Saving Seafood

NOAA: NJ wind farm may ‘adversely affect,’ not kill whales

April 6, 2023 — New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm may “adversely affect” whales and other marine mammals, but its construction, operation and eventual dismantling will not seriously harm or kill them, a federal scientific agency said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a report Tuesday evaluating an analysis by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of the Ocean Wind I project to be built off the southern New Jersey coast.

NOAA’s final biological opinion examined BOEM’s research, and took into account “the best scientific and commercial data available.”

NOAA determined the project by Danish wind power company Orsted “is likely to adversely affect, but is not likely to jeopardize, the continued existence of any species” of endangered whales, sea turtles and other animals. Nor is it likely to “destroy or adversely modify any designated critical habitat.”

Read the full article at Associated Press 

Massive study examines offshore wind’s impact on fishing, fisheries

April 5, 2023 — A just released “first of its kind” report that federal regulators and the fishing industry spent three years working on is making the rounds, exploring the impacts of offshore wind on fisheries and commercial fishermen, and identifying the questions that remain unanswered.

They just released their results in a nearly 400-page “Synthesis of Science” report — a collaborative effort between the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the lead regulator of offshore wind; NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center; and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), a membership-based coalition of the fishing industry.

“I would say this [report] is the first of its kind,” said Fiona Hogan, one of the principal investigators and the research director for RODA. “It was kind of amazing … that we were able to get state and federal employees, academics, even from over in Europe … and the fishing industry directly working together to write this document.”

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

The Jones Act: How a 100-year-old law complicates offshore wind projects

April 4, 2023 — There’s a lot riding on the nascent offshore wind industry. Companies are investing hundreds of millions of dollars. The Biden administration wants 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by the end of the decade. It could mean billions of investment in new manufacturing capacity. Offshore wind is being billed as a key part of a clean energy future for the United States.

Offshore wind farms are massive projects, with up to 100 or more wind turbines standing hundreds of feet above the ocean. They take decades to plan and get approved. As this industry has worked to get off the ground in the United States, companies have wrestled with how to deal with a 100-year-old law called the Jones Act.

The Jones Act, passed by Congress in 1920, says that only U.S.-flagged ships can move cargo from one point in the United States to another. The ships must have been built in the U.S. and be crewed by Americans. The offshore wind industry uses big, specialized ships to assemble the turbines miles out at sea, but there is not a single U.S.-flagged ship right now that can do that work.

“If you bring a part, say you bring in a cell, which is where the generator is housed for an offshore wind turbine — those are only manufactured in other parts of the world right now, primarily in the EU or southeast Asia,” explained Katharine Kollins, with the Southeast Wind Coalition, which promotes wind energy.

“Normally you would place that on the U.S. coast. If you do that, you need a U.S.- flagged vessel to install that,” she said.

So companies that are doing the early offshore wind projects on the East Coast have had to come up with workarounds. Dominion Energy, based in Virginia, put up test turbines off the Virginia coast and had to ferry parts back and forth from Canada to avoid running afoul of the Jones Act.

Companies doing offshore wind farms can also use U.S.-flagged ships to ferry pieces out to the specialized assembly vessels.

Dominion is planning to build an offshore wind farm off the Virginia coast. There are also projects in the early stages off North Carolina’s Outer Banks and off the southeast tip of North Carolina.

Read the full article at Spectrum News

Report by feds, anglers cites offshore wind impacts on fish

April 3, 2023 — A joint study by two federal government scientific agencies and the commercial fishing industry documents numerous impacts that offshore wind power projects have on fish and marine mammals, including noise, vibration, electromagnetic fields and heat transfer that could alter the marine environment.

It comes as the offshore wind industry is poised to grow rapidly on the U.S. East Coast, where it is facing growing opposition from those who blame it for killing whales — something numerous scientific agencies say is not true.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance issued their report Wednesday after a 2 1/2-year-long study of the impacts existing offshore wind projects have on fish and marine mammals.

The goal was to solidify existing knowledge of the impacts and call for further research in many areas.

Read the full article at the Associated Press 

RODA, federal agencies issue ‘synthesis’ report on fisheries and offshore wind

April 2, 2023 — A sweeping new report compiled in partnership between the commercial fishing industry and federal agencies summarizes massive changes that offshore wind development could bring to U.S. fisheries and ocean environment.

At 388 pages, the “Synthesis of the Science” report covers what is known so far about the likely effects of building potentially thousands of wind turbines off the U.S. coasts.

The topics are wide-ranging: how fishermen may be displaced from traditional fishing grounds, if electromagnetic fields around power cables can change fish behavior, and how turbines could alter oceanographic conditions.

But what’s most striking about the paper is its descriptions of data gaps and needs for much more research, even as the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and state governments press forward with wind power planning.

One typical passage sums up how development plans for offshore wind – abbreviated as OSW in the parlance of planners – are outracing the state of ocean science:

“The recommendations indicate an enormous amount of research is still needed in order to understand the impact of OSW on our environment and fisheries, but time is limited. A timely, productive regional science plan for offshore wind could have resulted in an enhanced ability to understand the environmental interactions resulting from the first large-scale OSW projects, especially on a cumulative scale.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NEW JERSEY: Van Drew hearing pushes back against offshore wind

April 2, 2o23 — Offshore wind came under congressional scrutiny March 16 when Rep. Jeff Van Drew hosted a field hearing in front of an overflow crowd at the Wildwood Convention Center.

Four Republican members of the House of Representatives heard from six experts, all of whom were critical of the offshore wind farms being developed in three lease areas off the New Jersey coast by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) and the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy.

The hearing was an effort to “develop a legislative solution for the disruptive effect of offshore wind,” Van Drew said.

Marine mammal deaths continue to be the catalyst for offshore wind opposition. Since early December, nine whales have been found dead or dying on New Jersey beaches. Other cetaceans, including porpoises and dolphins, have also been washing ashore at an alarming rate. Counting eight dolphins that stranded on the Sea Isle City beach March 21, that number has reached a combined 23 dead porpoises and dolphins since December according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center.

Although no official cause of death for the whales has been announced, concerns have been growing that they are connected to sonar mapping of the ocean floor being done in preparation for the construction of the Ocean Wind 1, Ocean Wind 2, and Atlantic Shores offshore wind projects.

Testimony by panelists depicted offshore wind as a threat to more than sea mammals. Tourism, commercial fishing, maritime safety and household budgets are all at risk, according to critics.

“If offshore wind industrialization moves forward, it will be the most profound transformation of the Atlantic coast in the history of the United States of America,” said Van Drew, who has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for a moratorium on offshore wind until answers to the whale death mystery can be found.

Rep. Chris Smith, from New Jersey’s 4th District (Monmouth and Ocean counties), has introduced a bill in the House seeking an investigation into the environmental approval process for offshore wind projects.

“Like the canary in the coal mine, the recent spate of tragic whale deaths has brought new light and increased scrutiny to the fast tracking of thousands of wind turbines off our coast,” Smith said. He called the wind farm approval process “shotty at best.”

Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action, agreed that something isn’t right.

“This is too much too fast and in a word simply reckless,” Zipf said. “Marine life is being placed at grave risk without scientific due diligence monitoring and protection to ensure the ocean survives this massive industrialization.”

Despite the magnitude of New Jersey’s offshore wind program, the public, especially those from communities most directly affected, feel like they have no say according to Van Drew, who chaired the meeting.

“From communities to stakeholders, it is hard to find a group that feels as though their thoughts and suggestions have been properly examined and/or addressed by ocean wind companies,” the congressman said.

Van Drew said Orsted, the Danish company which is building Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2, was given the opportunity to appear at the hearing, but declined, instead submitting a letter that alludes to what they have already put into the public record.

Read the full article at Shore Local News

RODA, NOAA, and BOEM Release Groundbreaking Report Synthesizing Scientific and Fishing Industry Knowledge on Fishing and Offshore Wind Energy Interactions

March 30, 2023 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

In 2020, the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) convened a first-of-its-kind workshop to evaluate the current state of science relevant to fisheries and offshore wind energy interactions. The final peer-reviewed report of the workshop is now available.

The “Synthesis of the Science” project was a key first step toward jointly building a regional fisheries and offshore science agenda. RODA brought together fishermen, fishing industry representatives, federal and state agency experts, wind energy developers, academics, and other prominent scientists from the U.S. and Europe to attend the workshop and contribute to the report.

This report enhances understanding of existing science and data gaps related to offshore wind energy development interactions with fish and fisheries on regional and broader levels. Ecological knowledge of the fishing industry participants was incorporated into all of the report topics covering:

  • Ecosystem effects – including interactions with benthic habitat, physical habitat, oceanographic processes, and ecosystem synthesis by species groupings;
     
  • Fisheries socioeconomics – covering fisheries operations, economics, and sociocultural effects throughout the fishing industry and dependent communities;
     
  • Fisheries management and data collection – incorporating effects to resource surveys and governance processes;
     
  • Methods and approaches – including addressing cumulative impacts, use of Integrated Ecosystem Assessments and innovative approaches and technologies; and
     
  • Regional science planning – highlighting fishing industry-identified research priorities.

