Saving Seafood

Commercial fishermen say they are being ignored on wind power project

May 24, 2021 — For the past three decades, Town Dock fishermen and their counterparts across the Northeast have struggled to stay afloat in the face of strict regulations designed to rebuild depleted stocks of cod, flounder and other species.

Some diversified, turning to so-called underutilized species such as squid and whiting to supplement their declining income, while others retired or left for jobs on land.

But now that many of the species have rebounded and government regulators are increasing the amounts of fish they can land, the fishermen face a new threat: offshore wind power projects.

Last month members of Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, or RODA, a national coalition of fishing industry members, boycotted a meeting with a federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management task force, which is considering auctioning of 800,000 acres of New York Bight — shallow waters south of Long Island and east of New Jersey — to potential wind farm operators. RODA said its members feel they are not being listened to.

On April 6, RODA said 1,665 members of fishing communities in every U.S. coastal state submitted a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, and National Marine Fisheries Service requesting a transparent and balanced national planning process for offshore wind development.

Read the full story at Yahoo News

FSF Statement on Appeals Court Ruling in New York Wind Farm Case

May 20, 2021 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

The Fisheries Survival Fund is disappointed in the decision issued today by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. However, we will continue to work with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and all federal, state, and local government agencies, as well as wind energy farm developers, to ensure that these new uses of our coastal waters are created in such a way that they do not devastate existing uses, which in this case is one of the most important scallop grounds on the East Coast.

The court ruled that because BOEM doesn’t technically commit to anything at the lease stage, it is too early to challenge the siting of the wind farm under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The decision means that affected parties cannot challenge a lease location under NEPA until BOEM approves a Construction and Operations Plan (COP) for the wind farm. However, that is very late in the process, and changing the lease location at such a late date would be exceedingly difficult.

Since this litigation was filed, eight additional leasing areas have been proposed, all of which conflict with natural scallop habitat and historic scalloping grounds.

We will continue to work with BOEM to seek modified versions of several of the leasing areas due to their proximity to sensitive scallop areas. Under the current boundaries, historically important scallop areas will be directly next to wind turbines, and all of the negative environmental impacts they bring with them. By shifting the boundaries of some of these areas, and creating additional buffer zones between scallop areas and the turbines, BOEM can better ensure that scallop fishing will be unaffected, without diminishing the potential for wind power in the area.

Vineyard Wind decision shows questions remain of economic, environmental impact

May 18, 2021 — Beyond the Biden administration’s sunny outlook on prospects for a new U.S. offshore wind power industry, concerns continue among federal government experts about how building ocean turbine arrays could affect the fishing industry and protecting endangered whales.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued its final record of decision May 11 to permit Vineyard Wind, the 800-megawatt project off southern New England that would be the first truly utility-scale development in U.S. waters.

So far, the only offshore wind operating here is at two pilot projects, the five-turbine, 30 MW Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island, and the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, twin turbines with 12 MW total capacity. With nearly three decades of offshore wind experience in Europe, companies based there are exporting their expertise to the U.S.

But the Vineyard Wind plan as outlined in the BOEM decision document – a grid layout of 62 turbines spaced at 1-nautical-mile intervals – is so unnerving to some mobile gear fishermen that they may abandon fishing in the area, according to Army Corps of Engineers.

Commercial fishermen, led by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, had advocated 4-nm-wide vessel transit lanes, which they contend would enhance safety.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Feds raise protections for North Atlantic right whales, but sea turtles may suffer

May 17, 2021 — North Atlantic right whales have gained protections and sea turtles are more imperiled under a new federal calendar for harbor dredging that came to light May 14 in a federal lawsuit that seeks to protect sea turtles.

The entire calendar for dredging at some seaports along the East Coast has been modified in an effort to increase protections for North American right whales, according to a federal report with the new calendar. This species has been reduced to a population of some 360 animals.

The change allows harbors to be dredged in warmer months in North Carolina and continuing south through Georgia and Florida, to the islands of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Dredging is routine maintenance and typically involves vacuuming up debris that has filled a shipping channel and impedes ships as they use a port. The process has a history of harming certain sea life.

Read the full story at The Saporta Report

White House climate czar pledges to balance offshore wind, fishing sector

May 13, 2021 — The White House’s top climate official promised Wednesday that the administration will listen to concerns of the fishing industry as President Biden pushes forward with a major expansion of offshore wind energy.

Gina McCarthy — who led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama and is now the first-ever White House national climate adviser — said the administration already took those complaints into account before granting approval Tuesday to Vineyard Wind, the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm.

“We needed to make sure with Vineyard Wind that we paid close attention to the concerns of our fishers,” McCarthy told 12 News in an interview. “Our fisheries industry is important — it’s part of who we stand for — and so we did tremendous outreach.”

She added, “Certainly there remains concerns, and we’re going to be diligent all through the construction process.”

Set to be staged out of the Port of New Bedford, Vineyard Wind is an 84-turbine project off Martha’s Vineyard that is supposed to generate 800 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 400,000 homes — once it’s up and running. Federal, state and local leaders have hailed it as a milestone for Southern New England and the nation as a whole.

Read the full story at WPRI

Biden administration clears way for Vineyard Wind

May 12, 2021 — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued its record of decision Tuesday, May 11, approving the Vineyard Wind offshore energy project. The decision is a bellwether event that could trigger a wave of domestic investment in wind power equipment and shipbuilding. Fishing industry advocates worry that it sets the stage for privatizing the public resource on which their livelihoods rely.

“BOEM continues to abdicate its responsibility to the public and leave all decision making to large, multinational corporations, including this decision which includes effectively no mitigation measures to offset impacts to critical ocean ecosystems and commercial fisheries,” said the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance in a statement. “To the best of our knowledge BOEM did not even consider any mitigation measures recommended by RODA or any fisheries professionals, scientists, or natural resource managers, despite having clearly defined requests available to them.”

The record of decision is an interagency document for permitting by BOEM, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Vineyard Wind developers Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners next must submit a facility design report and a fabrication and installation report detailing details for how the 800-megawatt, $2.8 billion turbine array “will be fabricated and installed in accordance with the approved Construction and Operations Plan,” according to the announcement from the Department of Interior.

The decision hews to the agency preferred alternative of a grid layout of 62 turbines spaced at 1-nautical-mile intervals. Commercial fishermen, led by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, had advocated 4-nm-wide vessel transit lanes, which they contend would enhance safety.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: ‘America’s leader in offshore wind’: What Vineyard Wind final approval means for New Bedford

May 12, 2021 — Vineyard Wind received final federal approval on Tuesday to construct its 800-megawatt offshore wind project off the coast of Southern Massachusetts. It will be the first large-scale offshore wind project in the country.

The U.S. Department of the Interior called it a “major milestone” that would “propel” the country toward a clean energy future. Project approval had stalled during the Trump administration, but picked up in the first months of the Biden administration, which set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.

“Today’s offshore wind project announcement demonstrates that we can fight the climate crisis, while creating high-paying jobs and strengthening our competitiveness at home and abroad,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in a statement. “This project is an example of the investments we need to achieve the Biden-Harris administration’s ambitious climate goals, and I’m proud to be part of the team leading the charge on offshore wind.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

RODA Condemns Administration for Putting Goals Ahead of Fishermen Safety

May 12, 2021 — Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), a broad membership-based coalition of fishing industry associations and fishing companies, condemns in the strongest possible terms the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) issuance of a Record of Decision for the previously terminated Vineyard Wind 1 Offshore Wind Energy Project. BOEM continues to abdicate its responsibility to the public and leave all decision making to large, multinational corporations, including this Decision which includes effectively no mitigation measures to offset impacts to critical ocean ecosystems and commercial fisheries.

It has only included one such measure: a voluntary and non-enforceable suggestion for developers to cooperate with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to mitigate what the Final Environmental Impact Statement characterizes as “major” impacts to scientific research. Oddly, BOEM directs Vineyard Wind to “participate in good faith” in the undescribed and unfunded Federal Survey Mitigation Program, which “may lessen long-term impacts” (but “may not” reduce the significant short term impacts). Mitigation that is poorly defined, unrequired, and unmonitored satisfies neither the public interest nor the law.

To the best of our knowledge BOEM did not even consider any mitigation measures recommended by RODA or any fisheries professionals, scientists, or natural resource managers, despite having clearly defined requests available to them.

In one pen stroke, BOEM has confirmed its scattershot, partisan, and opaque approach that undermines every lesson we’ve learned throughout environmental history: the precautionary principle, the importance of safety and environmental regulation, the scientific method and use of the best available data, and adaptive management policies. It is shocking that NMFS could sign off on a decision so inexplicably adverse to its core mission and the research, resources, businesses, and citizens under its jurisdiction.

Read the full story at OCNJ Daily

RESPONSIBLE OFFSHORE DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE: Offshore shutout

May 11, 2021 — The following is excerpted from an April 13 letter to BOEM’s New York Bight offshore wind task force in advance of meetings: 

Major fishing community leaders are sitting out on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Task Force meeting this week (April 13, 2021). As BOEM prepares to auction nearly 1,300 square miles of the most valuable fishery grounds on the East Coast, Task Force members must act as responsible administrators of the public trust. Fishermen have shown up for years to “engage” in processes where spatial constraints and, often, the actors themselves are opposed to their livelihood. They have urgently advocated for the survival of their family and communities, in a context where all the rules are set (and changed) by newcomers interested only in a large-scale ocean acquisition who often don’t even treat them with common courtesy or basic respect.

This time and effort has resulted in effectively no accommodations to mitigate impacts from individual developers or the supposedly unbiased federal and state governments. Individuals from the fishing community care deeply, but the deck is so stacked that they are exhausted and even traumatized by this relentless assault on their worth and expertise.

This meeting boycott is not because fishermen do not wish to be involved in decisions and research efforts about offshore wind — they’ve repeatedly come to the table in good faith. These responsible leaders actively engage in fisheries management processes, partner with environmental nonprofit organizations and government agencies, participate in seafood certification and environmental programs, conduct cooperative research to improve fisheries management, provide platforms for scientific research about ecosystem health and climate change, hold positions of authority within their own communities, donate seafood and services to civic charities, work through a pandemic to ensure U.S. food security, employ large numbers of environmental justice populations, and more… For every time they try to actively participate, there is a new roadblock thrown up in processes that is entirely controlled by those opposed to their interests, in which the overall structure has left no room for them to receive any compromise.

Read the full opinion piece at National Fisherman

Biden administration approves major offshore wind project

May 11, 2021 — The Biden administration on Tuesday announced that it has approved construction of what it described as the first large-scale offshore wind project in the country.

The Vineyard Wind project, which will consist of up to 84 wind turbines, is expected to be able to produce enough energy to power more than 400,000 homes, the administration said.

The project will be located 12 nautical miles from both Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., and Nantucket, Mass., and is expected to be completed in 2023.

“A clean energy future is within our grasp in the United States. The approval of this project is an important step toward advancing the Administration’s  goals to create good paying union jobs while combating climate change and powering our nation,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.

The Vineyard Wind project had faced setbacks during the Trump administration. In December, it said it wanted to halt its goal of getting a federal permit and was later told by the Trump administration that it would need to start all over again.

Read the full story at The Hill