Saving Seafood

Kathryn Ford To Manage Lifeblood of Ocean Science: Data Collected Directly from Nature

June 22, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Kathryn Ford is now leading the center’s Population and Ecosystems Monitoring and Analysis Division. She is replacing Wendy Gabriel who retired in 2021 after 38 years with NOAA Fisheries.

This division executes a massive data acquisition, management, and analysis effort. It includes scientific ecosystem surveys on vessels operated by NOAA, universities, other national oceanographic laboratories, and fishing vessels. The team also analyzes biological trends in important fishery species. It conducts biological studies to understand how a range of ecosystem factors influence the growth and health of important fishery species.

Ford comes with a great respect for the work she will manage. “I believe in the science that this particular team brings to the table,” said Ford. “This division’s data collection and analysis are central to what the center does. They are the basis for all the other analyses.”

Ford comes to NOAA Fisheries after a career filled with multidisciplinary work in coastal and ocean science at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.  Initially hired there to pilot a remotely operated towed vehicle in a conservation engineering study, she eventually rose to lead the division’s fisheries habitat program.

Trained as an oceanographer, Ford has applied those skills to coastal and ocean planning, artificial reefs and eelgrass restoration, aquaculture, and offshore wind energy development. She served on:

  • The first state joint task force to work with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on wind energy areas off Massachusetts and Rhode Island
  • The Northeast Regional Ocean Council
  • The New England Fishery Management Council’s Habitat Plan Development Team

Read the full release here

CALIFORNIA: Will offshore wind hurt the Morro Bay fishing industry? ‘We’re basically screwed’

June 22, 2021 — Bill Blue has been commercially fishing Dungeness crab and black cod near the shores of Morro Bay for 47 years.

It’s a business that he got into when he was 19 years old.

“That’s all I know. That’s what I do,” he said.

Blue’s business has survived in an industry that has faced growing regulations and shrinking territory during the nearly five decades he’s operated off the Central Coast.

Now, proposals to develop a massive floating offshore wind farm in the Pacific Ocean near Cambria may diminish Blue’s fishing grounds by 399 square miles — an area more than twice the size of Lake Tahoe.

The proposed offshore wind farm got a green light from Biden administration officials with support from California Gov. Gavin Newsom on May 25, after years of negotiations between federal, state and local governments.

Along with Newsom, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin Kahl announced the advancement of the proposed offshore wind farm in a call with reporters, touting the economic benefits of the project and clean energy it will generate.

The wind farm would be located northwest of Morro Bay, about 17 to 40 miles offshore.

Read the full story at The Tribune

With Sale, Feds Push Wind Energy

June 18, 2021 — The federal Department of the Interior announced on Friday a proposed sale for offshore wind development on the outer continental shelf in the New York Bight, an area of shallow waters between Long Island and the New Jersey coast.

The sale would be the first competitive offshore wind lease sale of President Biden’s administration, which previously announced a goal of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.

The proposed lease areas have the potential for seven gigawatts of wind energy, sufficient to power more than 2.6 million residences and support thousands of new jobs, according to a statement from the Interior Department.

The proposed sale notice includes eight lease areas in the New York Bight that could be auctioned for commercial wind energy development. A proposed sale notice published in the Federal Register on Friday opened a 60-day public comment period and provides information about potential areas that could be available for leasing, proposed lease provisions and conditions, and auction details. Comments received will be made available to the public and considered before a decision is made as to whether to publish a final sale notice, which would announce the time and date of a lease sale.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

Coastal Virginia project set to be next Biden milestone for offshore wind

June 18, 2021 — Twenty-seven miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia, stand two offshore wind turbines, each taller than the Washington Monument, generating power for up to 3,000 homes.

In five years, Dominion Energy hopes to be finishing construction of its own ocean skyline — complete with 180 turbines standing roughly 200 feet taller than the pilot project, three underwater power substations, and a deep-sea transmission line to bring that electricity to shore.

The Virginia-based utility expects the commercial project, now the largest proposed offshore wind project in the country, to generate 2.6 gigawatts of electricity. That is enough zero-carbon electricity to power 660,000 homes.

Dominion Energy’s offshore wind efforts are a microcosm of what is happening all up and down the eastern seaboard. States and power companies invest billions in putting turbines in the water and turning East Coast ports into offshore wind industry hubs.

Read the full story at The Washington Examiner

CALIFORNIA: Fishermen voice concerns over Morro Bay wind farm

June 18, 2021 — During the June 8 SLO County Board of Supervisors meeting, several commercial fishermen called in during public comment and submitted letters requesting the board pause on approving a resolution that supported initiatives to develop wind energy.

The resolution, which supervisors pulled from the agenda, recognized the potential for renewable wind power generation and clean energy infrastructure to bring long-term economic benefits to San Luis Obispo County.

Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization President Tom Hafer submitted a letter to the board talking about the issues that fishermen face with a potential offshore wind development project area spanning 399 square miles of ocean off the Central Coast—the approved area size was announced May 25 by the White House and U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara).

Read the full story at The New Times

Dominion Energy’s wind turbines have been more efficient than expected

June 18, 2021 — The automated controllers for the 253-foot blades on Dominion Energy Virginia’s two wind turbines, 27 miles off the Virginia Beach shore, had aimed them just a few degrees west of due north, so a 12-knot wind could turn them at a stately ten revolutions a minute.

And so, pumping some 12 megawatts of power back to the grid, it was another day of learning for the electric utility’s wind-power pilot project, as Dominion prepares to see how turbines perform in the calmer days of summer.

Dominion is planning to spend roughly $8 billion to install roughly 180 wind turbines, one third again as tall as the pilot project duo. The aim is to meet a General Assembly directive that it not emit any of the greenhouse gases by 2045.

Burning coal, oil and natural gas produces carbon gas emissions. Wind does not. When the wind farm is up and running it will generate enough electricity to power 660,000 homes.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

Multi-Phase Study Focuses on Wind Farm Impact on Mid-Atlantic Bight

June 17, 2021 — Some opponents of a proposed wind farm off the coast of Long Beach Island cite the continued lack of available data specific to the Mid-Atlantic Bight and its impact to the commercial and recreational fishing industries. On June 3, Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind and Rutgers University announced a multi-phase modeling study in collaboration with the surfclam industry.

The goal of the study, according to Atlantic Shores officials, is to better understand how Mid-Atlantic wind farm developments anticipated over the next three decades, along with climate change, will affect the distribution and abundance of surfclams.

“The study will also examine the economics of the Surfclam Fishery within the Atlantic Shores Lease Area and the greater Mid-Atlantic Bight,” according to a June 3 statement in which Atlantic Shores and Rutgers University announced the study launch.

Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind is one of two companies that could potentially build the state’s second wind farm, in part off the coast of LBI. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities is expected to make an announcement on granting approval for the second wind farm sometime this month.

Atlantic Shores is a 50-50 partnership between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF Renewables North America. It was formed in December 2018 to co-develop nearly 183,353 acres of leased sea area on the Outer Continental Shelf, located within the New Jersey Wind Energy Area.

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

Some New Jersey residents fighting the state’s wind farm plan

June 16, 2021 — New Jersey is moving forward with plans to build an enormous wind farm 20 miles off the coast, but not everybody is thrilled.

Proponents, including Gov. Phil Murphy, insist the Ocean Wind project, which calls for constructing about a hundred giant wind turbines out in the ocean over the next five years, and hundreds more in the future, will boost the state economy, create thousands of new jobs and provide enough green energy to run hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.

Tricia Conte, the founder of Save Our Shoreline, is dead set against the wind farm.

“I was initially concerned about the view,” she said. “And then the more research I did I realized there were greater issues than the view.”

She said, “In other areas where there has been green energy installed, California, Germany and Denmark, there was significant increases in the cost of electricity.”

Read the full story at NJ 101.5

NEW JERSEY: Bill would pre-empt local say over offshore wind projects

June 16, 2021 — New Jersey lawmakers are considering a law that would fast-track offshore wind energy projects by removing the ability of local governments to control power lines and other onshore components.

The bill, introduced last week and advanced on Tuesday, would give wind energy projects approved by the state Board of Public Utilities authority to locate, build, use and maintain wires and associated land-based infrastructure as long as they run underground on public property including streets. (The BPU could determine that some above-ground wires are necessary.)

It appears to be an effort to head off any local objections to at least one wind power project envisioned to come ashore at two former power plants, and run cables under two of the state’s most popular beaches.

At a virtual public hearing in April on the Ocean Wind project planned by Orsted, the Danish wind energy developer, and PSEG, a New Jersey utility company, officials revealed that the project would connect to the electric grid at decommissioned power plants in Ocean and Cape May Counties.

The northern connection would be at the former Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township; the southern connection would be at the former B.L. England plant in Upper Township.

Cables running from the wind farm, to be located between 15 and 27 miles (24 to 43 kilometers) off the coast of Atlantic City, would come ashore at one of three potential locations in Ocean City: 5th Street, 13th Street or 35th Street. They would then run under the roadway along Roosevelt Boulevard out to Upper Township and the former power plant, which closed in 2019.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Feds Add NY-NJ Waters to Gulf of Mexico in Offshore Wind Development Spurt

June 15, 2021 — In the latest Biden administration push to meet its target to deploy 30 GW of U.S. offshore wind energy by 2030, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said that her agency jumpstarted the process announced in March to lease federal ocean tracts for projects in the New York Bight area between Long Island, N.Y., and coastal New Jersey.

The preliminary lease notice, published on June 14, follows a US Interior Dept. alert on June 11 that it will also open Gulf of Mexico areas for project development, seeking builder interest and public comment.

The government notice for the New York lease, which foresees up to 7 GW of offshore wind in three designated zones, launches a 60-day comment period, with specifics on lease proposal dates and exact lease sites to follow. Most observers speculate the lease auction will be held this year.

Currently, 11 developers have indicated interest in building projects in those areas and are approved to bid by Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency said. It said the areas could provide more than 9.8 GW of developable power supply.

Annie Hawkins, executive director of Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, which represents fishing interests and has been a vocal project opponent, noted developer mandates to consult on potential impacts before turbine array designs are proposed. But in a statement, she remains  concerned about opening new lease areas in the Bight, “which is perhaps the most spatially conflicted area in the country.”

Read the full story at the Engineering News Record