Saving Seafood

BOEM analysis considers fish habitat, visual mitigation for Atlantic Shores wind project

May 16, 2023 — The Atlantic Shores offshore wind project would build up to 200 turbines, rated at a maximum 1,510 megawatts, off Long Beach Island, N.J. BOEM graphic.

A draft environmental impact statement for the Atlantic Shores wind project off New Jersey includes alternatives that could reduce the number of wind turbines and cables to reduce their visual impact on coastal communities and impact on fish habitat.

The planned 1,510-megawatt Atlantic Shores array off Atlantic City and Long Beach Island, N.J., would at its closest point be 8.7 nautical miles from shore. The potential visual impact of up to 200 turbines with their rotor tips 1,000 feet above the ocean has brought sustained criticism and legal challenges to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from coastal homeowners and municipal governments worried about the potential effects of wind projects on tourism.

Fishing interests are concerned about environmental effects of building turbines, and operational and safety difficulties they could present  – particularly for scallop and surf clam vessels that historically fish off New Jersey. The BOEM draft document announced Monday includes options for moving some turbine and cable locations to avoid fish habitat, and create a buffer setback between the Atlantic Shores lease and the neighboring Ocean Wind 1 project Atlantic City.

The DEIS document states that the National Marine Fisheries Service “identified two areas of concern (AOCs) within the Lease Area that have pronounced bottom features and produce habitat value. AOC 1 is part of a designated recreational fishing area called ‘Lobster Hole.’ AOC 2 is part of a sand ridge (ridge and trough) complex.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Poll finds whale strandings drive down New Jersey support for offshore wind

May 15, 2023 — Concern over recent deaths of whales and dolphins along the New Jersey coast is reducing public support for offshore wind power development, with 35 percent of residents supporting the projects and 39 percent saying the projects should be halted, according to a Farleigh Dickinson University poll.

New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration is deeply committed to offshore wind for building the state’s future energy sources. But state officials are under heavy political pressure from offshore wind critics and Republican legislators who call for a moratorium on the projects.

“If we’re going to meet the Murphy administration’s green energy goals, New Jersey needs to build a lot of wind farms, and fast,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics at Farleigh Dickinson University in Madison, N.J., and director of the FDU Poll. “But the administration just hasn’t convinced the public that it’s a good idea.”

Since a series of whale and dolphin strandings started in December 2022, wind power critics argued there could be a link between the deaths and offshore survey work on energy lease areas. The Murphy administration and federal officials insist there is no proof of a link and rejected calls for a moratorium, but “such arguments seem to be effective,” according to an FDU Poll summary released May 11.

“In the survey, respondents were randomly assigned to be asked about the offshore wind farms in a question that included a mention of the whale and dolphin deaths, or a version without it,” the report states. “Even though the question noted that there was no known link between the deaths and the wind farms, it significantly reduced support for the development of offshore wind.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

BOEM analysis considers fish habitat, visual mitigation for Atlantic Shores wind project

May 15, 2023 — A draft environmental impact statement for the Atlantic Shores wind project off New Jersey includes alternatives that could reduce the number of wind turbines and cables to reduce their visual impact on coastal communities and impact on fish habitat.

The planned 1,510-megawatt Atlantic Shores array off Atlantic City and Long Beach Island, N.J., would at its closest point be 8.7 nautical miles from shore. The potential visual impact of up to 200 turbines with their rotor tips 1,000 feet above the ocean has brought sustained criticism and legal challenges to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from coastal homeowners and municipal governments worried about the potential effects of wind projects on tourism.

Fishing interests are concerned about environmental effects of building turbines, and operational and safety difficulties they could present  – particularly for scallop and surf clam vessels that historically fish off New Jersey. The BOEM draft document announced Monday includes options for moving some turbine and cable locations to avoid fish habitat, and create a buffer setback between the Atlantic Shores lease and the neighboring Ocean Wind 1 project Atlantic City.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

R.I. fishermen file lawsuit notice over South Fork Wind Farm

May 14, 2023 — A group of Rhode Island fishermen are preparing to sue state and federal agencies and a private wind developer over the construction of a 12-turbine offshore wind farm southeast of Block Island.

Marisa Desautel, an attorney representing the Fisherman’s Advisory Board and individual local fishermen, sent legal notice on Wednesday of her clients’ intentions to sue the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Orsted Offshore North America and the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council.

