Saving Seafood

New York Wind Farm Part of Larger Offshore Energy Ambitions

July 14, 2016 — UNIONDALE, N.Y. — A New York utility plans to approve a wind farm off eastern Long Island that it says would be the nation’s largest offshore wind energy project built to date.

The project would be the first phase of a more ambitious effort to construct hundreds of electricity-producing turbines in the Atlantic Ocean in the coming years.

The announcement that the Long Island Power Authority plans to approve a proposed 90-megawatt, 15-turbine wind farm in U.S. waters east of Montauk at a meeting next week was greeted enthusiastically by energy experts, elected officials and environmentalists.

“This is obviously an important development,” said Jeffrey Firestone, a professor at the University of Delaware and an expert on offshore wind. “Hopefully, this will be something toward facilitating a more regional approach to the need for offshore wind energy.”

The U.S. lags behind Europe and others in development of offshore wind energy because of regulatory hurdles and opposition from fossil fuel and fishing interests, among other challenges. Many wind farms in Europe are already producing hundreds of megawatts of power.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has issued several leases for wind projects along the Atlantic coast, but none have come to fruition yet. LIPA said its project would be the next one built after one opens near Block Island, Rhode Island, later this year.

A scallop industry trade organization, the Fisheries Survival Fund, has raised concerns about some wind farm proposals, but not this one. Important scallop areas were removed from the possible lease areas for this wind farm, said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for the fund. He cautioned that other commercial fishermen could raise objections.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

Exactly where do Maine lobstermen find their catch? Hard to say

July 13, 2016 — It is the state’s largest fishery, bringing in more than $500 million a year and employing tens of thousands of people up and down the supply chain, but there is no map that shows exactly where Maine’s lobstermen trap their catch.

Most of them fish within 3 miles of the coast, and thus do not fill out detailed federal catch reports or have onboard satellite tracking systems that lend themselves to detailed maps of valuable fishing territories.

That suits many lobstermen just fine, because they say their territory changes from year to year and they don’t like the notion of the government tracking where they fish. But that attitude makes life difficult for regulatory agencies responsible for permitting non-fishing activities in the Gulf of Maine, such as wind farms or mining operations.

The lack of detailed, up-to-date maps of lobster fishing grounds is obvious when reviewing the hundreds of maps collected by the Northeast Regional Planning Body, the federal planning body that is overseeing the nation’s regional ocean planning from the Gulf of Maine to Long Island Sound. The council is building a trove of online data, maps and information tracking a wide range of coastal and marine activities, from popular cruise ship routes to protected marine mammal habitats to public beaches and beach restoration projects.

Trying to fill the information gap

The data portal has maps that paint a detailed picture of other fisheries, with current and historical views of the number of fishermen who work any given area for each species of groundfish and how much they are catching in each area. But the information about lobstering is limited to a few lobster biomass maps and management area maps.

The Island Institute, a nonprofit group out of Rockland that represents the interests of Maine’s island and more remote coastal communities, is trying to step up to fill that gap, if not with maps, then with voices from the lobstering industry.

The group has issued a report on the “spatial characterization” of the lobster fishery, which is government-speak for what a map of the lobster industry would look like if such a map existed, said Nick Battista, marine programs director for the institute and part of the team that produced the report.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Proposed wind farm off the New Jersey coast concerns local fisherman

June 21, 2016 — LONG BRANCH, N.J. — A proposal to build a wind farm off the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey is concerning some local fisheries, which say that the farm could hurt their livelihood.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held its first of four public meeting in Long Branch Monday night to education the public on what environmental impacts a wind farm in the ocean could have.

Local fisherman Arthur Osche says that the proposed building site for the farm is right where he usually fishes for scallops. Scallops make up about 40 percent of his fishery business.

“My boat typically does about $3 million a year, so it would be like $1.2 million,” he says.

Osche says that although he does support renewable energy sources, he does not want to see them build where he and other fisheries fish.

Read and watch the full story at News 12 The Bronx

Fishermen worry about plan for wind farm off New York coast

June 20, 2016 — MINEOLA, N.Y. — A long-stalled plan to build a forest of power-producing windmills off the coast of New York may finally be gathering momentum, and that is sparking concern among commercial fishermen who fear the giant turbines will ruin an area rich with scallops and other sea life.

Federal officials announced earlier this month that they would auction off the rights to build the wind power farm on a 127-square-mile wedge of the Atlantic Ocean.

The tip of the wedge begins about 11 miles south of Long Island’s popular Jones Beach and spreads out across an area, sandwiched between major shipping lanes, where trawlers harvest at least $3.3 million worth of sea scallops each year, as well as smaller amounts of mackerel, squid and other species, according to a study commissioned by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“There’s got to be a better place,” said Eric Hansen, a scallop fisherman based in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Groups including the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and the Fisheries Survival Fund and a seafood company in Rhode Island have already voiced objections about damage to the fishing ground and potential navigation hazards for vessels traversing the area.

“We’ll fight it every step of the way,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney representing the Fisheries Survival Fund, although he stopped short of threatening legal action. He said scallop fishermen don’t object to all wind farms, but are angry the New York site was chosen without their input.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Times Union

US Department of the Interior Approves New York City Offshore Wind Project, Commercial Fishermen Oppose

June 10, 2016 — The Offshore Wind Project in New York City is given a go signal by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) last week. On the other hand, the commercial fishermen disagree in building windmills on pylons within approximately 329 square kilometers of the New York Bight.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said that the department took a major step in broadening the nation’s energy portfolio, channeling power near population centers on the East Coast. The Offshore Wind Project is a public-private collaboration by Con Edison, Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) and New York Power Authority (NYPA).