Funded by NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the symposium and report advance a memorandum of understanding between RODA, NOAA Fisheries, and BOEM. Signed in March 2019, this ten-year MOU promotes collaboration on the science, research, monitoring, and process of offshore wind energy development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.

In 2021, RODA received additional funds through this grant for a second synthesis of the science project. It is currently underway, and focuses on fisheries and floating offshore wind platforms. The project consists of a summary of current knowledge, research, and monitoring associated with floating technology, a workshop focused on floating turbine technology, and a review by the fishing industry of existing mapping efforts of fishermen’s data.

4 lawsuits threaten Vineyard Wind

March 29, 2023 — The lawsuits against America’s first major offshore wind project are coming to a head.

Four cases are challenging the federal environmental permit issued to Vineyard Wind, a 62-turbine facility being planned for construction in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard. A federal judge in Massachusetts heard arguments brought by landowners in two cases in recent weeks. The other two suits, brought by fishing groups, have been consolidated and will appear before the same judge for oral arguments in Boston on Monday.

The cases against Vineyard Wind allege that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management conducted an inadequate environmental review when it approved the project by failing to account for its impact on everything from fishermen to the critically endangered North American right whale.

The stakes are high. The Biden administration is betting that Vineyard Wind will begin an energy revolution in the United States by generating large amounts of carbon-free electricity needed to slash emissions and power the Northeast. Massachusetts utilities signed a contract to buy the project’s power to boost renewables in the state and cut emissions.

But the project has encountered resistance from a landowners group on Nantucket, a renewable energy developer with a house on Martha’s Vineyard and groups of fishermen who contend the turbines will irreversibly damage the ocean. The dispute has even attracted a prominent conservative think tank with a history of supporting fossil fuels.

“The administration has put all their political capital on offshore wind and is breaking all the rules in order to do it,” said Robert Henneke, executive director and general counsel for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which is representing fishing interests in one case. Henneke claimed that the Biden administration is guilty of hypocrisy, saying the government is relaxing endangered species requirements for offshore wind even as it imposes stringent regulations on other industries.

“The administration’s violation of the [Endangered Species Act] should be a complete bar to the whole project,” he said.

A BOEM spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, and an official with Vineyard Wind declined to comment.

Read the full article at E&E News

EXCLUSIVE: Federal Regulator Acknowledges Danger To Wildlife Caused By Offshore Wind Farms

March 27, 2023 — The federally-chartered regulator responsible for managing fisheries in the oceans of New England acknowledged that offshore wind farms could pose a threat to the local marine wildlife, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Thomas Nies, executive director of the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), noted the “concerning implications” of a study by researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research, which found that the high voltage direct current (HVDC) power cables used by some offshore wind farms emitted magnetic fields that could hinder the ability of haddock larvae to navigate, according to a January 18 letter obtained by the DCNF. The negative impact on both the haddocks’ speed and ability to navigate could result in increased “predation” of affected fish.

Offshore wind farms typically utilize one of two cables to transport power back to shore, known as high voltage alternating current (HVAC) and HVDC, with the former preferred for short-range projects within roughly 30 miles of shore and the latter preferred for more long-range projects, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. Multiple recent studies have demonstrated that a variety of commercially popular fish can be negatively impacted by their exposure to magnetic fields emitted by HVDCs, which can confuse their ability to navigate and in some cases leave them exposed to predators.

Read the full article at the The Daily Caller

MAINE: Winds of Change, Pt. 2: Maine fishermen share concerns with proposed offshore wind farms

March 26, 2023 — Earlier this week, we looked into incoming offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine from the economic and energy perspective.

But the Gulf is also a workplace for thousands of Maine fishermen whose business might be impacted by these floating turbines.

They share their biggest concerns with the “Winds of Change” in part two of this special report.

“I don’t think we own the Gulf of Maine,” lobsterman Stephen Train said. “But, we’ve been using it for so long, we have trouble with the concept of displacement, and it’s justified. We’ve been the caretakers. We’ve been harvesting a very successful resource, or multiple resources, out of this gulf managed very well for a long time.”

Thousands of lobstermen generations deep have used the fertile waters of the Gulf of Maine to make their living. But many today fear that offshore wind may just blow them out of the water.

Read the full article at WABI