Saving Seafood

NOAA Partners With Offshore Wind Industry on Environmental Monitoring

September 18, 2023 — NOAA and Community Offshore Wind (COSW) – a joint venture between RWE and National Grid Ventures – have signed a 5-year cooperative research and development agreement to exchange data and expertise. The agreement focuses on informing development of an environmental monitoring program for COSW’s offshore wind project off New York and New Jersey.

The partnership is the first of its kind in the offshore wind industry, creating a platform for developers and federal experts to work together in monitoring potential impacts of development on marine ecosystems.

The research cooperation also supports NOAA’s ongoing environmental monitoring across the New York Bight. This process will inform best practices for establishing environmental observation systems on new offshore wind projects in the region.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Scientists Eye Offshore Wind’s Effects on the Atlantic’s Crucial Cold Pool

September 18, 2023 — Every year, as the surface water temperature off the United States’ mid-Atlantic coast rises steadily from late spring through the summer, a pocket of uncharacteristically cool and crisp water gets trapped at the bottom of the ocean. Packed with nutrients, this thick band of cold water, known as the mid-Atlantic cold pool, is a vital home for shellfish species like surf clams and sea scallops. Extending at its seasonal peak from Nantucket, Massachusetts, to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the cold pool fosters a diverse ecosystem ranging from small algae to migratory fish—and some of the most valuable shellfish fisheries in the United States.

The mid-Atlantic cold pool has been a reliable oceanographic feature for more than 1,000 years. Nowhere else in the world can you find such a large summer temperature difference between the water at the ocean’s surface and at the bottom. Now, however, two pressures have scientists worrying about whether the cold pool will persist. The first is no surprise: climate change. Over the past five decades, climate change has destabilized the cold pool, causing it to warm and shrink. Compared with 1968, the cold pool is now 1.3 °C warmer and has lost more than one-third of its area.

The second concern is less intuitive and less certain. In 2023, the US federal government approved plans to install 98 wind turbines off the New Jersey coast, covering an area of more than 300 square kilometers. Construction is slated to start this fall and the completed project should have a capacity of about 1,100 megawatts. That’s enough to power roughly 380,000 homes. Yet anchoring so many turbines to the seafloor could have unexpected consequences for the temperature stratification that keeps the cold pool intact. That’s why Travis Miles, a physical oceanographer at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, and his colleagues are investigating how the budding wind farm might affect how and when the cold pool forms and breaks down.

Read the full article at Hakai Magazine

Rules to protect whales issued to offshore wind firm prepping for N.J. construction

September 14, 2023 — As developers get closer to building the Jersey Shore’s first offshore wind turbines, the safety of marine mammals continues to be an important factor.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday issued Ørsted a construction authorization that outlines rules for protecting whales and dolphins while installing monopiles, turbines and other offshore wind infrastructure for its first project.

The number of stranded whales on the Atlantic Coast this year reached 62, including nearly two dozen in New York and New Jersey. Although three federal agencies and various experts have repeated that scientific evidence has yet to connect the strandings to offshore wind development, the Marine Mammal Protection Act requires the permit.

Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 1 will be crucial in Gov. Phil Murphy’s larger ambition for New Jersey to become a leader in the clean energy alternative on the Eastern Seaboard.

Read the full article at NJ.com

Offshore wind energy plans advance in New Jersey amid opposition

September 14, 2023 — Two major offshore wind power projects are taking steps forward in New Jersey as the owners of one project agreed to bring the federal government in on their environmental monitoring plans at an earlier stage than has ever been done, and federal regulators said plans for another project are not expected to kill or seriously injure marine life.

They come as New Jersey continues to grow as a hub of opposition to offshore wind projects from residents’ groups and their political allies, mostly Republicans. The state’s Democratic governor and Democratic-controlled Legislature want to make the state the East Coast leader in offshore wind energy.

Community Offshore Wind, a joint venture between Essen, Germany-based RWE and New York-based National Grid Ventures, on Thursday announced a five-year partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to promote the exchange of data and expertise on environmental monitoring for offshore wind projects.

The agreement will bring the federal agency into the company’s planning process at a much earlier stage than is currently done in the offshore wind industry, an arrangement that could become the new industry standard, according to company president Doug Perkins.

“Instead of us coming up with this on our own and getting some feedback from the agencies, we will work together to make sure that it’s efficient in the data they collect,” he said. “It creates the opportunity, the avenue for us to engage with them, and for them to engage with us, to make sure that our plans, how we’re sampling, where we’re sampling, when we’re sampling, fits with what they do and with what will be required of the industry.”

Read the full article at ABC News

NEW JERSEY: 6 protesters arrested as onshore testing work for New Jersey wind farm begins

September 13, 2023 — Police arrested six protesters Tuesday who tried to disrupt the start of land-based testing for New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm. But the work progressed anyway.

Police in Ocean City, which has become the hub of resistance to offshore wind projects in New Jersey and elsewhere along the U.S. East Coast, arrested demonstrators after the city said they failed to heed four warnings to get out of the roadway.

“There were three people lying in the street,” said Robin Shaffer, a spokesman for Protect Our Coast NJ, a residents’ group opposed to the local project and to offshore wind in general.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

NEW JERSEY: Wind Farm Protesters Vow to Continue Their Fight

September 12, 2023 — Wind farm developer Orsted recently hit the pause button on its proposed project that would include 98 towering turbines in the waters off the South Jersey coast.

But opponents say they will continue to fight until the project is stopped altogether.

On Sunday afternoon in drizzling rain, Congressman Jeff Van Drew, members of the local grassroots organization Protect Our Coast NJ and other anti-wind farm protesters rallied on 35th Street beach in Ocean City to reinforce their goal: No to wind farms, no to Orsted.

“You know it’s about the fishing industry. You know it’s about our beautiful animals that live in the sea. You know it’s about our environment,” Van Drew said to the crowd of a little more than 100 protesters. “You know it’s about our national security – literally, the Pentagon spoke against it and was squashed by the administration in Washington.”

Van Drew continued, “You know it’s about tripling our utility rates, maybe worse. Even Orsted admits that. There is nothing good about this project. The more you learn, the more you read, the more you dig, the more you look into it, the more you realize how very bad this is for all of us.”

Read the full article at OCNJDaily

NEW JERSEY: Early Indicators of Offshore Survey Work Raise Concern for Seafood Production

September 6, 2023 — Beachgoers spent their summer enjoying a reprieve from scorching temperatures, frolicking in the Atlantic Ocean, but marine life had a more difficult summer in the water as seismic testing related to offshore wind surveying is believed, by some, to have caused stress to certain species.

Kirk O. Larson, who has spent more than five decades on the water as a commercial fisherman while serving as Barnegat Light mayor for more than 30 years, said scallops, calamari (squid) and sea bass were among the species to experience stress and disturbance.

In fact, every time seismic testing occurs, sea bass “are hoppling up, scared to death on the bottom of the ocean. They probably won’t spawn this year, like the scallops and the squid. The ramifications down the road, in my mind … You can fact check me next year,” he told a crowd of more than 300 people at Bay Breeze Pavilion in Barnegat Light on Aug. 27.

Read the full article at the Sand Paper

East Coast offshore wind farm delayed due to supply chain issues, high interest, and lack of tax credits

September 5, 2023 — Global wind energy developer Ørsted has announced its planned offshore wind farm off the coast of New Jersey will be delayed until 2026 due to several reasons including supply chain issues.

The company, which is based in Fredericia, Denmark, has several offshore wind farms planned off the coasts of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island.

The Associated Press reported that the Danish company exposed the delay during an earnings call on Wednesday, admitting it could be forced to write-off about $2.3 billion in U.S. projects worth less than earlier projections.

Read the full article Fox Business

NEW JERSEY: Activist Group Opposes New Jersey Offshore Wind Project

September 2, 2023 — In the seemingly mad rush to achieve the nation’s climate goals and maximize the renewable energy opportunities presented by the Inflation Reduction Act, offshore wind farms are, or will be, cropping up near many miles of U.S. coastline. Activist groups, new and old, continue to mobilize and make their voices heard.

MOVE ’EM OUT, a New Jersey nonprofit organization devoted to preserving the unique charm and ecological balance of the state’s beaches, recently announced its opposition to proposed wind projects, underscoring the detrimental impact on New Jersey’s southern shoreline ecology, local and statewide economy and its vibrant communities.

Read the full article at North American Wind Power

NEW JERSEY: Orsted delays 1st New Jersey wind farm until 2026; not ready to ‘walk away’ from project

September 2, 2023 — Orsted, the global wind energy developer, says its first offshore wind farm in New Jersey will be delayed until 2026 due to supply chain issues, higher interest rates, and a failure so far to garner enough tax credits from the federal government.

The Danish company revealed the delay during an earnings conference call Wednesday, during which it said it could be forced to write off about $2.3 billion on U.S. projects that are worth less than they had been.

It also said it had considered simply abandoning the Ocean Wind I project off the southern New Jersey coast.

Read the full article at the Associated Press