Offshore wind Archives - Saving Seafood

Revolution Wind fully operational, Ørsted reports

November 6, 2026 — Offshore wind developer Ørsted said Thursday its 704-megawatt turbine array Revolution Wind off southern New England has achieved full operation, exporting power to Connecticut and Rhode Island customers.

Located about 15 miles south of Rhode Island, the project’s 65 turbines were completed weeks before the Trump administration mounted another unsuccessful attempt in federal court to void Ørsted’s construction and operations permit.

Ørsted announced the news in a No. 5 earnings call. In a summary the Danish energy company said it “completed the installation of the remaining wind turbines at the 704 MW Revolution Wind offshore wind farm in the U.S. In October the project achieved commercial operations under its offtake contracts with utilities in the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island.”

Read the full article at WorkBoat

MAINE: Maine plans survey around offshore wind sites

October 30, 2026 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is planning a winter bottom trawl survey around the state’s long-planned offshore wind energy research project, aiming to understand how floating wind turbines may affect the ocean ecosystem and commercial fishing.

After major offshore wind proposals succumbed to opposition from the Trump administration, the modest Maine Research Array Wind Energy Area – a lease area of almost 15,000 acres in the Gulf of Maine – remains in limbo, since a potential developer bowed out in March 2026 over that uncertainty about federal policy.

Maine researchers are still working to build a knowledge base around future wind power and fisheries.

The 55-foot dragger Northern Lights is scheduled to set out from Portland to work from around Jan. 11 through Feb. 28, with 37 sampling tows over nine days. The time frame is weather-dependent and could extend into March, according to an agency statement.

The sampling will help researchers examining fish and invertebrate populations “to establish baseline data that they will then compare with findings collected during the construction and operation” of a floating turbine array, according to the DMR.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Equinor Blames US Shipbuilding Delays for Late Offshore Wind Installation

October 29, 2026 — The Norwegian energy company Equinor told investors and the media on Wednesday that its offshore wind project, Empire Wind, is approximately 80 percent complete but running behind schedule due to delays in U.S. shipbuilding. It said the delays were outside its control and that it now expects the wind farm off the coast of New York to deliver first power by mid-2027.

“On Empire Wind, despite the stop work orders, and all of that, we have been able to progress this and develop this, and it hasn’t really slowed us down much,” said CFO Torgrim Reitan during the investor conference call on October 28. He reported that top side construction is now expected to begin in late December, and the company expects first power during the first half of next year.

Equinor selected an installation system working with Maersk Wind, which built its installation vessel, Maersk Viridis, at Seatrium in Singapore. The massive 40,000 gross ton vessel had its own challenges in construction, with disputes with the shipyard. Those issues were resolved, and the vessel arrived off Pascagoula, Mississippi, in August. It is undergoing training and testing for its unique barge system.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Feds now question their own approval of New England Wind

October 29, 2026 — New England Wind is the latest offshore wind project in the federal government’s crosshairs.

In response to a lawsuit spearheaded by Nantucket-based nonprofit ACK for Whales, federal officials are asking a judge to allow them to reconsider their approval of the project about 24 miles southwest of Nantucket.

In an Oct. 20 court filing responding to the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, the Department of the Interior agreed with ACK for Whales saying that its previous approval did not adequately explain how the project would comply with requirements protecting the environment, fishing and navigation.

“This filing by DOI is significant in our efforts to protect the environment around Nantucket from the damaging impacts of large scale offshore wind development,” ACK for Whales member Veronica Bonnet said.

The government is asking the court to send the project’s construction and operations plan back for further review under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

Read the full article at The Inquirer and Mirror

The Permitting Bill Fishermen Can’t Afford to Ignore

October 29, 2026 — On November 9, the Senate is scheduled to take up the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, known as BAAJA (S. 5653). This legislation is not about Mexican sheep; instead, the dense 400-page bill rewrites how the federal government approves energy, mining, and infrastructure projects. Its sponsors, Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Mike Lee (R-UT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), call it a historic compromise. I call it a historic risk for fishing communities.

The coalition behind BAAJA is unusual. The American Petroleum Institute (oil and gas), the American Clean Power Association (wind and other renewables), and major organized labor groups support it. Tribal nations, historic preservation groups, and ocean conservation organizations oppose it.

Commercial fishermen have been mostly absent from this fight, and that needs to change. BAAJA rewrites the rules for offshore wind farms, export cables, offshore oil and gas, and seabed mining. It changes how those projects are approved, how long the approvals last, and how hard they are to challenge. Nearly every change reduces the leverage fishermen have used to protect fishing grounds historically, and that’s not a coincidence.

The Senate outcome is close to being settled. The House is a different story, and that is where fishermen still have a real opening. But we must make our voices heard, and soon.

What this issue is about

Fishermen have spent more than a decade fighting for a real voice in offshore wind decisions. Lease areas have been granted on productive fishing grounds over industry objections, and project layouts have been set with little regard for how fleets actually fish or what they need for safe transit. Too often, fishermen’s concerns have been treated as a box to check rather than a reason to change course.

BAAJA would shrink what voice fishermen have left in the regulatory process for energy permitting. Its supporters pitch it as protection for clean energy, pointing to the 2025 federal stop-work orders that halted offshore wind projects already holding permits. The bill delivers that protection by making permits nearly impossible to revisit once they are issued, and much harder to challenge before then during the planning process.

The bill doesn’t stop at wind. Its “protections” for energy projects from public scrutiny and challenge cover any federally permitted project with a private sector sponsor, including offshore oil and gas wells and mines. The same rules that would wall off a wind farm from fishermen’s objections would wall off an offshore drilling lease or a seabed mining permit.

