Saving Seafood

With federal approval of South Fork wind farm, construction could begin early next year

November 29, 2021 — A second major offshore wind farm near the Rhode Island coast has won federal approval.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this week approved construction and operation of the South Fork Wind Farm, a 132-megawatt project proposed in a stretch of Rhode Island Sound between Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard.

The project being planned by Danish company Ørsted and utility Eversource is only the second commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the nation to secure approval from the federal government.

The first, Vineyard Wind, received a record of decision in May and marked its groundbreaking a week ago in Massachusetts. The 800-megawatt project is being built in an area south of Nantucket, further off the coasts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts than the South Fork proposal.

Read the full story at The Providence Journal

Biden administration approves first offshore wind farm to supply power to New York

November 26, 2021 — President Biden’s administration greenlit a major offshore wind project to supply power to New York, arriving as part of a broader push to build out renewable energy and tackle climate change.

The federal government’s approval Wednesday of a dozen wind turbines, located off the coast of Rhode Island, will send power to the eastern end of Long Island. The move inches the country closer to the Biden administration’s goal of generating 30 gigawatts of power from offshore wind energy by the end of the decade. Harnessing the Atlantic’s fierce winds is prominent in the president’s plan to wean the U.S. power sector off fossil fuels, which are dangerously warming the planet.

But the Biden administration still faces stiff head winds ahead of meeting its clean energy goals. The effort to dot the East Coast with towering turbines has at times put advocates at odds with coastal homeowners worried about spoiled seaside views; fishermen concerned about the impact on their catch; and conservationists concerned about the impact on endangered whales.

At the moment, only seven commercial turbines — five in Rhode Island and two in Virginia — are up and spinning. Europe, by contrast, has already deployed over 5,000 offshore turbines.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

As Vineyard Wind Moves Forward, Fishermen and Scientists Raise Questions About Impact

November 23, 2021 — The Biden administration has approved America’s first large-scale, offshore wind power project – Vineyard Wind off the coast of Massachusetts. But for every supporter of the project, there are detractors raising questions. Lisa Fletcher looked at the pros and cons of ‘reaping the wind’ on “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”

Ms. Fletcher examined what the project could mean for New Bedford, Massachusetts, the nation’s top grossing fishing port, and its valuable scallop harvest, which averages around $400 million a year in landings.

“The amount of wind farms they’re proposing will displace fisheries,” said Ron Smolowitz, the owner of Coonamessett Farm in East Falmouth, Massachusetts and a former fishing captain who worked with NOAA. “The fish will adapt, the fishermen can adapt, but they’ll need funding.”

Mr. Smolowitz said that current funding proposed by Vineyard Wind to compensate fishermen for their losses is “nowhere near enough.” The proposed funding would average roughly $1 million a year over the 30-year life span of the project, Mr. Smolowitz said, while one scallop vessel alone can gross $2 million annually, and there are 342 scallop vessels. “And that’s just one fishery,” he said.

Ms. Fletcher also examined other obstacles for the project, including the potential threat to critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

“The industrial activity will increase shipping markedly both during the construction phase as well as during the maintenance phase,” said Mark Baumgartner, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Mr. Baumgartner said he and his team are working on deploying acoustic monitoring, with funding from Vineyard Wind, to help prevent ship strikes with right whales.

Watch the full story here

Save-the-Date: Offshore Wind Energy Guidance for Mitigating Impacts to Fisheries Meetings

November 22, 2021 — The following was released by BOEM:

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is developing guidance to mitigate potential impacts from offshore wind projects on commercial and recreational fisheries and fishing. The first step in this process is to gain knowledge from the people and organizations that know and use these areas. BOEM will host a series of workshops during which BOEM will:

  1. Present the purpose and intent of the 2014 document Development of Mitigation Measures to Address Potential Use Conflicts between Commercial Wind Energy Lessees/Grantees and Commercial Fishermen on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf.  
  2. Request input from the fishing community and developers that would inform the draft guidance on fisheries mitigation. Topics to consider include project siting, design, navigation, and access; safety; environmental monitoring; and financial compensation.   
  3. Provide information on how to submit comments. 
You will soon receive an invitation and registration information for one of seven sector-specific or regional virtual workshops, as well as additional information. In the meantime, please reserve the time on your calendar. 
  • East Coast Workshop on Mobile Gear/Mixed Trawl/Pelagic
    December 2, 2021 (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EST) 
     
  • East Coast Workshop on Fixed Gear
    December 6, 2021 (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EST) 
     
  • Recreational Fishing Workshop
    December 7, 2021 (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EST) 
     
  • West Coast Workshop
    December 13, 2021 (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. PST) 
     
  • Developers Workshop
    December 14, 2021 (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EST) 
     
  • Gulf of Mexico Workshop
    December 15, 2021 (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CST):

These workshops are intended primarily for commercial and recreational fishermen on the West Coast, the Gulf, and the Atlantic Coast, but they are also open to the public.

If you cannot make it to one of the workshops, you can also provide comments online for BOEM’s consideration. Information on how to do so will be posted to BOEM’s website in the near future. We are looking forward to accepting comments from November 23 – January 7.

Thank you in advance for your participation. We look forward to hearing from you and having open, productive conversations.  

Work starting on 1st commercial-scale US offshore wind farm

November 19, 2021 — U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland joined with Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday to mark the groundbreaking of the Vineyard Wind 1 project, the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States.

