Nantucket Archives - Saving Seafood

Judge grants BOEM request to reconsider key permit for SouthCoast Wind

November 5, 2025 –A judge on Tuesday granted a federal agency’s request to remand a key permit that it had given in January to SouthCoast Wind, an offshore wind project planned off the Massachusetts coast.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Interior Department agency that manages offshore wind development, in September asked a judge for a remand so that it can reconsider its approval, which greenlit project construction for up to 147 turbines south of Nantucket and Vineyard Wind.

BOEM is effectively re-opening the review, which started in 2021 and lasted years, citing President Donald Trump’s day-one wind memo directing the Interior Department to carry out a “comprehensive review of the ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases.”

The agency could ultimately decide to revoke the SouthCoast Wind permit, or require new conditions for the developer to meet to receive approval.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Endangered giants at risk off Cape Cod. Why these animals die here more than anywhere else

October 13, 2025 — Leatherback sea turtles visiting the waters off Cape Cod each year face a higher risk of fatal boat strikes than in any region along the Atlantic or Gulf coasts, according to a new study that includes contributions from three Cape researchers.

Between 2010 and 2022, watercraft struck 88 leatherbacks in waters off the Cape and Nantucket — more than a quarter of the 337 recorded collisions nationwide during the same period.

The largest marine turtle species in the world, leatherbacks are listed as endangered by the state and federal government. Under the Massachusetts Wildlife Action Plan the turtles are a species of greatest conservation needs.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

This Fishing Vessel Went Missing Without a Trace in 1929. Divers Just Found It Off the Coast of Nantucket

October 1, 2025 — On January 9, 1929, the ST Seiner set sail from New London, Connecticut. On January 18, the captain of the steam-powered fishing trawler made his required daily check-in with the Portland Trawling Company, the ship’s owner. But the next day, he failed to touch base with the company, and on January 22, the vessel missed a scheduled port stop. No one ever saw or heard from the Seiner again.

Now, nearly 100 years later, shipwreck hunters say they have discovered the long-lost vessel off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

The Atlantic Wreck Salvage, a New Jersey-based company that searches for lost shipwrecks, announced this month that it had located the ship on the eastern edge of the Georges Bank area roughly 125 miles off the coast. The vessel is submerged 200 feet deep.

Officials say they hope the discovery will provide some sense of closure for the descendants of Thomas Miller, the vessel’s captain, and the 20 other crew members who perished with the ship. The men hailed from various parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Newfoundland, Canada. Family members are encouraged to reach out to the company.

The Atlantic Wreck Salvage team first discovered the ship using side-scan sonar aboard the D/V Tenacious in 2022. They suspected the wreck was the Seiner, but time and weather constraints prevented them from diving to the wreckage, so they could not confirm its identity.

Read the full article at the Smithsonian Magazine

Trump administration moves to revoke permit for Massachusetts offshore wind project

September 22, 2025 — The Trump administration has moved to block a Massachusetts offshore wind farm, its latest effort to hobble an industry and technology that President Donald Trump has attacked as “ugly” and unreliable compared to fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, filed a motion in federal court Thursday seeking to take back its approval of the SouthCoast Wind project’s “construction and operations plan.’’ The plan is the last major federal permit the project needs before it can start putting turbines in the water.

SouthCoast Wind, to be built in federal waters about 23 miles south of Nantucket, is expected to construct as many as 141 turbines to power about 840,000 homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The Interior Department action is the latest by the Trump administration in what critics call an “all-out assault” on the wind energy industry.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

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

Nantucket wind lawsuit on hold as feds take 2nd look at SouthCoast permit

September 8, 2025 — In a move that could reshape the future of SouthCoast Wind — and signal deeper uncertainty for offshore wind — the U.S. Department of the Interior is reviewing its approval of the planned offshore wind farm off Nantucket. At the same time, federal attorneys want to pause the town of Nantucket’s related lawsuit while regulators revisit the permit — a shift Nantucket supports.

On Aug. 29, the U.S. Department of Justice asked the U.S. District Court for a temporary hold on Nantucket’s appeal filed over the permit. In a Sept. 2 statement, town leaders said they hope the pause leads to broader changes in how offshore wind projects are approved.

Read the full article at Cape Cod Times

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

Feds move to vacate New England Wind permit as offshore wind rollback continues under Trump

September 3, 2025 — The federal government is now taking aim at New England Wind, asking a federal court to pause a lawsuit brought by island nonprofit ACK For Whales, saying it intends to seek remand and vacatur of the federal approval of the offshore wind project. It’s a move that, if granted, would effectively send the project back to square one and could make the case moot.

The announcement comes a week after the U.S. Department of Justice made a similar filing in the Town of Nantucket’s case against SouthCoast Wind. In that case, the DOJ asked the court to pause the suit while it reviewed SouthCoast’s permit.

Read the full article at The Inquirer and Mirror

New Study Reveals Dusky Sharks Preying On Seals For First Time Off Nantucket

August 29, 2025 — A new study confirms what scientists have known for years: dusky sharks are eating seals off the coast of Nantucket.

There are few known predators of seals in the Atlantic Ocean, but scientists can add one more to the list after a team of researchers captured what is believed to be the first aerial video showing a dusky shark killing and eating a grey seal near Nantucket.

“It’s one of the most exciting things I’ve been involved with as a shark scientist because it really changes the way we see this species,” said Megan Winton, a senior scientist at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and the lead author of the study.

Two years ago, in July of 2023, boaters and beachgoers took photos and videos of sharks preying on seals off Great Point, and scientists later confirmed that the sharks in question were dusky sharks, not white sharks, as initially thought. This was notable because, until then, there was no evidence that dusky sharks ate seals.

One study from South Africa had found a seal in the stomach of a dusky shark, but at the time, scientists thought it was the result of a scavenging event, rather than part of the shark’s usual diet.

Read the full article at the Nantucket Current

When the Blade Breaks

August 26, 2025 — A charter boat fisherman was among the first to discover the wreckage — a “mess,” he called it, deep off the coast of Massachusetts. From behind a veil of pea soup-thick fog emerged hundreds of white and green fiberglass and Styrofoam pieces, some as small as a fingernail, some as large as a truck hood. By the following morning, the tide had carried the debris about 12 nautical miles and scattered it across Nantucket Island’s beaches. Residents woke to a shoreline covered in trash, fiberglass shards mixed in with seaweed and shells, waves thrusting flotsam onto the sand.

It did not take long to follow the breadcrumb trail to its source: Vineyard Wind, an offshore wind farm located south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. On Saturday, July 13th, 2024, a nearly 115,000-pound blade broke from one of the turbines, shattered, and littered at least six truckloads’ worth of waste into the ocean.

The stakes for renewable energy advocates could not have been higher. Scientists, environmental groups, offshore wind developers, investors, and stakeholders from across the world had all been closely monitoring Vineyard Wind, which, with a planned 62 turbines, was on track to be the first large-scale commercial offshore wind farm in the United States. Dozens of other projects with contracts pending construction had hoped to glean insight from Vineyard Wind as a leading example. A disaster like this would put the nascent offshore wind industry under intense scrutiny and had the potential to throw future projects into jeopardy.

Read the full article at The Verge