Saving Seafood

Fishermen: Wind Farms Bad For Business

July 18, 2018 — Federal officials in charge of leasing ocean bottom land to offshore wind farm companies got an earful at a meeting with commercial fishermen Wednesday — and much of it was R-rated.

There isn’t merely significant opposition to offshore wind farms; there is 100-percent agreement among the fishermen that the wind turbines will eventually put them out of business.

The anger is palpable, and representatives from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management took the brunt of it, enduring a tirade of complaints. “This is how we talk on the docks,” one salty speaker exclaimed.

At issue is a federal directive — fueled in part, some say, by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo — to award leases for two more tracts of ocean bottomland that will eventually be home for wind farms. So far, 13 leases have been awarded to developers.

Brian Hooker, a fisheries biologist, David Nguyen, a project coordinator, and Isis Johnson, an environmental protection specialist, tried for close to four hours to get through a prepared program. They are charged with choosing two locations from within four giant swatches of ocean bottom off the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey. The fishing industry reps don’t think there should be any offshore turbines, period.

Read the full story at The Independent

Spending a year at sea to find best spots for wind turbines

July 17, 2018 — It’s a little reminiscent of the Beatles’ yellow submarine, but it doesn’t go underwater.

Instead, the bright yellow, boat-like buoy that floated off a dock Monday at Gardner’s Basin will use high-tech instrumentation on deck to help Danish offshore wind company Orsted place wind turbines for its Ocean Wind project, planned for 10 miles off Atlantic City.

If built, Ocean Wind would be New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm, and only the second in the nation after the five-turbine, 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island.

Company officials have said they could have the wind farm operational by 2025, but only if it is soon awarded state offshore wind energy credits to finance construction. The program to do that is still being created by the state Board of Public Utilities.

Gov. Phil Murphy has committed New Jersey to quickly generate 1,100 megawatts of electricity through offshore wind, 3,500 megawatts from offshore wind by 2030, and 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

Deepwater Wind Offers Offshore Information, Fishermen Want Compensation

July 17, 2018 — Deepwater Wind is trying to keep fishermen happy while it builds more offshore wind facilities. The latest effort aims to protect commercial fishing gear, but fishermen and their advocacy groups want broader protections for fishing grounds and their livelihood.

The Providence-based company recently announced a program to inform fishermen of where and when construction and other work occurs at the site of three wind facilities and their electric cables. The offshore wind developer hired liaisons to offer dockside information to fishermen at main fishing ports such as New Bedford, Mass., Point Judith, and Montauk, N.Y. Daily activity will be posted online about surveys, construction, and maintenance work. The updates will also be broadcast twice daily on boating radio channels, according to Deepwater Wind.

Deepwater Wind has three primary offshore wind projects that will be covered by the new program: the nation’s first offshore wind facility, the Block Island Wind Farm; the Skipjack Wind Farm off the coast of Delaware and Maryland; and the South Fork Wind Farm, which is proposed for federal water between Rhode Island and Massachusetts and would deliver electricity to eastern Long Island via a 30-mile undersea cable.

Bonnie Brady, president of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said the outreach by Deepwater Wind is window dressing. Deepwater Wind is “not doing anything at all. it’s a big, giant schmooze,” she said.

Read the full story at ecoRI

First U.S. Offshore Wind Developer Acts on Fishing Gear

July 16, 2018 — U.S. offshore wind developer Deepwater Wind has adopted a first-of-its-kind procedure designed to prevent impacts to commercial fishing gear from its activities.

Deepwater Wind’s Block Island Wind Farm is America’s first offshore wind farm, and the company is currently in active development on utility-scale wind farms to serve Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Maryland.

The procedure was developed in close coordination with the commercial fishing industry and is based off extensive feedback from fishermen in ports up and down the Atlantic coast. Deepwater Wind believes that keeping fishermen informed is the key to preventing damage to fishing gear.

“We know that offshore wind and all other ocean users can coexist – we see that happening every day at the Block Island Wind Farm. We are committed to working with the commercial fishing industry and ironing out our differences. We want to be good neighbors out there,” said Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski. “We’re taking this important step because it’s the right thing to do.”

The procedure’s key focus is on providing frequent updates on offshore activities to fishermen, via Deepwater Wind fisheries liaisons and a team of fisheries representatives based in regional ports, as well as through online updates for mariners and twice-daily updates on VHF channels.

While Deepwater Wind expects there will be only limited impacts on fishing gear from offshore wind activities, the company has included a process for gear-loss/damage claims should they occur. Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, said: “We are hopeful these won’t be needed and with the multiple notices to mariners and ads in the MLA newspaper, our members are actively engaged in the development of offshore wind in Southern New England.”

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

New online source shows East Coast offshore wind projects

July 13, 2018 — Mariners have a new source for information about offshore wind energy projects proposed off the East Coast.

Offshore Wind in the Northeast Region is a new webpage compiled by the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils that shows all planned and potential offshore wind energy lease areas to date from southern New England to Cape Hatteras, N.C.

The page is intended as a one-stop information source, for mariners and other stakeholders with interests in how the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans leasing for offshore wind energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

The page links to BOEM planning documents, government planning documents and studies, and wind developers’ information. It also maintains an updated list of public meetings and information sessions, like a series of meetings held this week in New York and New Jersey that were aimed at involving the recreational fishing sector.

Key links include the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portals, public websites that compile information about economic activity and environmental conditions off the East Coast. The websites’ mapping overlay capabilities allow shipping traffic, fishing activity and other uses to be compared to proposed wind farm sites – data that is shaping much of the debate over whether wind energy can be compatible with long-established commerce on the ocean.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

MAFMC and NEFMC Launch Northeast Offshore Wind Webpage

July 11, 2018 — The following was released by the Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council & New England Fishery Management Council:

On July 11, 2018, the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils launched a new webpage that’s designed to serve as a repository for information relevant to offshore wind development activities in the Northeast Region. The Councils worked closely with NOAA Fisheries on this collaborative effort. The easy-to-navigate webpage provides one-stop-shopping for fishermen and other stakeholders who are searching for essential resources associated with offshore wind energy production. The page provides direct links to government agencies, offshore wind developers, fishery liaisons, Council-developed comments, and more.

Take a look at Offshore Wind in the Northeast

Fishermen in the region are highly interested in better understanding the impacts of offshore wind development on both commercial and recreational fisheries. The New England and Mid-Atlantic Councils want to ensure that any potential impacts on Council-managed species and the marine environment are fully considered. In light of these factors, the Councils developed the offshore wind webpage as a tool to: (1) help facilitate the exchange of information; and (2) provide quick access to available resources.

Here’s the Webpage Address: http://www.mafmc.org/northeast-offshore-wind

Webpage Information Includes Links to:

  • The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), along with BOEM’s Fishing Industry Communication and Engagement page, BOEM’s State Activities page, and BOEM’s email updates registry;
  • Northeast offshore wind developers;
  • Mid-Atlantic and New England Council policies and comment letters on offshore wind issues;
  • Project-specific information on fisheries and the marine environment relative to wind activities and other ocean uses;
  • Mappers for Essential Fish Habitat and Endangered and Protected Resources, Regional Ocean Data Portals; and more.

Map Of Gulf Of Mexico Fisheries Prepares For Future Disasters

July 10, 2018 — A study seven years in the making by University of South Florida researchers has created a map of how many species live in the Gulf of Mexico. This will give experts an idea of how much damage would take place from a future oil spill.

The study took so long to complete because 12 separate expeditions were needed to cover the entire Gulf, including the waters off Mexico and Cuba. USF biologist and professor Steve Murawski said this information will be priceless.

“One of the criticisms of the Deepwater Horizon episode is before the spill, we had no environmental baseline for many of the things that are of interest and importance, and understanding the environment,” he said, “and now we have that baseline.”