The project is the first of many that will contribute to President Joe Biden’s goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030 and to Massachusetts’ goal of 5.6 gigawatts by 2030, Haaland said at the event in the town of Barnstable on Cape Cod.

The first steps of construction will include laying down two transmission cables that will connect Vineyard Wind 1 to the mainland.

The commercial fishing industry has pushed back against the wind farm.

In September, the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance — a coalition of commercial fishing groups — filed a legal challenge to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval of the Vineyard Wind 1 project with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

The approval of the wind farm “adds unacceptable risk to this sustainable industry without any effort to minimize unreasonable interference with traditional and well-managed seafood production and navigation,” the group said at the time.

Read the full story at the AP

Biden administration looks to California, Oregon offshore wind power

November 18, 2021 — Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced plans for up to seven new offshore wind lease sales, from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico and in the Pacific off California and Oregon, at the American Clean Power Association’s offshore wind conference Oct. 12 in Boston, Mass.

“This timetable provides two crucial ingredients for success: increased certainty and transparency,” Haaland said in an address to the industry advocacy group.

With the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management accelerating its timetable to review wind developers’ plans and prepare future lease offerings, agency officials are insisting they learned from mistakes dealing with the Northeast commercial fishing industry, and will work with them and other stakeholders “to minimize conflict with existing uses and marine life.”

“We are working to facilitate a pipeline of projects that will establish confidence for the offshore wind industry,” BOEM Director Amanda Lefton said. “At the same time, we want to reduce potential conflicts as much as we can while meeting the Administration’s goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. This means we will engage early and often with all stakeholders prior to identifying any new Wind Energy Areas.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Boom, Boom, BOEM: Agency Announces Wind Energy Area off Morro Bay

November 16, 2021 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management dropped a figurative bomb on the fishing industry Friday, when it announced an offshore wind energy site off California.

The announcement of a Morro Bay Wind Energy Area, smaller than the “399 Call Area,” on Friday came as a surprise to the seafood industry. Two days earlier, BOEM representatives met with the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Marine Planning Committee and gave no hint an announcement was imminent.

The WEA is located approximately 20 miles offshore the central California coastline and contains approximately 240,898 acres, or 376 square miles, BOEM said in the announcement.

BOEM will now prepare an Environmental Assessment, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act, to consider potential impacts from site characterization activities (e.g., biological, archeological, geological, and geophysical surveys) and site assessment activities (e.g., installation of meteorological buoys) within the WEA. BOEM’s preparation of the EA will initiate a public comment period along with two virtual public meetings, BOEM said.

Read the full story at Seafood News

 

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford is a shining sea of possibilities

November 10, 2021 — Stand here on Leonard’s Wharf, near where the Acushnet River empties into Buzzards Bay, and you’re surrounded by boats with colorful hulls and elaborate rigs. They help power the nation’s most lucrative fishing port, hauling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of scallops, fish, and lobsters from the Atlantic Ocean to be sold worldwide.

Next door, behind a rusty chain-link fence, sits a huge old power plant, long unused. The 29-acre site is one of two on New Bedford’s waterfront that is poised to host the assembly of massive wind turbines that would be shipped out and mounted in the Atlantic Ocean, promising much-needed clean energy for the Northeast.

Whether these two industries — one ages old, the other being birthed on the fly — can coexist in New Bedford harbor and out in the ocean will say a lot about the future of one of the most distinctive places in Eastern Massachusetts, a city that has for most of its 234 years drawn a living from the sea.

“The waterfront has always provided an opportunity for people,” said Laura Orleans, executive director of the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, who has spent a quarter-century telling the stories of New Bedford’s maritime history. “There have been a lot of people from many different cultures who have been very successful making a living on our waterfront.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

MAINE: Gov. Mills urges federal government to include fishermen in offshore wind decisions

November 8, 2021 — Gov. Janet Mills on Friday urged the federal government to include fishermen in plans for commercial offshore wind projects in the Gulf of Maine.

In a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Mills said she supports the Biden Administration’s commitment to offshore wind but encouraged them to take a research-driven approach.

“My administration has committed to pursuing offshore wind energy in a way that works best – a thoughtful, deliberate and responsible approach that leads with listening to those for whom offshore wind may not be viewed as opportunity but as a threat to their way of life,” she wrote.

Read the full story at Spectrum News 13

 

VIRGINIA: Dominion offshore wind farm cost climbs to $9.8B

November 8, 2021 — Dominion Energy Inc.’s offshore wind farm will cost about $2 billion more than expected, the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility’s chair, president and CEO, Bob Blue, said during a third quarter earnings call Friday.

Instead of the previously estimated $7.8 billion, the 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) commercial project will cost approximately $9.8 billion, Blue said, attributing the roughly 25% cost increase to rising commodities expenses and general cost pressures across a number of industries right now amid mounting inflation. Additionally, Blue cited costs associated with the need to build about 17 miles of new transmission lines and other onshore infrastructure associated with the project.

Dominion plans to build the 180 wind-turbine farm 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, with construction beginning in 2024. When completed in 2026, the wind farm is expected to power 660,000 homes. The wind farm will cost residential customers about $4 per month over the estimated 30-year lifespan of the wind farm, a Dominion spokesperson said.

Read the full story at Virginia Business