Saving Seafood

MAINE: Mills Offshore Wind Roadmap Stirs Debate in Augusta

February 28, 2023 — Proponents of offshore wind power generated off the coast of Maine are no longer just blowing cold air: they will soon be brokering leases for development, a report issued by the state last week highlighted.

Given the scale and scope of what’s in the State of Maine’s Offshore Wind Roadmap that Gov. Janet Mills’ administration unveiled on Thursday, it’s a little odd that the governor didn’t directly mention the ambitious project in her state of the budget speech two weeks ago. What she did tell us then was her new goal is to have 100 percent of energy in the state coming from renewable sources by 2040, and in this context the offshore wind scheme begins to make more sense.

Until you consider the intense opposition to installing 500-900 foot tall wind turbines throughout the offshore waters of Maine.

The “roadmap” envisions 2,100 installations. Fishermen have been vocal in their opposition, and a state law Mills signed in 2021 prohibits offshore wind development in state waters. But what does that really mean?

Read the full article at the Maine Wire

Biden admin scientist raised alarm on offshore wind harming whales months ago

February 28, 2023 — A senior Biden administration scientist authored an internal memo warning of the impacts offshore wind development may have on marine life months before the recent spate of whale deaths along the East Coast.

Sean Hayes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) chief of protected species, penned the memo in May 2022 and sent it to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) lead biologist Brian Hooker, also copying more than a dozen other scientists from the two agencies. The memo highlighted Hayes’ concerns about how offshore wind construction and surveying could disrupt the endangered Atlantic right whale.

“The development of offshore wind poses risks to these species, which is magnified in southern New England waters due to species abundance and distribution,” Hayes wrote in the letter dated May 13. “These risks occur at varying stages, including construction and development, and include increased noise, vessel traffic, habitat modifications, water withdrawals associated with certain substations.”

Read the full article at Fox News

Why 23 Dead Whales Have Washed Up on the East Coast Since December

February 28, 2023 — First a North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species, washed ashore in Virginia. Then a humpback floated onto a beach in New Jersey. Not long afterward, a minke whale, swept in on the morning tide, landed on the Rockaway Peninsula in New York City.

And that was in just a single week this month.

In all, 23 dead whales have washed ashore along the East Coast since early December, including 12 in New Jersey and New York, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The pace of the deaths is worrisome to federal scientists, even if the total numbers are below some prior years.

Late Monday, the Coast Guard spotted another whale floating south of the Ambrose shipping channel, between New York and New Jersey; two teams from New York located the animal and determined that it was a humpback, but it was not clear where it might wash ashore.

Most of the fatalities have been humpbacks, and post-mortem examinations have suggested that ship strikes are likely the cause of many of the deaths.

Read the full article at the New York Times

Does offshore wind have a whale problem?

February 28, 2023 — Since Dec. 1, there have been 18 reports of dead whales washing ashore along the Atlantic Coast, according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

With each dead whale washing ashore, the blood pressure of offshore wind critics has risen.  They believe the survey and construction work associated with building new offshore wind farms in the New England and New York regions may have contributed to the whale deaths.

Government officials say there is no relationship between offshore wind and whale deaths. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website maintains a section where it reports on the number of whales washing ashore since “unusual mortality events” started being tracked in 2016.

Since 2016, a total of 184 humpback whales have washed ashore.  A peak of 34 whale deaths was recorded in 2017.  Last year, there were 19 whale deaths. But so far this year, there have been 10 deaths recorded.  Five East Coast states – Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina – account for 81% of all whale deaths.  Four are sites of offshore wind work.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Offshore wind halt urged by Native Americans seeking sway

February 27, 2023 — The National Congress of American Indians on Thursday called for a moratorium on offshore wind development along U.S. coasts, insisting the Biden administration do a better job protecting tribal interests.

The decision by the largest lobbying group for tribes in the U.S. follows a plea Tuesday by 30 New Jersey mayors to halt offshore wind activity so government officials can investigate recent whale deaths. And even before those moves, developers were confronting a slew of economic challenges, from inflation-stoked costs to supply chain woes, that are making it harder to build the nation’s first large commercial wind farms.

Native Americans have complained about being cut out of the planning, permitting and contracting process as developers seek to build more than a dozen wind projects along both the West and East coasts, despite vows by President Joe Biden and top administration officials to consider indigenous knowledge in government decisionmaking. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the nation’s first Native American cabinet secretary, also has put a new focus on environmental justice and indigenous rights as head of the department that oversees offshore wind.

Read the full article at the Press of Atlantic City

MASSACHUSETTS: Webinar tackles concerns about wind farm projects

February 28, 2023 — At the nascent stage of wind farm development in the Gulf of Maine, a webinar last week looked at the possible impacts to marine life, coastal communities and fisheries while acknowledging there are many unknowns to such projects.

The webinar was hosted Thursday by the UMass Amherst Gloucester Marine Station at Hodgkin’s Cove, the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association and the Cape Ann Climate Coalition, with about 90 participants taking part on Zoom.

At one point, the panel was asked about the use of floating turbines out in Gulf of Maine that would be anchored to the seabed, how they might be interconnected and how the power might be cabled ashore.

When asked why wind farm developers were looking at using floating turbines, panelist Tom Nies, executive director of the New England Fishery Management Council of Newburyport, said: “My understanding is the main reason they are looking at floating turbines in the Gulf of Maine is the depth of water, that it’s difficult to create a fixed structure in the deeper water of the Gulf of Maine.”

Nies said it’s presumed such turbines would be designed to withstand nor’easters and regular storms.

Fishing concerns

Capt. Al Cottone, a commercial fisherman and executive director of the Gloucester Fisheries Commission, said the industry has “a ton of questions that haven’t been answered yet. And I don’t think these questions will be answered in the time frame that was shown earlier in the presentation and it’s very concerning to the industry.”

Cottone presented a map from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of the Gulf of Maine showing the draft “call area” where wind farms might be sited. He showed that area side-by-side with a NOAA Fisheries “heat map” showing fishing activity taken from the vessel monitoring system tracking commercial groundfish vessels in the Northeast fishery. He said areas shown on the VMS heat map overlap with where wind farms might go.

Read the full article at Gloucester Daily Times

Biden’s Offshore Wind Dreams Face Rising Controversy, Opposition

February 28, 2023 — In stark contrast to its do-nothing approach to holding lease sales for offshore oil and gas exploration, the Biden administration has mounted an aggressive push to speed along the development of offshore wind farms in the federally-owned waters of the United States. But that effort is now facing pushback from a rising number of stakeholders, even as a series of mysterious whale deaths along the Atlantic coast has raised concerns about potential negative impacts on marine life from the projects.

By now, most Americans are likely aware of the increasing number of whales that have been found grounded on Atlantic beaches, some of which lie adjacent to offshore wind projects already under development. At least 10 whales have died in such events along the coasts of New York and New Jersey in recent months, leading to speculation that noise and other impacts arising from offshore wind-related activities might be the cause. Increasing public concerns over the whale deaths led 30 New Jersey mayors last week to call for a moratorium on further offshore wind activities pending additional studies to assess possible cause and effect.

While no conclusive linkage between the projects and the marine mammal deaths has been scientifically established, the controversy is leading some to wonder why the same environmental groups that have traditionally urged a cautious approach to oil and gas projects to protect marine life have failed to raise similar objections to the offshore wind activities. This apparent lack of concern seems especially questionable given that some of the whale deaths have been among American right whales, an endangered species consisting of just 340 remaining individuals.

Read the full article at Forbes

U.S. rule change equips offshore wind developers for faster growth

February 24, 2023 — Last month, the Biden administration set out new streamlined regulation for offshore wind development as it chases its highly ambitious installation target of 30 GW by 2030.

In the first major regulatory shakeup since 2009, the U.S. Interior Department will offer more flexibility on survey requirements, reform lease auctions and improve the verification of project designs, it said.

The new rules come as the Interior Department plans to hold up to four additional offshore lease sales by 2025 and aims to complete environmental reviews of at least 16 offshore wind projects by 2025, representing over 20 GW of new capacity.

Read the full article at Reuters

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey Republicans up pressure on offshore wind development over whale deaths

February 24, 2023 — Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey is asking the Government Accountability Office to scrutinise the US Bureau of Offshore Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Marine Fisheries Service’s process of environmental reviews of proposed offshore wind projects.

On 21 February, the Marine Mammal Commission, an independent government agency, issued a statement: “Despite several reports in the media, there is no evidence to link these strandings to offshore wind energy development.”

Federal agencies have previously said that 40% of the carcasses examined showed evidence of vessel strikes or entanglement with fishing gear.

Read the full article at Windpower Monthly

Biden administration proposes offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico

February 23, 2023 — The U.S. Department of the Interior on Wednesday proposed the first offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico.

The proposed auction includes an area of more than 100,000 acres in the waters off Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two similarly sized areas off Galveston.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management seeks public comment on which of the two areas offshore from Galveston should be included in the final sale.

“This proposed lease sale will continue the legacy of energy production in the Gulf of Mexico, providing Americans with an affordable clean energy supply. It will also help secure our nation’s energy independence while reducing costs for consumers,” said Josh Kaplowitz, vice president for offshore wind for the American Clean Power Association.

Read the full article at Texas Public Radio