Surprisingly, Murawski said researchers didn’t see a significant dropoff in the numbers of fish around the oil spill site, except for red snapper and hake.

Read the full story at WLRN

USF-led study discovers what lives in the gulf after BP disaster

July 6, 2018 — Eight years ago, when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank off Louisiana, one of the big problems facing scientists trying to assess the damage caused by the oil spill was that no one knew much about what lives in the Gulf of Mexico.

That’s no longer a problem, according to the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Sciences.

Partially funded by money that BP had to pay in the wake of the 2010 disaster, USF scientists joined with colleagues from three other universities to put together the first-ever comprehensive look at what fish and other wildlife call the gulf their home.

Compiling the data for their study, just published in the scientific journal Marine and Coastal Fisheries, required 12 separate voyages over seven years on the USF research ship R/V Weatherbird II. That included two trips to Mexico and one to Cuba, according to lead research scientist Steve Murawski of USF.

During those voyages the scientists caught 15,000 fish of 166 species from 343 locations. They tested the specimens for oil residues and other pollutants. Overall, the degree of oil contamination of fish from the northern gulf continues to decline, the report said, but none of the areas assessed so far have been free of oil.

One surprise in their findings, Murawski said, was that the part of the gulf with the lowest diversity of fish species is the area of the gulf with the greatest number of offshore oil rigs.

“They’ve had 50 to 60 years of oil development there,” he said. “So that may be one of the at-risk areas” in case of a future oil spill. A disaster like Deepwater Horizon could more easily wipe out the fish living there to the point where they could not bounce back, he explained.

Read the full story at the Tampa Bay Times

Trump effort to lift U.S. offshore wind sector sparks interest – from Europe

July 5, 2018 — The Trump administration wants to fire up development of the U.S. offshore wind industry by streamlining permitting and carving out vast areas off the coast for leasing – part of its ‘America First’ policy to boost domestic energy production and jobs.

The Europeans have taken note.

The drive to open America’s offshore wind industry has attracted Europe’s biggest renewable energy companies, who see the U.S. East Coast as a new frontier after years of success across the Atlantic.

Less experienced U.S. wind power companies, meanwhile, have struggled to compete in their own backyard, according to lease data and interviews with industry executives. Many are steering clear of the opportunity altogether, concerned by development costs and attracted to cheaper options on land.

The Trump administration hopes the industry will help supply power to the heavily-populated Northeast, eventually creating American jobs in manufacturing turbines, towers and other components. Its efforts are part of a broader push to relax regulations and spur development across the energy complex.

“This would be American produced energy, and American jobs,” said Vincent DeVito, energy policy advisor to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. “It fits well with the America First agenda.”

Read the full story at Reuters

Rhode Island squid fishermen fear wind power

July 2, 2018 — Rhode Island fishermen say a patch of the Atlantic Ocean south of Martha’s Vineyard is among the best places around to catch squid.

They are also the same waters in which a developer selected by Massachusetts plans to install up to 100 giant wind turbines that would supply clean, renewable energy to the state.

Now, Rhode Island coastal regulators and the state’s fishing community are raising concerns that the offshore wind farm that Vineyard Wind wants to build in 250 square miles of federally-owned ocean may affect access to the squid grounds that are critical to the Point Judith fleet.

“They cut out scallop fisheries valued by Massachusetts,” said Grover Fugate, executive director of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council. “But the grounds left are valued by Rhode Island fishermen, particularly for squid.”

Erich Stephens, chief development officer for Vineyard Wind, said the company has worked hard to accommodate the needs of Rhode Island fishermen — such as working to restrict the prospective schedule for laying a transmission cable to avoid the height of the squid fishing season in the summer — but he also acknowledged the dissatisfaction in some quarters with the proposed 800-megawatt wind farm.

“At the end of the day, there are a lot of different interests,” Stephens said. “It’s not possible to come up with a single design that will keep everyone happy.”

Read the full story at the Providence Journal