Saving Seafood

US commercial fishing groups fighting offshore wind development push

January 3, 2022 — The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has so prioritized offshore wind energy development that it is bypassing real environmental review and failing to consider alternative sites that won’t harm the commercial fishing industry, according to a lawsuit brought by the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Filed 15 December, 2021, in federal court in Washington, D.C. on behalf of six fishing businesses in the U.S. states of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York, the action challenges BOEM and other federal agencies on their review of the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project off southern New England, which received approval in May 2021 but has since been challenged in several other lawsuits.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Texas Public Policy Foundation brings fishermen’s lawsuit against Vineyard Wind

December 22, 2021 — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has so prioritized offshore wind energy development that it is bypassing real environmental review and failing to consider alternative sites that won’t harm the commercial fishing industry, charges a lawsuit brought by the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Filed Dec. 15 in federal court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of six fishing businesses in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York, the action challenges BOEM and other federal agencies on their review of the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project off southern New England.

The lead plaintiff, Seafreeze Shoreside Inc. of North Kingston, R.I., is a homeport and major processor for the Northeast squid fleet. Captains there are adamant they will not be able to fish if Vineyard Wind and other planned turbine arrays are erected in those waters.

Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison at Seafreeze and a vocal advocate for its fishermen, said she had heard mention of the Texas Public Policy Foundation in conversation, “kind of along the lines of Pacific Legal Foundation which litigated for the fishing industry on the Northeast marine monument” fishing restrictions recently reinstated by the Biden administration.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Interior clears key hurdle for wind farms off New York and New Jersey

December 20, 2021 — The Biden administration on Thursday announced it has determined wind farms offshore New Jersey and New York would not pose a major disruption to the local environment, clearing a key hurdle for lease sales in the region.

In a statement, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced it has issued a finding of no significant impact for leasing nearly 800,000 acres in the New York Bight. The bight encompasses an area between Cape May in New Jersey and Montauk Point in Long Island.

“The completion of this Environmental Assessment is an important step forward in advancing the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of increasing renewable energy development on federal lands and waters,” BOEM Director Amanda Lefton said in a statement. “BOEM is focused on ensuring that any development in the New York Bight is done responsibly and in a way that avoids or minimizes impacts to the ocean and other ocean users in the region.”

Read the full story at The Hill

 

OPINION: Windfarm plans for Atlantic coast hit fishermen hard and threaten US food supply

December 20, 2021 — GE’s new Haliade-X offshore wind turbine is enormous—each blade is longer than a football field. It’s nearly three football fields in height. Its imprint on the seabed is likewise gigantic, and not merely because of the concrete base that anchors it. Miles and miles of transmission lines must be buried then covered over in debris.

So when ground was broken last month on Vineyard Wind 1 in the waters off of Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island, local families involved in the fishing industry for generations wondered how the planned 62 (for now) wind turbines would affect the fishing grounds, their ability to navigate those waters—and the nation’s food supply.

Tom Williams, a lifelong fisherman whose sons now captain the family’s two boats, doesn’t scare easily—not after the storms, regulations and economic ups and downs he’s weathered. But the wind farms planned for much of the nation’s Atlantic coastline do scare him. His own extended family began fishing in Rhode Island in 1922.

Read the full opinion piece at Fox News

 

New England council calls for offshore wind mitigation fund

December 10, 2021 — The New England Fishery Management Council updated its offshore wind energy policy, endorsing calls for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to establish “a compensatory mitigation fund for damages that occur to the marine environment and fish habitat,” and losses to fishing vessels as turbine arrays are built.

The council’s Dec. 7 deliberation came with a new presentation from BOEM on the agency’s push to review and approve up to 16 wind energy projects off the East Coast by late 2025.

BOEM opened a preliminary public comment process through Jan. 7 to prepare a “guidance” plan for fisheries mitigation measures, with a draft document planned in spring 2022 and a final proposal in the summer.

A summary released by the council on the first day of its Dec. 7-9 meetings noted the tight time frame.

“On a more time-sensitive note, the Council was briefed on BOEM’s request for information ‘to obtain input from the public, especially the fishing community, on avoiding, minimizing and, if needed, compensating for impacts from offshore wind energy projects to commercial and recreational fisheries.’”

During an Dec. 6 online Zoom meeting convened by BOEM, fishing industry advocates said the agency needs to take more time and in-person workshop meetings with fishermen to fully understand the likely effects of shutting them out of wind turbine arrays during construction — and how they may not be able to fish those areas in the future.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Council Approves Revised Wind Energy Policy; Receives Offshore Wind Project Updates from BOEM

December 8, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has approved a revised wind energy policy that builds on the original policy and better responds to the rapidly changing ocean landscape associated with offshore wind development in the Greater Atlantic Region.

The Council took this action on the first day of its December 7-9, 2021 webinar meeting. Additionally, the Council received:

  • An update on the status of other 2021 habitat-related work; and
  • A presentation from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) covering the status of proposed and advancing wind energy projects off the Atlantic seaboard.

Wind Energy Policy

The Council adopted its original wind energy policy in 2018 based on the Mid-Atlantic Council’s 2016 policy. The revised policy was prepared by the New England Council’s Habitat Plan Development Team in collaboration with staff from the Mid-Atlantic Council and NOAA Fisheries.

The Council’s Habitat Committee and Advisory Panel reviewed the draft policy for Council approval. Because the New England and Mid-Atlantic Councils coordinate closely on offshore wind issues, the Council also considered comments from the Mid-Atlantic Council’s Ecosystems and Ocean Planning Committee and Advisory Panel.

Read the full release here

Fishermen say offshore wind surveys rip up gear: ‘There has to be accountability’

December 8, 2021 — East Coast fishermen told of their gear torn up by survey vessels working for offshore wind energy developers, as the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management opened its public process toward mitigating the newcomer industry’s effect on seafood providers.

Conch fisherman James Hahn said he witnessed a survey boat running over his trap lines off Maryland, and hailed the vessel on VHF radio.

“They said they had the right to survey,” Hahn told BOEM officials in an online Zoom meeting Monday. “I finally had to get in front and turn my boat sideways to get them to stop.”

Developers US Wind have notified fishermen in the Delmarva region that more survey work is scheduled in December and gear conflicts are possible, said Hahn.

“That’s not how you work with fishermen,” he said. “They’re basically taking over the ocean and don’t give two shits about us anymore.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

How will offshore wind farms affect Gulf of Mexico fishing? Federal regulators want to know

December 6, 2021 — With the development of offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico likely within a few years, federal regulators are beginning to assess how wind farms will affect commercial and recreational fisheries.

On Dec. 15, agencies that regulate offshore energy and fisheries will hold a workshop for the Gulf’s fishers. The input they gather will help guide the planning and permitting of wind farm lease areas, and potentially lead to mitigation for fishers affected by turbines, transmission lines and related infrastructure.

East Coast fishers are concerned that an expected boom in wind farm construction off the coasts of New England, New York and Virginia will crowd them out and make fishing more dangerous. The country’s first offshore wind farm, a five-turbine project built in Rhode Island in 2016, was small enough that it didn’t get in the way of fishing boats, but its transmission lines to the shore have snagged many fishing nets.

Read the full story at NOLA.com

LOUISIANA: Input from commercial, recreational fishermen wanted on development of offshore wind energy projects

December 1, 2021 — The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is asking for input from commercial and recreational fishermen concerning offshore wind projects and their potential impacts.

According to LDH, The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), in consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service and affected coastal states, is developing guidance to mitigate potential impacts from offshore wind projects on commercial and recreational fisheries.

BOEM has issued a Request for Information (RFI) in order to collect knowledge from the people and organizations who know and use the areas that could be affected.

Read the full story at KATC

With federal approval of South Fork wind farm, construction could begin early next year

November 29, 2021 — A second major offshore wind farm near the Rhode Island coast has won federal approval.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this week approved construction and operation of the South Fork Wind Farm, a 132-megawatt project proposed in a stretch of Rhode Island Sound between Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard.

The project being planned by Danish company Ørsted and utility Eversource is only the second commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the nation to secure approval from the federal government.

The first, Vineyard Wind, received a record of decision in May and marked its groundbreaking a week ago in Massachusetts. The 800-megawatt project is being built in an area south of Nantucket, further off the coasts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts than the South Fork proposal.

Read the full story at The Providence Journal