Saving Seafood

Enormous blue whales spotted in “unusual occurrence” off Massachusetts coast

March 6, 2026 — Blue whales, the largest animals on Earth, have been spotted not far off the coast of Massachusetts in what the New England Aquarium is calling an “unusual occurrence.”

Researchers with the aquarium spotted two blue whales just 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday during an aerial survey. The day before, they saw a blue whale at Lydonia Canyon, 170 miles away to the southeast of Nantucket.

The aquarium team has never encountered a blue whale in the southern New England survey area before. The most recent sighting of the endangered species in the area had been off the coast of Maine in 2023. A blue whale was also spotted off Cape Cod, 13 miles east of Truro, by the Center for Coastal Studies in 2020.

Read the full article at CBS News

Legal tug-of-war over wind energy in Mass. continues with Trump admin challenge

February 19, 2026 — Lawyers for the Trump administration are challenging — in a Massachusetts court — a federal judge’s December ruling that struck down a freeze on all permitting for wind energy projects nationwide.

Issued in January 2025, the original presidential order temporarily halted all federal permitting while agencies reviewed wind energy leasing and permitting practices, according to court documents.

The December ruling overturning the order came after a coalition of 17 states — including Massachusetts — successfully argued that the administration’s permit pause violated federal law. U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris ruled that the policy was “arbitrary and capricious.”

Read the full article at the Cape Cod Times

Nantucket nonprofit, businesses file lawsuit, alleging offshore wind is crushing their operations

January 20, 2026 — A nonprofit opposed to offshore wind development, a lobster fisherman, and a whale-watching business are suing the federal government, arguing it violated federal law when it approved the construction of Vineyard Wind, a 62-turbine project 15 miles off the coast of Nantucket.

Dan Pronk, a Nantucket lobsterman, does commercial lobstering in the area of the turbines. He told Just the News that the project has decimated his business.

Revolution gets greenlighted 

The Trump administration last month paused offshore wind leases due to concerns about the impact of the project on radar, a national-security issue. Multiple reports from various federal agencies over the past few years have found that the clutter from offshore wind blades and turbines causes interference to radar. This lowers the ability of radar to identify targets on the water, and it creates false targets around the projects.

The lawsuit filed this week by Nantuck-based ACK4Whales and two local businesses argues that when the Department of Interior and other agencies under former President Joe Biden approved the Vineyard Wind project, they ignored the impacts radar disruptions would have on civil aviation and national defense.

In so doing, the lawsuit argues, the Biden-Harris administration violated the Offshore Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and the Administrative Procedures Act.

Read the full article at Just The News

Revolution Wind can restart construction off Martha’s Vineyard, judge rules

September 25, 2025 — Construction on the 65-turbine Revolution Wind project off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard can resume after a federal district court judge granted the developers reprieve from a stop work order issued by the Trump administration.

In a ruling on Monday, D.C. district court Judge Royce Lamberth granted Revolution Wind a preliminary injunction, halting the enforcement of an Aug. 22 order from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM.

“Revolution Wind has demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits of its underlying claims, it is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction, the balance of the equities is in its favor, and maintaining the status quo by granting the injunction is in the public interest,” the judge wrote in his two-page opinion.

Read the full article at Mass Live

Ørsted and Iberdrola Are Trying to Save U.S. Offshore Wind Investments

September 9, 2025 — Two major offshore wind developers,  Ørsted and Iberdrola, have efforts underway to save their offshore wind projects in the United States. The companies are reportedly trying to win over the Trump administration, which opposes offshore wind energy, by emphasizing the larger investments in the United States.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Bloomberg reports, confirmed that the administration is “actively engaged in discussions” with Ørsted over the future of the Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. According to the reports, Wright, during a presentation at the Council of Foreign Relations, confirmed that there is “a very active dialogue,” saying the issues of the wind farm were being “worked and discussed.”

Last month, the Trump administration issued a stop work order for the project, which Ørsted said is 80 percent installed. The company highlighted its large investment, saying that all of the foundations for the 704 MW wind farm are installed and that 45 out of the 65 wind turbines have also been installed. The export cabling and the onshore power substation are nearly complete.