Read the full story at Science World Report

Fishermen’s Energy Wind Farm Has Hope with DOE and Senators’ Backing

June 2, 2016 — The U.S. Department of Energy has announced a no-cost extension until the end of the year for Fishermen’s Energy Atlantic City Wind Farm to secure an agreement to sell its power and continue to receive funding as one of the department’s offshore wind advanced technology demonstration projects.

Fishermen’s Energy is currently in the second of five DOE funding stages, and has met all of the criteria to advance to the next stage once an “offtake” agreement – a plan to sell the energy – is reached. As the project advances, it will be eligible for nearly $50 million in federal funding. The DOE estimates that the offshore wind farm will become operational in 2018, which would make it one of the first commercial offshore wind projects in the U.S.

On Tuesday, Fishermen’s Energy Chief Operating Officer Paul Gallagher said the DOE always intended to have the demonstration project completed by 2018. “It’s within their right to want an offtake agreement,” said Gallagher.

But so far the state’s preferred method of selling energy has been through the powerful Board of Public Utilities and obtaining an offshore renewable energy certificate (OREC) that can be sold to power companies.

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

MASSACHUSETTS: State set to deny extending Cape Wind permits

March 30, 2016 — A state board on Tuesday issued a tentative decision denying the extension of permits that would allow Cape Wind to build an electricity transmission line to connect its proposed offshore wind farm to land, further complicating the beleaguered project’s already grim prospects.

Members of the Energy Facilities Siting Board will meet next week to finalize a decision on whether or not to renew nine state and local permits the board initially granted as a so-called “super permit” to the offshore wind energy developer in 2009. The permits allowed Cape Wind to construct a transmission line through state-owned territory in Nantucket Sound and Hyannis Harbor and across multiple Cape towns.

Cape Wind had initially requested a two-year extension of the permits to May 1, 2017, which is unreasonable because it would not be enough time for Cape Wind to overcome the obstacles the project faces, according to the siting board’s tentative decision.

“At this time, Cape Wind needs a lengthy, almost open-ended extension period,” siting board presiding officer James Buckley wrote in the 26-page document. “An open-ended extension obviously would be unreasonbable. Any extension of the magnitude needed here, especially in light of the minimal investigation and review by Cape Wind for this proceeding, likewise would be unreasonable.”

The decision would be yet another major setback for the project, which has faced stiff opposition since it was first proposed in 2001. Last year, it suffered a major blow when Eversource Energy and National Grid canceled contracts to buy power from the 130-turbine wind farm.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

U.S. dedicates 81,000 acres off Long Island for commercial wind energy

March 16, 2016 — The yearslong process of assessing and approving an expansive wind-farm off the South Shore of Long Island moved another step forward Wednesday when the federal government formally designated the site a “wind-energy area.”

Fishing interests were quick to condemn the move, saying the government could have identified a much smaller segment or avoided the site entirely to protect vital fisheries for squid, monkfish, scallops and other species.

“We’re disappointed to say the least,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for the Fisheries Survival Fund, which represents 250 scallop fishing permit holders from Massachusetts to North Carolina. They face a combined loss of $5 million annually if the site becomes a wind farm.

Minkiewicz said the group would “use every means available” to stop the effort. The federal government “has to protect existing reasonable uses and they’ve done nothing of the sort so far. They’re clearly violating the law.” 

Read the full story at Newsday

Study: Offshore wind’s impacts on fisheries unclear; federal report calls for more research

December 3, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Advocates for regional fishing industries and marine life are concerned about the impacts of offshore wind turbines as deep-pocketed, experienced developers eye construction in ocean waters south of Martha’s Vineyard.

The offshore wind industry has been touted as a key piece of New Bedford’s economic future, but advocates’ concerns are reflected in a federal report that says little is known about how turbines could affect fish populations.

“Potential impacts of offshore wind energy development on fisheries resources are not well understood, both here in the U.S. and abroad,” states a study released in July by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), citing a “comprehensive” review of related literature.

“The site-specific project data needed to evaluate the potential impacts on fisheries resources in these (wind energy areas) is lacking, resulting in uncertainty and speculation,” the study also states.

BOEM’s new committee on ocean energy management and the environment will hold its first meeting next week, in Washington, D.C. The group of respected scientists from across the nation — none from SouthCoast — will help guide BOEM’s stewardship of offshore energy resources, a BOEM news release says.

The group could help fill the void of information cited by the BOEM study over the summer.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard – Times

 

Assessing Potential Impacts of Offshore Wind Farms in the Northeast Region

November 18, 2015 — The following was released by the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF):

CFRF is proud to announce the availability of a new report regarding fisheries research and monitoring protocols.  The report, Identifying Information Needs and Approaches for Assessing Potential Impacts of Offshore Wind Farm Development on Fisheries Resources in the Northeast Region, is the result of work conducted by the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation and the Cornell Cooperative Extension program. Together we canvassed fisheries managers, scientists, and fishermen to provide Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) recommendations for fishery resource research and monitoring specific to the Southern New England/New York Bight area. One of the principle recommendations of the report was to improve communication between BOEM, fishermen, and offshore wind developers in order to develop, prioritize, and review BOEM’s and lessees’ fisheries research and monitoring efforts.

View a PDF of the report