Saving Seafood

Feds delay Vineyard Wind assessment one month

June 18, 2019 — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has delayed for one month the release of its final assessment of Vineyard Wind’s offshore wind farm plan. But the bureau still intends to meet an August deadline to decide yea or nay on the proposal, an agency spokesman said.

The bureau was to issue the final environmental impact statement on June 7 before following with a final decision on the plan — called a record of decision — on Aug. 16, according to the agency’s timeline in March.

Now the bureau says that it will issue the final impact statement in early July. It still plans to meet the Aug. 16 decision date.

The one-month delay gives the bureau more time to review and analyze public comments on the draft version of the report, Vineyard Wind spokesman Scott Farmelant said.

“That date works for the project’s schedule,” he said of Aug. 16 timetable.

Both the federal bureau and Vineyard Wind have tight schedules for the proposed 84-turbine offshore wind project, to be built 15 miles south of the Islands. The project could potentially be the first industrial-sized offshore wind farm in the country.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Electric companies seek proposals for round of wind energy

May 28, 2019 — The three electric distribution companies in Massachusetts have together issued a request for a second round of offshore wind energy, as the winner of the first round — Vineyard Wind — looks to start its project later this year.

Eversource, National Grid and Unitil issued the request for proposals May 23. Initial, confidential responses from offshore wind developers are expected by Aug. 9. The utility companies are seeking contracts running from 15 to 20 years for at least 400 megawatts of offshore wind energy. Proposals from 200 megawatts up to 800 megawatts may be submitted.

Among the restrictions, the offshore wind developer must provide electricity from an offshore wind energy project located on the outer continental shelf and where no turbine is located within 10 miles of a inhabited area. Additionally, the wind farm must operate in a designated wind energy area where the developer received an initial federal lease on a competitive basis after Jan. 1, 2012.

All four offshore wind development companies that have leases for federal land south of the Islands — Vineyard Wind, Bay State Wind, Mayflower Wind Energy,and Equinor Wind US — had weighed in on preparations for the second round of bidding.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Vineyard Wind seeks help in protecting right whales

May 23, 2019 — The company preparing to build an 84-turbine wind farm off Martha’s Vineyard has put out a call  to universities, technology companies and other innovators that could help implement a system to detect the presence of endangered North Atlantic right whales during construction.

Vineyard Wind said it is seeking a firm or institution that can “provide and operationalize enhanced acoustic monitoring systems that will detect the presence of Right Whales, and transmit information in real-time to project staff so that enhanced protections can be effectively implemented.”

Protection would include vessel speed restrictions, Vineyard Wind said.

Utility companies and the state tapped Vineyard Wind to construct an 800-megawatt wind farm 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and 34 miles from the mainland to fulfill the first half of a 1,600-megawatt procurement called for in a 2016 clean energy law.

The company has already entered an agreement with a number of organizations to protect the whales.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Vineyard Wind: May 22 Notice to Mariners and Fishermen

May 22, 2019 — The following was released by Vineyard Wind:

We wanted to let you know that Vineyard Wind will begin geological surveys on or about May 22. The estimated duration is approximately 77 days, ending on August 7, 2019. Surveys will take place in Vineyard Wind Lease Areas 501 and 522. Please see the full notice to fishermen and mariners here.

We encourage fishermen who may be working in the survey area to contact the fishery liaison.

This survey will gather data on seabed and subfloor conditions that will assist in identifying potential locations for future siting of offshore wind turbines and refine inter-array cable routes between each turbine.

Vineyard Wind is committed to communicating and working with the local fishermen in the region during all stages of development of the proposed offshore farm.

If you have any questions, please contact Crista Bank, Fishery Liaison via email at cbank@vineyardwind.com or via cell phone at 508-525-0421.

Vineyard Wind: Notice to Mariners and Fishermen

May 16, 2019 — The following was released by Vineyard Wind:

Please be advised that Fugro USA Marine, Inc will perform met-ocean monitoring for the Vineyard Wind project site located at approximately 43 nm from the port of New Bedford and approx. 17nm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The Vineyard Wind Lighted Research Buoy (VWM-01) with a water level recorder will be deployed at the above coordinates on May 16, 2019 and is expected to remain on site though 2019. Fishermen and mariners are requested to note the buoy location and to maintain a safe distance during fishing and marine activities. The buoy is moored using open link chain, with a heavy chain anchor.

The currently deployed buoy and mooring will be removed and a replacement buoy will be deployed nearby at the coordinates below. Download notice here.

“A Big Fugazi”: Why Fishermen Still Can’t Get Behind Offshore Wind

May 10, 2019 — In Ken Schneider’s 40-year fishing career, he’s fished for pretty much everything that’s out in the Mid-Atlantic.

Now, at 60 years old, Schneider spends most of his time hunting for lobster. On this day, he’s making some extra cash building a boat deck at Leonard’s Wharf in New Bedford before his next fishing trip. He takes his son with him sometimes.

“He don’t like fishing with me probably,” Schneider says. “Somebody else would be easier.”