Trump Administration Targets Fourth Offshore Wind Project for Remand

October 22, 2026 — In what is clearly emerging as a new tactic to derail the offshore wind energy sector, the Department of Justice filed for the fourth time in just a matter of days, asking a District Court to remand the prior approval of the Construction and Operations Plan of a proposed offshore wind farm. The latest target is New England Wind and is drawing angry criticism from environmentalists and elected officials.

The Department of Justice filed a memorandum in support of the long-running case between an environmental group, Ack For Whales, which has been suing the Department of Commerce and Avangrid, the developer of a project known as New England Wind. In the now common tactic, DOJ asks the District Court for the District of Columbia to remand the approval of the Construction and Operations Plan back to the Department of the Interior so that it can reconsider the approval under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

It writes in the memorandum that the approval, which was announced on July 1, 2024, “did not properly consider or explain how the COP ‘provides for’ the subsection’s identified factors.” It is the fourth time DOJ has used a similar tactic to target the permits for wind farms. It took the same approach to challenge the largely completed Revolution Wind project, which should complete commissioning by the end of this year, and then to challenge a series of projects that had gained approvals under the Biden administration but have not commenced construction.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Trump administration asks to reconsider Ocean City offshore wind permit

October 20, 2026 — Months after first threatening to do so, the Trump administration has officially filed a request to reconsider the construction permit it issued to an offshore wind project proposed off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland.

It’s just the latest episode in President Donald Trump’s battle against offshore turbines since returning to office last year. The Republican administration has halted coastal wind leasing, issued stop work orders to projects under construction and spent billions to buy back wind leases previously issued to developers.

When it comes to the Ocean City project, proposed by US Wind, the federal government is arguing that the project did not receive adequate consideration under a federal law known as the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

In their filing, Department of Justice officials cited possible adverse impacts of the project on: the North Atlantic right whale, “scenic and visual resources, some commercial fisheries, and scientific research.”

The administration is requesting to remand the permit “without vacatur,” meaning it would remain in place while the Department of the Interior reconsiders it.

Read the full article at WTOP

Haunting clues emerge in 7-year fishing boat mystery after wreckage found off island

October 14, 2026 — An organization believes it has found the wreckage of a fishing boat that sank over seven years ago — potentially solving a mystery surrounding the deaths of two fishermen.

Green Oceans, a Rhode Island-based environmental organization, announced the discovery of what it believes is the F/V Mistress in the waters off Block Island in September.

The vessel sank Jan. 1, 2019, according to the organization.

Two fishermen died in the incident, and the U.S. Coast Guard searched for the vessel following the sinking but never located the wreckage.

The F/V Mistress was discovered approximately 92 feet underwater, just 50 feet from the base of a wind turbine at the Block Island Wind Farm, according to Green Oceans.

Read the full article at Fox News

Trump Administration Asks Court to Let It Re-Evaluate Revolution Wind’s COP

October 14, 2026 — The Trump administration is renewing its challenges to Ørsted’s offshore wind farm, Revolution Wind, located off the coast of Rhode Island. The Department of Justice is asking a District Court in the District of Columbia to remand its prior approval of the construction and operations plan (“COP”) for further review on a project that has completed construction and is in the final stages of commissioning.

It marks the third time the Trump administration has challenged the 704 MW wind farm project, which is contracted to supply power to Connecticut and Rhode Island. In August 2025, it sought to stop construction while the project was approximately 80 percent complete, but it was rejected by the courts. In December 2025, the administration included Revolution Wind in its stop-work orders, this time contending the operations posed a risk to national security due to the potential for radar interference. The courts again rejected the stop-work order and let the project resume construction in January 2026.

The Department of Justice made its new filing in a case being pursued by an environmental group that has been challenging the project in the courts for years. Green Ocean has been suing the Department of the Interior and Revolution Wind, contending the project would cause harm to the environment.

The new filing made on October 9 asked the court to grant Green Ocean a summary judgment on its claims against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, related to the approval of the project. Further, it says the Department of the Interior agrees that remand of its prior approval of the construction and operations plan (COP) for the Revolution Wind Project is warranted so that the agency can reevaluate its compliance with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Plankton declines raise concerns for global fisheries

October 8, 2026 — If $6.00 diesel, wind farms, and whales aren’t enough to keep fishermen awake at night, they can start contemplating the global decline in phytoplankton. From around the world, in almost every ocean except the high polar latitudes, scientists are documenting declines in phytoplankton and population shifts from nutritious diatoms to less nutrient-dense, often toxic dinoflagellates.

Phytoplankton forms the foundation of the marine food chain and supplies 50 percent of the Earth’s oxygen—every other breath we take is thanks to phytoplankton. Declines reported from the Gulf of Maine to the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean and South China Sea might deserve front-page coverage, but as in many disaster movies, warnings from science are often dismissed until the implications can no longer be ignored.

In 2025, a team of U.S. scientists led by Greg Silsbe released a paper, Global Declines in Net Primary Production in the Ocean Color Era, assessing ocean health largely based on satellite imagery from 1997 to 2022. “Here we show that statistically significant decreases in NPP [net primary production] have occurred in almost half of the ocean and these changes are dominated by declines in the tropical and subtropical stratified ocean,” the authors say. “A deeper analysis confirms that strengthening nutrient limitation is largely driving declining NPP. Climate-mediated shifts in NPP represent a fundamental perturbation to biogeochemical cycles that can further weaken global fisheries.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman