Saving Seafood

Young lobsters show decline off New England, and fishermen will see new rules as a result

October 19, 2023 — The population of young lobsters has declined nearly 40% in some of the most critical fishing waters off New England, officials said Wednesday, triggering new restrictions for the fishermen who harvest the valuable crustaceans.

Officials with the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said surveys have detected a 39% decline in young lobsters in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank areas for 2020-22 compared to 2016-18. The areas are among the most important lobster fishing grounds in the world.

The drop in lobster recruitment is a continuation of a recent trend off New England, said Caitlin Starks, senior fisheries management plan coordinator with the commission.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

NJ county, groups sue federal government over offshore wind

October 19, 2023 — Cape May County and several local groups have filed a lawsuit against the federal government, hoping to bury plans to erect a wind farm off of New Jersey’s southern coast.

At the same time, an ocean advocacy group is calling on leaders in New Jersey to quit green-lighting any offshore wind development for the future.

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday argue that federal regulators rushed approval of permits for Orsted’s Ocean Wind 1 project and are putting the environment and local marine life in harm’s way.

Read the full article at New Jersey 101.5

MASSACHUSETTS: Vineyard Wind Completes First Wind Turbine Installation Milestone

October 19, 2023 — After weeks of negative developments and reports questioning the viability of the U.S. offshore wind industry, Iberdrola Group’s Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners are highlighting advancements at the Vineyard Ward 1 project as a demonstration of the industry’s progress. A little over a month after the first turbine was moved from the staging facility in Massachusetts, the installation was completed.

The first of 62 GE Haliade-X Wind Turbine Generator has been successfully installed at the site which is 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Each of the turbines will have a capacity of 13 MW with the project slated to have a total capacity of 806 MW. The companies note that the fully assembled machine, which is comprised of one tower, three blades, and one nacelle, represents the largest turbine in the Western world.

“This is a monumental achievement and a proud day for offshore wind in the United States that proves this industry is real and demonstrates Avangrid’s steadfast commitment to helping the Northeast region meet its clean energy and climate goals,” said Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra. “While this is a landmark for this first-in-the-nation project and the industry, we remain focused on the important work ahead to continue the successful installation campaign of these massive turbines and deliver the first power to Massachusetts homes and businesses this year.”

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

New Jersey faces lawsuit over offshore wind project

October 19, 2023 — A coalition of groups are suing to block New Jersey’s first offshore wind project, arguing that it will hurt marine life, the state’s fishing and tourism industries and the local economy.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, argues that the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management fast-tracked approval of the Ocean Wind 1 project without conducting a required federal review of the potential impact to the environment, historic properties along the coastline and the state’s commercial fishing industry.

In the 71-page complaint, lawyers for the plaintiffs claim that in the push to develop offshore wind, the Biden administration has “shortcut the statutory and regulatory requirements that were enacted to protect our nation’s environmental and natural resources, its industries, and its people.”

The coalition argues in the legal filing that developing offshore wind farms in New Jersey raises “significant concerns” about the impact on the fishing industry, whales and other marine life and tourism in coastal communities. They say it will negatively impact property values, tax revenues and the local economy.

Read the full article at the Center Square

Jersey Shore is at risk if feds keep rushing 1st offshore wind farm, lawsuit claims

October 18, 2023 — In its first federal lawsuit against agencies that have so far pushed ahead New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm, Cape May County in a coalition with others alleged Tuesday in a lawsuit that the development has been rushed at the peril of ocean life, the fishing industry and the local economy.

No offshore wind turbines currently spin along the Jersey Shore but that could change in the next two years.

The latest series of project approvals for Ocean Wind 1 — from Ørsted, a Danish wind developer — include Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s “Record of Decision” in July and the OK at the end of September to start onshore construction.

Plans for Ocean Wind 1, one of at least two Ørsted projects, call for as many as 98 offshore wind turbines reaching more than 850 feet about 15 miles from the coasts of Cape May and Atlantic Counties.

In its own September authorization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, laid out rules to ensure Ørsted protects whales and dolphins while installing wind turbines.

Ørsted said last week, behind a $100 million guarantee, that Ocean Wind 1 is on schedule to reach commercial operation in stages in 2024 and with a 2025 deadline in mind.

Read the full article at NJ.com

 

Orsted offshore wind farm hit with lawsuit by New Jersey county

October 18, 2023 — A southern New Jersey county on Tuesday challenged federal approvals for a major wind farm in U.S. waters off the state’s coast, saying the project’s turbines and construction will harm endangered animals like whales, kill birds and impact local tourism.

The County of Cape May and several local tourism and fishing business groups sued the U.S. Department of the Interior in New Jersey federal court, seeking to stop construction on Danish developer Orsted’s multi-billion dollar Ocean Wind project.

The county said the government violated federal environmental review and endangered species protection laws when it finalized a host of environmental and construction permits for the project earlier this year.

Reviews for those permits failed to adequately account for potential environmental harms from the project and should be vacated, according to the lawsuit. The county said underwater noise and vessel strikes during construction will harm endangered North Atlantic right whales and sea turtles, and that rotating wind turbine blades would kill migrating birds.

Read the full article at Reuters

Cape May County, fishermen challenge approval of Ørsted wind project

October 18, 2023 — Led by Cape May County, N.J., elected officials, a coalition of fishermen, tourism businesses and environmental activists filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the Federal District Court for the District of New Jersey challenging federal government approvals for Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 1 project.

The court action is aimed “against multiple federal agencies and the leadership of those agencies, alleging that federal regulators have abandoned their obligations to protect the environment and Atlantic coastal marine life in favor of an inappropriate collusion with Big Wind interests,” according to a statement issued by county officials.

Plaintiffs on the complaint include the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Wildwood Hotel Motel Association, the environmental group Clean Ocean Action, the Garden State Seafood Association, LaMonica Fine Foods, Lund’s Fisheries, and Surfside Seafood Products.

Cape May officials and seaside communities like Ocean City, N.J., have opposed the planned 1,100-megawatt turbine array as a threat to their tourism economy, while Clean Ocean Action activists see New Jersey’s wind power ambitions as a threat to the marine environment.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Cape chamber, Board of Commissioners sue federal government over offshore wind approval

October 17, 2023 — A group of plaintiffs that includes the Cape May County Board of Commissioners and the county Chamber of Commerce is suing the federal government over claims it failed to factor in impacts to the county’s $7.4 billion tourism industry when it granted approvals for offshore wind development.

The suit names the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Department of the Interior and the National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was filed Tuesday in Camden federal court, records show.

BOEM declined to comment on pending litigation. NOAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit follows Ørsted, the Danish energy company building wind turbines off the coast, putting down a $100 million guarantee that the first windmills of its 161,000-acre Ocean Wind I project will begin generating power by December 2025.

Read the full article at The Press of Atlantic City

RHODE ISLAND: Rhode Island Revises Terms as It Issues Its Largest Wind Power Solicitation

October 17, 2023 — Rhode Island is moving forward with the state’s largest renewable energy solicitation after announcing it would form a three-state partnership with Connecticut and Massachusetts to review and coordinate a regional approach to offshore renewable energy. At the same time, Rhode Island is also providing additional latitude to developers to provide possible avenues to address the emerging financial challenges in the development of offshore wind energy resources.

The neighboring states each have recently had major offshore projects fall apart due to inflation pressures as well as rising costs due to supply chain problems and concerns over tax credits and incentive programs. Massachusetts agreed to let two projects pay fines to walk away from existing power purchase agreements and recently Connecticut also established a fine for a developer to cancel its power agreement. Last year, Rhode Island decided not to proceed with a proposed project saying that it was concerned over the affordability of the power coming from the offshore wind farm, while last week New York State turned down applications from developers that were seeking to increase the cost of power also citing inflation and rising costs to develop the projects.

Rhode Island’s state power company, Rhode Island Energy on Friday issued its anticipated request for proposals from offshore energy developers. The company is seeking to secure an additional 1.2 GW of offshore power to help address the state’s energy needs. The window to submit proposals runs through January 31, 2024, with the company saying that any winning bids will be announced in the summer of 2024.

Read the full article at the Maritime Executive

CALIFORNIA: ‘Another Attempt to Industrialize the Coast’: California’s Central Coast Residents Work to Stop — or at Least Slow Down — Offshore Wind

October 17, 2023 — Joey Racano used to have a dining room table. Now the sunlit nook off the family kitchen more often than not serves as a conference room. The table is covered with maps, thick binders bulging with tech reports, towers of meeting minutes, abandoned coffee mugs — the accumulation of years of community vigilance.

On this day, his home is a lively place where a handful of locals are discussing one of California’s most complex and audacious initiatives — loading the Pacific Ocean with sprawling wind farms that float 20 miles from shore.

Read the full article at Santa Barbra Independent