His son works as an engineer at a drafting company. But if anything ever happens to him financially Schneider says, “he’s got a [fishing] license and everything and if everything else goes bad he’s always got this.”

Schneider’s daughter owns part of the family business too. But now, Schneider says all of it is at risk. He and other fishermen in New Bedford will soon have to share the open ocean with Vineyard Wind. The company is building the the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm…84-turbines about 14 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

There are final federal and state permits still pending approval but it’s expected onshore construction will start this fall. And by next year, construction will move to the ocean as the over 600 foot turbines settle in their new home.

Schneider says the seismic activity from the construction is going to change the ocean floor and marine life isn’t going to stay around. He thinks he could lose over 30-percent of his lobster catch because of the construction.

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

MASSACHUSETTS: New England Is Not Prepared For The World’s Largest Offshore Windfarm

May 2, 2019 –Commercial fishing families, as stewards of the ocean, are concerned that a new industry is developing at a rapid pace without adequate science and risk management. By the end of the year, Vineyard Wind intends to begin construction on its 84-turbine offshore wind farm south of Cape Cod. It will be one of the largest wind farms in the world and it will be built on essential marine habitat.

By the end 2025, Vineyard Wind and other foreign-owned wind energy companies, plan to build over 1,000 turbines in a 1,400 square mile lease area. Combined, they will dwarf other wind farms around the world. And they will build it without adequate scientific understanding of the harm they could cause to the migratory route for millions of marine animals, the feeding grounds for right whales, and the traditional fishing grounds of thousands of fishermen and recreational boaters.

Read the full release here

Vineyard Wind commits to fisheries monitoring

April 8, 2019 — Vineyard Wind has announced that it will adopt research measures recommended by a local university to monitor the effects on fisheries of the 84-turbine offshore wind farm, which when operational could be the first industrial-sized installation in the country.

The company, which intends to begin construction later this year of an 84-turbine wind farm south of Martha’s Vineyard, entered into a multi-faceted agreement in 2017 with the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology. Part of the agreement was for the school to design an approach to research that would be capable of monitoring the effects on fisheries of the one-time construction of the wind farm. The approach also needed to be capable of handling longer-term, regional studies.

“The fishing industry has raised important questions about the impacts of offshore wind development on the marine environment and on sea life,” the company said in a statement released Friday.

While Rhode Island fishermen in February approved a mitigation package that includes $4.2 million in payments over 30 years for direct impacts to commercial fishermen as a result of the wind farm, as well as the creation of a $12.5-million trust set up over five years that could be used to cover additional costs to fishermen resulting from the project, tensions continue to exist.

“It’s this industry against the world,” Lanny Dellinger, a leader in the Rhode Island commercial fishing community, said at a February meeting. “Look around and see what you’re up against. That’s what we had to weigh as a group. There is no choice here.”

The methodology the school is recommending is based on workshops held in November and December, and pilot projects. The procedures should encompass an array of fish species, and an integration of methods that can support additional and on-going fisheries research; the use of a “nested and modular” study design for both a relatively small construction site as well as a wider region; the creation of a standing committee of commercial fishermen to review findings and make recommendations; and the use of local fishermen to provide vessels to support the studies.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

SMAST studies on wind and fisheries poised to begin

April 8, 2019 — Fisheries scientists at the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology will begin a series of studies this spring to evaluate the effects of large-scale offshore wind farms on fish populations and habitat.

As part of an agreement with a wind farm developer, Vineyard Wind, SMAST scientists will monitor commercially fished species during construction of the company’s 84-turbine project south of Martha’s Vineyard. The school will also launch longer-term research to evaluate the regional fishery implications of offshore wind.

The research will begin later this spring, according to Vineyard Wind. SMAST has already conducted a Vineyard Wind-funded trial of video trawling in the wind energy area.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA Raises Concerns About Effects of Wind Farm and Undersea Cables

March 27, 2019 — A federal agency responsible for the stewardship of marine resources has raised questions about the impacts of the nation’s first “utility-scale” wind farm planned for waters approximately 14 miles south of the Vineyard.

Responding to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s nearly 500-page draft environmental impact statement, the National Marine Fisheries Service, informally known as NOAA fisheries, said in a letter that many of the conclusions drawn in the report about the limited or modest effects of the project on marine habitat lack sufficient evidence and require further examination.

“We determined that many of the conclusory statements relating to the scale of impacts for biological and socioeconomic resources are not well supported in the document,” a letter from the fisheries service to BOEM states. “Specifically, impacts categorized as major appear under-inclusive, while impacts designated as moderate seem overly inclusive.”

Last Thursday, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission closed a public hearing on two, 220 kilo volt undersea cables that would run through Edgartown waters to connect the wind farm to mainland Massachusetts. Vineyard Wind, the energy partnership that won the rights in a federal auction to build the proposed 84-turbine farm, intends to bury the cables at a target depth of 6.6 feet below the ocean floor.

During the hearing, many members of the public who testified cited the BOEM draft environmental impact statement that, among other things, assesses the effects of the project on marine life as minor. But in the letter to BOEM, the fisheries service questioned those conclusions and requested a more detailed analysis of the project.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette