Saving Seafood

UMass Dartmouth scientists to help guide offshore wind growth

May 27, 2020 — The Baker-Polito Administration announced UMass Dartmouth as one of four institutions selected as part of a Southern New England pilot regional fisheries studies project worth $1.1 million, according to an administration press release..

Scientists at UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST) have been awarded $278,592 to conduct fisheries surveys as part of the Bureau of Ocean Science Energy Management’s (BOEM’s) Regional Fisheries Studies to Guide Offshore Wind Development.

The Baker-Polito Administration, in partnership with the State of Rhode Island and the BOEM, announced grants worth $1.1 million to four institutions to support regional fisheries studies that will collect data vital to the ongoing development of the offshore wind industry in North America, according to the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs press release.

“Collaborating with our state and federal partners to support these studies will help us better manage fisheries and natural habitats while positioning the offshore wind industry to stimulate economic development and deliver clean, affordable energy to Massachusetts,” said Governor Charlie Baker.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

More offshore wind crewboat builds amid uncertainty for bigger investments

May 22, 2020 — Work is underway on the next support vessels for the fledging U.S. offshore wind energy industry, even as federal regulatory review — and now the global economic upheaval of coronavirus – clouds the prospect of building ambitious power projects.

The 804-megawatt Vineyard Wind project in southern New England waters, leading the pack of more than a dozen proposed wind energy arrays off the East Coast, remains stalled as the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management reassesses the cumulative environmental impacts.

The agency’s final impact statement is scheduled for December 2020. In the meantime, Atlantic Wind Transfers LLC, North Kingston, R.I., the first U.S. provider of offshore services to a wind farm, is pushing forward with its builders at Blount Boats, Warren, R.I., to construct two more crew transfer vessels (CTVs).

Atlantic Wind Transfers president Charles Donadio — a 22-year veteran of the offshore ferry business who had Blount build the first U.S.-flag CTV — aims to be ready first when BOEM allows wind developers to proceed.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Four New Studies to Examine Fisheries, Offshore Wind

May 21, 2020 — With the future of offshore wind waiting on the outcome of a major federal study, Massachusetts and Rhode Island officials announced plans Wednesday to take a look at one of the topics at the center of some of the tension about shared ocean usage: the fisheries.

The two states and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced grants worth $1.1 million to four institutions to conduct research on recreational and commercial fisheries, seabed habitat, and offshore wind policies in Europe.

“The continued success of offshore industries in the United States requires strong coordination and consultation with our state partners,” BOEM Acting Director Walter Cruickshank said. “The studies announced today will help ensure BOEM has sufficient baseline information to support its environmental assessments of offshore wind projects on the Atlantic OCS.”

According to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the studies will “advance the assessment of the interactions between offshore wind development and fisheries in the northeast” and “will help establish baseline datasets on fisheries and seabed habitat.” The initiative will also support and inform a regional fisheries science and monitoring program being developed under the Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA).

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Trump executive order could speed offshore aquaculture permits

May 13, 2020 — The Trump administration executive order on aquaculture and fisheries is raising hopes among some commercial fishing advocates to roll back what they view as excessive regulation.

But the statement’s strong emphasis on streamlining the permit process for ocean aquaculture alarms opponents, who won a 2018 federal court decision in Louisiana that said NOAA lacked Congressional authority to regulate aquaculture.

The “Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth” directs federal agencies to “identify and remove unnecessary regulatory barriers restricting American fishermen and aquaculture producers” and “facilitate aquaculture projects through regulatory transparency and long-term strategic planning.”

The document has other promises to U.S. seafood producers, especially in seeking fair trade and competition with imported seafood — including to hold imports to the same food-safety standards required for domestic products.

Chris Oliver, the assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries, said in a statement that a new Seafood Trade Task Force will “develop a comprehensive interagency seafood trade strategy. The strategy will identify opportunities to improve access to foreign markets through trade policy and negotiations; resolve technical barriers to U.S. seafood exports; and otherwise support fair market access for U.S. seafood products.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Delaware wind farm timeline delayed by one year

May 5, 2020 — A wind farm set to be built off Delaware’s coast should now be completed one year later than originally planned.

The company, Ørsted, says the turbines will now be built by the end of 2023 instead of 2022. Officials tell 47 ABC that Ørsted is receiving its “federal Notice of Intent” for the Skipjack Wind Farm later than originally anticipated. In a statement they say, “Ørsted remains firmly committed to working with our federal partners to complete Skipjack and provide clean, reliable offshore wind energy to 35,000 homes in the Delmarva region.”

According to Ørsted, “a Notice of Intent is a communication issued by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) during the federal permitting process announcing its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) submitted by Skipjack Offshore Wind, LLC.”

Read the full story at WMDT

Geophysical survey underway at Virginia offshore wind site

April 28, 2020 — A pair of offshore service vessels from the Gulf of Mexico are at work off Virginia, conducting geophysical studies on a 112,800-acre federal lease where Dominion Energy and offshore wind developer Ørsted plan to build a 2,600-megawatt turbine array beginning in 2024.

Geospatial surveyors TerraSond contracted with Houma, La.-based Bordelon Marine to use the Sarah Bordelon and the Marcelle Bordelon, both 170’x36’x10’, 440.9 dwt, to start the work in mid-April in the lease area, 27 miles east of Virginia Beach.

“These surveys will provide the company with the geological, biological, and oceanographic data needed to support planning and construction in a manner that facilitates coexistence between the natural marine ecosystem and clean energy development,” Dominion Energy said in a statement issued April 27. “Ultimately, this data will support preparation of the project’s Construction and Operations Plan to be submitted to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) later this year.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

BOEM considers virtual public comment on Vineyard Wind study

April 22, 2020 — A wider federal study of the Vineyard Wind project and cumulative impacts of offshore wind development off the East Coast is holding to schedule despite the coronavirus crisis, with a decision expected by December, a top federal official said Tuesday.

With their offices closed, federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management reviewers are working remotely to compile findings toward a final environmental impact statement for the 804-megawatt Vineyard Wind project off southern New England, said James Bennett, chief of BOEM’s renewable energy program.

But public health measures to combat the spread of coronavirus have derailed the agency’s plans for gathering stakeholder comment, including public hearings starting in June, Bennett said during IPF20 Virtual, an online conference hosted this week by the Business Network for Offshore Wind.

“We’re in the process now of planning some kind of virtual event” that would similarly inform the public of what BOEM has been finding, and gather in additional information and comments, Bennett told news reporters during a media availability Tuesday morning.

The public comment process required by the National Environmental Policy Act is another avenue that is bringing formal and written commentary into the review as well, he said.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Fishermen seek delay in Gulf of Maine offshore wind planning

April 16, 2020 — Gulf of Maine fishermen this week asked three New England governors and federal officials for a six-month delay in planning for offshore wind energy development in those waters, as the seafood industry grapples with the upheaval of coronavirus.

In deeper waters of the gulf, wind power will be achieved only with the use of floating turbines. The extensive anchoring and cabling that would be required means “lease areas will become de facto closures to fishing,” the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance wrote in an April 14 letter the governors of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“Technology is evolving to minimize the footprint of the base of an offshore wind platform, but current proposed technologies still have mooring lines and flexible cabling that will make any type of fishing – fixed or mobile gear – incredibly unlikely within a wind energy area.” According to the alliance, a coalition of fishermen, coastal communities and related businesses.

Meanwhile, “the fishing industry has been hit especially hard by the pandemic, forcing the commercial fishing sector to divert time and effort to addressing the current crisis, and leaving insufficient opportunities for engagement in offshore wind siting and other planning,” the alliance said in a news release accompanying the letter. “A six-month pause would not only demonstrate good faith to the fishing industry, but also allow for additional research on offshore wind’s impact on marine ecosystems and better data sharing that will benefit offshore development moving forward.”

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Bringing fishing and wind communities together to site U.S. offshore wind projects

April 15, 2020 —  

  

Issues like these are ones where fishermen’s knowledge of the seas they have worked on their whole lives – and previous generations worked on before them – can be invaluable, both for maintaining their livelihoods as offshore wind farms are constructed in or around fishing grounds, and for helping developers make the best decisions for their wind businesses.

Read the full story from the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance at Windpower Engineering & Development

Fishing and offshore industries no closer to finding solutions

April 2, 2020 — Outstanding permitting for the delayed 800MW Vineyard project off Massachusetts may not be resolved until December, when the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is expected to issue a final decision.

A much-awaited supplement to the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) is currently expected on 12 June.

The Vineyard phase 1 of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid’s “pathfinder” project will miss its original commissioning date of 2022. The deadline for a conditional order for MHI Vestas V164-9.5MW turbines expired in early March.

The National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had refused to endorse BOEM’s draft EIS for Vineyard, complaining that fishing concerns were not addressed adequately. This helped trigger the government’s ongoing analysis of offshore wind’s cumulative impacts in the region.

Studying cumulative impacts is extremely complicated, said Bonnie Ram, a senior researcher at the Centre for Research in Wind at the University of Delaware. BOEM is not a large agency and is learning as it proceeds, she noted.

Read the full story at Wind Power Monthly