Ørsted filed a lawsuit challenging the legal authority to suspend the project, calling it a necessary step. The company, however, also said it was continuing to seek a resolution with the administration.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Feds target fully permitted New England Wind project

September 4, 2025 —  The Trump administration ratcheted up its targeting of the offshore wind industry on Wednesday, stating its intent to revoke a key approval for the fully permitted New England Wind 1 project, which plans to use New Bedford for long-term operations.

In the document, filed as part of a lawsuit brought by ACK for Whales against the Avangrid project, the federal government said it is “intending to move no later than October 10 to remand and, separately, to vacate” the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval of the construction and operations plan, a permit granted to the project in mid-2024.

Without the permit, the project cannot be built. Separately, the project has been in the process of securing a power purchase agreement with the state, another necessity for project buildout. The agreement has been delayed several times due to the Trump administration’s freeze on offshore wind permitting and the uncertainty it has created.

New England Wind 1 plans to construct the project out of Salem (a terminal yet to be built that last week lost $34 million in federal funding), but house its long-term operations and maintenance hub in New Bedford. Contingent on the project moving forward, the Danish company, Liftra, also plans to establish a crane manufacturing facility in the city.

New England Wind 1’s lease area is located south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The project’s first phase plans to install up to 800 megawatts of energy.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Offshore wind plans caught in federal headwinds, but sites east of Cape Cod unaffected

August 7, 2025 — State and local officials and regional advocacy groups are split over the federal government’s decision to back off on offshore wind projects, a shift that casts uncertainty over new projects nationwide but doesn’t affect leases east and south of Cape Cod.

State Rep. Steven Xiarhos, R-West Barnstable, welcomes the changes as “a necessary course correction.”

“It reflects what many of us on Cape Cod and across the commonwealth have been saying for some time: the rush to industrialize our oceans has gone too far, too fast, and without enough science, transparency, or respect for local communities,” he said.

He added that the action “gives us a critical opportunity to pause, reassess, and get this right.”

Read the full article at Cape Cod Times

 

Supreme Court declines to hear challenges to Vineyard Wind

May 7, 2025 — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear two cases challenging the federal approval of Vineyard Wind. The court denied the petitions Monday.

Commercial fishing interests sued the federal agencies involved in approving the wind farm, which is under construction 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

The lawsuits were originally filed in 2021 and 2022.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Supreme Court declines Vineyard Wind challenge

May 5, 2025 — The Supreme Court has declined to reconsider the Biden administration’s approval of a major offshore wind project off the Massachusetts coast, in a reprieve for an industry facing rising political headwinds.

On Monday morning, the justices denied the parallel petitions led by the fishing company Seafreeze Shoreside and the fishing industry trade group Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) challenging agencies’ approvals for the Vineyard Wind 1 project.

The 62-turbine wind farm is under construction 15 miles off the coast of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and is expected to be completed this year. Vineyard Wind’s joint developers Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners declined through their attorney to comment on the Supreme Court’s decision.

Read the full story at E&E News

MASSACHUSETTS: Lightning strikes Vineyard Wind’s broken offshore wind blade

March 4, 2025 — In what appears to be a remarkable coincidence, lightning apparently struck the remains of the Vineyard Wind turbine blade that crumbled into the ocean last summer.

No one was injured and no debris have been found in the water, according to Vineyard Wind, the company constructing the 62-turbine project near Martha’s Vineyard. In a statement, the company said it “deployed both aerial and maritime resources” and saw no evidence that any other part of the turbine was damaged.

It’s unclear when the lightning hit, but the company said it found “preliminary evidence” indicating a possible strike while conducting a routine inspection of the turbine. The U.S. Coast Guard said it was notified by Vineyard Wind on Thursday.

Petty Officer Lyric Jackson said “there are no navigational hazards to report.” She added that the Coast Guard is “standing by” and is in communication with Vineyard Wind.

The incident comes at a fraught time for the offshore wind industry. President Trump ordered a stop to all leasing and permitting for offshore wind development on his first day in office, and a review of all existing leases.

Read the full article at wbur