The notice, which was shared with Rhode Island Current, alleges that construction work for the 132-megawatt South Fork Wind Farm has not followed the agreed-upon plans, therefore violating federal law governing offshore development. Preliminary work laying the cables that will eventually connect the turbines to the mainland electric grid on Long Island, east of Montauk, started last fall. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.

Local fishermen say that Orsted, which is co-developing the project with Eversource Energy LLC, illegally expanded the no-fishing and no-travel zone in Rhode Island Sound around the area where it was laying cables last month. The approved construction and operations plan for the project calls for a 500-meter buffer on either side of the cables, but on April 20, fishermen in the area were told, allegedly by an Orsted vessel, that they needed to stay 1.5 miles away from either side of the cable.

Read the full article at Rhode Island Current

R.I. fishermen threaten legal action over South Fork wind farm

May 14, 2023 — A group of fishermen in Rhode Island is threatening to sue the state’s coastal agency, the federal government, and developer Ørsted over the under-development of the South Fork wind farm in federal waters off Rhode Island.

The Fishermen’s Advisory Board and the individual fishers it represents said in a letter Wednesday that the deal to approve the South Fork wind farm did not adequately compensate them for their losses. Making matters worse, they say, a fishing vessel working on the project broadcast over a radio channel used for emergency and distress calls in April that nobody was allowed within a mile and a half of either side of recent work to construct the project’s cable.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

RHODE ISLAND: Revolution Wind offshore wind project clears CRMC hurdle. What’s next for the project?

May 11, 2023 — A large offshore wind farm aimed at helping Rhode Island meet its climate goals cleared a major hurdle late Tuesday night when state coastal regulators approved a key certification for the 704-megawatt project.

The vote by the Coastal Resources Management Council moved Revolution Wind one step closer to becoming the third utility-scale offshore wind farm to be cleared for construction in America. Onshore cable work for the 65-turbine project proposed by Danish offshore wind company Ørsted and New England electric supplier Eversource could begin as soon as this summer, when a record of decision is expected from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full article at the The Providence Journal

NEW JERSEY: Wind power project demands permit for Ocean City right-of-way

May 10, 2023 — The front line of the battle over offshore wind power in New Jersey now appears to run two blocks along 35th Street.

That’s where the Ocean Wind 1 project has asked for city permits for 12 test pits and two soil borings, part of the wind power project’s plans to bring electricity ashore.

So far, the city has not issued any permits. Ocean Wind 1 suggests the city is dragging its feet.

The company filed suit in Superior Court this month, asking the court to order city Business Administrator George Savastano to issue a permit by June 16.

Savastano also serves as the municipal engineer. The suit, filed May 4, also asks for the city to be required to pay the company’s attorney fees, court costs and “such other relief as the court shall find equitable and just.”

Read the full article at The Press of Atlantic City

N.J. GOP seeks wind projects halt to see if whales benefit

May 7, 2023 — Republican state lawmakers and other New Jersey opponents of offshore wind turbines called Wednesday for a 30- to 60-day moratorium on construction work at such sites to see if it would lead to a decrease in whale deaths.

Four state senators hosted a online hearing about offshore wind energy generation and whale deaths, three weeks after the most recent East Coast whale death was reported and despite the assurances of most scientists and conservationists that there is no correlation.

The two-hour hearing came a week after Democrats, who control the Legislature and the governorship, held a similar hearing and many of New Jersey’s major environmental groups said the greatest danger to whales is climate change, not offshore wind generation.

“I’ve been labeled a climate change denier and a tin-foil hat wearer,” said Jim Hutchinson, managing editor of The Fisherman, a widely read New Jersey publication. “We’re defamed, denied, discarded and disparaged at every step along the way.”

Read the full article at WHYY

Vineyard Wind engaging fishermen in offshore construction work

May 4, 2023 — Offshore wind power developers Vineyard Wind have spent about $5 million since 2019 to hire more than 30 southern New England fishing vessels to support various stages of the 800-megawatt turbine project, company officials said this week.

The boats and crews have served in fisheries research campaigns, as scout vessels to support geophysical survey vessels, and more recently as safety vessel support for offshore cable lay installation.

Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus S. Moeller and colleagues visited the State Pier in New Bedford Monday to see off Capt. Tony Alvernaz and the crew of the F/V Kathryn Marie as they embarked on an eight-day trip to support offshore construction project in federal waters off Martha’s Vineyard.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman