paulsboro, state officials said. Those projects are projected to be commissioned in 2027 through 2029.

“Combined, the two projects are estimated to create 7,000 full- and or part-time jobs across the development, construction and operational phases of the projects. This yields approximately 56,000 full time equivalent job-years, as some jobs will be shorter term and others will last for many years,” according to a BPU statement. “They will also generate $3.5 billion in economic benefits and power 1.15 million homes with clean energy.”

The BPU agreement requires the developers to contribute $10,000 per megawatt of capacity – some $26 million in all – to fund environmental research initiatives and wildlife and fishery monitoring in the region, with the money administered by the BPU and state Department of Environmental Protection.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Offshore wind developers fund shorebird study

June 30, 2021 — Red knot shorebirds make epic annual migrations, some logging up to 18,000 miles from the southern tip of South America to Canada and back, dropping down onto Delaware Bay beaches in May to gorge on horseshoe crab eggs.

That ancient pattern was disrupted by overharvesting of horseshoe crabs for commercial fishing bait in the 1990s. Biologists say neither the crab nor red knot populations have fully recovered yet.

Now, the prospect of dozens, perhaps hundreds of wind turbines spinning over waters on the East Coast outer continental shelf raises questions of how those structures may affect the red knot, considered a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Developers Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind LLC engaged one of the world’s top experts to find out.

“The birds jump off from Cape Cod, Brigantine, Stone Harbor,” said Larry Niles, ticking off coastal Massachusetts and New Jersey feeding grounds for the red knots. “We know the birds are going through the wind (power) areas.”

As the former chief of New Jersey’s Endangered and Non-Game Species Program, Niles started the Delaware Bay Shorebird Project, now in its 25th year of monitoring the migration. He’s now principal of Wildlife Restoration Partners, with years of experience assessing the health of red knots with other shorebirds and working on wind power studies.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

100s More Offshore Wind Turbines Greenlighted for New Jersey Coast

June 30, 2021 — New Jersey cleared the way for hundreds of wind turbines off the state’s coast in coming years through approvals Wednesday of 2,658 megawatts in offshore wind power.

Two wind farm projects were approved, and would provide enough power for 1.1 million homes, officials said.

The approvals add to the 1,100 megawatts already given the green light by New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities, which announced approval of the new projects at a special meeting. New Jersey now has approved the second-most offshore wind power of any state, behind only New York.

The two projects are a 110-turbine wind farm by Atlantic Shores, which is owned by European power companies Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America, and a 82-turbine farm by Ørsted called Ocean Wind 2.

Atlantic Shores’ farm will be located about 10.5 miles off the coast of shore towns north of Atlantic City. Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 2 will be nearly 14 miles off Cape May.

But the massive amount of power still needs to get through federal permitting and navigate potential hurdles such as lawsuits from fishing interests and shore communities. None of the offshore wind farms are expected to begin construction until mid-2023 at the earliest, and the two newest projects are not expected to come online until 2027 at the earliest.

Read the full story at NBC Philadelphia

Proposed Offshore Wind Projects Could Cost NJ Tourism Billions, Says LBI Rental Business Owner

June 30, 2021 — Citing a University of North Carolina study, the founder of Vacation Rentals LBI said the economic impact of proposed offshore wind farms to be located off the coast of Long Beach Island would be in the billions and half of all tourism dollars in New Jersey.

Ship Bottom resident Duane Watlington’s comments came during the online June 23 LBI Coalition for Wind Without Impact forum in which more than 200 individuals tuned in to hear speakers discuss environmental, socio-economic and recreational fishing concerns. His business portfolio also includes Vacation Rentals Ocean City, New Jersey, and Vacation Rentals Wildwood. All three businesses connect vacationers with rental homeowners and real estate agencies.

The UNC study found more than half of rental home vacationers would choose to rent elsewhere if wind turbines are visible from the shoreline, according to Watlington’s presentation.

The closest western, or inshore, boundary of the proposed Atlantic Shores lease site is 10 miles from Barnegat Light and 9 miles from Holgate. The lease area has the potential to generate 3 gigawatts of offshore wind energy.

The Jersey Shore is responsible for nearly half of the overall tourism dollars in the state and generated over $22 billion in 2019 alone, according to Watlington.

Based on information from the UNC study, he said, an offshore wind farm would have an economic impact of roughly $12 billion annually.

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

Rutgers, Offshore Wind Company Investigates Clams Off New Jersey

June 29, 2021 — Atlantic Shores is a partnership between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF Renewables North America. The joint venture plans to develop more than 183,000 acres of land between Atlantic City and Burnegat Light, 10 to 20 miles from the New Jersey coast.

When fully developed, the region could generate over 3,000 megawatts of wind energy, which is sufficient to power about 1.5 million households.

Jennifer Daniels, Development Director at Atlantic Shores, said: “By applying tools like this simulator, we can responsibly develop leased areas and provide renewable energy to the New Jersey community with minimal impact on the fishery.”

New Jersey power regulators may decide to approve the company’s proposal later this month.

Read the full story at Pennsylvania News Today

Impact of Offshore Wind on Commercial Fishing Industry Discussed

June 24, 2021 — Four-decade scallop fisherman and Viking Village fleet owner Jim Gutowski laid out the scope in size of one offshore wind farm turbine as a backdrop to his talk on “The Impact of Offshore Wind Farms on Our Commercial Fishing Industry” at the June 19 meeting of the Barnegat Light Taxpayer’s Association.

“They’re going to be a little over five times the height of the (Barnegat) lighthouse. The tripod that that’s going to sit upon is about a block (in size). So, we’re talking about massive structures. The span of those blades on those turbines, they’re going to be about two football fields from tip to tip.”

Gutowski voiced concern about impact on commercial seafood catch and other sea life of a proposed 200- to 250-turbine array in an area of the ocean stretching from Barnegat Light to Atlantic City. The project is awaiting final approval.

The Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind lease is located on 183,353 acres in what he noted is a “flourishing fishing ground that you’ve had fishermen for the last 20 years break their backs to sustain.” He was referring to research and alterations that the scallop industry has made to successfully preserve a harvest for future years.

The Joint Council of Taxpayers Associations of Long Beach Island compiled a Frequently Asked Questions summary of the wind farm project 10 miles east of Long Beach Island, which is on the website barnegatlighttaxpayer.org under the subheading “Weather and the Environment.” The BLTA has 573 member households, but the website is accessible to the public.

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

NEW JERSEY: Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Surveying Schedule – Spring/Summer 2021

March 23, 2021 — The following was released by Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind:

Geophysical
Fugro Enterprise | March 19, 2021
Fugro’s Enterprise (LOA: 52 m, Call Sign: WDD9388) vessel will conduct survey operations within the Atlantic Shores Lease Area and along potential Export Cable Corridors towards Atlantic City and Manasquan.

Geotechnical
Tidewater Regulus | April 15, 2021
The Tidewater Regulus (LOA: 82.6m, Call Sign: WDG8927) is a multiservice offshore support vessel that will mobilize to conduct geotechnical borings and seabed PCPTs for investigation of the Atlantic Shores lease area for soil characterization.

Alpine Shearwater | May 15, 2021
Alpine Shearwater (LOA: 33.5m, Call Sign: WDF5838) will mobilize to conduct geotechnical vibracores along the potential export cable routes for soil characterization.

Northstar Commander | June 1, 2021
The Northstar Commander (LOA: 73.2m, Call Sign: WDG5396) will mobilize to conduct seabed PCPTs along the potential export cable routes and in the lease area for soil characterization.

Laredo Brazos | June 14, 2021
The three-legged lift boat Laredo Brazos (LOA: 44.2m, Call Sign: WDG9589) will mobilize to perform geotechnical boreholes for the potential export cable route land fall areas.

Marine Survey Operations

For more information:

  • As our Fishing Liaison Officer, you will see Kevin around the docks. He is here to answer your questions and address concerns from fishermen of all sectors.
  • Please feel free to reach him at: 609.290.8577 or kevin.wark@atlanticshoreswind.com.

The Lease Area is located about 10 to 20 miles off the New Jersey coast, between Barnegat Light and Atlantic City in water depths ranging from 60 to 100 feet (10–17 fathoms).

The maneuverability of all survey vessels will be restricted. It is important that mariners maintain a safe distance of at least 2 kilometers (1.0 nautical miles) from each vessel.

Survey operations will be conducted 24/7, weather permitting. They are expected to conclude on or about August 2021, but may run longer as weather and operational conditions dictate. A Notice to Mariners will be issued prior to operations and vessels will monitor and broadcast on VHF Channel 16 during operations.