Saving Seafood

RODA: Offshore Wind Report Indicates ‘Major Fundamental Flaws’ in Process

August 3, 2020 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) latest report on offshore wind “highlights the severity of impacts to fishing resources, businesses, and communities” and indicates “major fundamental flaws” in the offshore wind planning process, according to new public comments from the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA). Deficiencies in the report also reveal an unacceptable level of uncertainty and risk from a large-scale new ocean use.

RODA’s comments responded to BOEM’s supplement to the draft environmental impact statement (SEIS) for Vineyard Wind’s proposed 800-megawatt offshore wind project in federal waters off the coast of Massachusetts. In the SEIS, BOEM found that “major cumulative effects could occur on commercial fisheries” from East Coast offshore wind development in the coming years.

“We need to be thinking about the long-term impacts on our coastal communities and marine ecosystems, and right now there are too many red flags and unknowns,” said Annie Hawkins, RODA’s executive director. “Unfortunately this is the result of a collective failure to plan in a way that accommodates both fishing and renewable energy, and to invest in sound research and conflict resolution before the very latest stages of project review. The SEIS was a welcome step, but if it serves as the basis for greenlighting 2000 of the world’s largest turbines over 1400 square miles of unique ocean habitat, we’ll be embarking on one of the biggest socio-ecological experiments in history.”

Offshore wind planning has been fundamentally flawed, RODA wrote, and for fishermen, fisheries scientists, and managers “it is nothing short of chaotic.” While the SEIS partially evaluated fishing impacts, the most important decisions have already been made at the state- and project-level, making it difficult for BOEM to fairly weigh ocean uses, or ensure adequate ecological safeguards, on a geographically-appropriate scale. Fisheries experts have expressed for nearly a decade that the leasing process systematically ignores their environmental concerns until the final permitting phases. Without this important expertise, it is not surprising to see how much conflict and uncertainty remains, RODA wrote.

Transit lanes, the creation of a comprehensive mitigation plan, environmental impacts, and domestic job creation are among the other issues that still need to be resolved if offshore wind is to move forward, according to RODA’s comments.

Fishermen have long maintained that for most fisheries and gear types in the Vineyard Wind area, spacing turbines in a grid 1×1 nautical miles apart is too narrow to operate, making viable and safe transit lanes through the turbine arrays extremely important in the project design. RODA also questioned BOEM’s reliance on the Coast Guard’s Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study analysis of transit lanes, which RODA previously criticized for containing “serious errors.”

RODA prefers that mitigation efforts focus on avoiding and minimizing impacts on fisheries, before resorting to direct compensation. Fishermen aim to preserve healthy ecosystems and continue fishing for their livelihoods, rather than be paid for damages. Unfortunately, avoiding and minimizing impacts are not currently prioritized in the process, and current compensatory mitigation is insufficient and must be revised with direct input from the fishing industry.

There are also “major flaws” with the current understanding of offshore wind’s impacts on the outer continental shelf ecosystem, RODA wrote. These flaws include insufficient data against which to measure impacts, and a lack of time to evaluate impacts before further projects move forward. The comments also cited a recent Science Center for Marine Fisheries review which concluded the SEIS paid “insufficient attention” to overall wind impacts, including the overall scope and scale of impacts on fisheries surveys and on the critical but ecologically sensitive Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool phenomenon.

Should the Vineyard Wind project move forward despite the largely unaddressed major cumulative impacts to commercial fishing, RODA maintains that BOEM’s final EIS must re-do the mitigation plan to be complete and equitable, make Vineyard Wind a study site for radar interference, adopt adequate transit lanes for fishing, increase investment in research, implement the recommendations of NOAA’s Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee, require enhanced interstate coordination, and put fishermen at the table for all decisions and planning going forward.

RODA represents fishing industry associations and companies dedicated to improving the compatibility of offshore developments with their businesses. RODA’s approximately 170 members represent every Atlantic coastal state from North Carolina to Maine, and Pacific coast members in California, Oregon and Washington.

RODA calls for revisions to port access study used in offshore wind project impact statements

July 7, 2020 — The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), an organization representing fishing industry interests related to proposed offshore wind projects in New England, has officially requested that the U.S. Coast Guard correct a study done relating to port access in parts of the region.

The study, the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study (MARIPARS), does not fully take into account the full depth of fishing industry use in the region, according to a letter sent by RODA to the U.S. Coast Guard. RODA claims the report, issued on 27 May, 2020, does not take into account certain information, resulting in “fundamental omissions and calculation errors that compromise the quality, objectivity, and integrity of the information contained therein.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Offshore wind: Seven things every fisheries professional needs to know

July 6, 2020 — By now, you have probably seen quite a bit about offshore wind energy development planned for multiple regions of the United States. Fishermen and related businesses understandably run the gamut from bewildered (“That would never happen where I fish”), to overwhelmed (“There’s too much else going on to pay attention”), to laser-focused (“Leases are on my fishing grounds”). Here are seven key reasons you should get involved now.

1. Wind is big

Just a few years ago, pilot or demonstration projects were the name of the game in U.S. offshore wind energy, but times have changed. Qualified companies are large and almost exclusively foreign-owned. Many or most are linked to governments and national oil and gas companies. They work closely with highly active trade associations, embassies, and investment firms.

The projects themselves are no less extraordinary. Current generation offshore wind turbines are three times the height of the Statute of Liberty, and the blades are among the largest composite human-made structures in existence. In the North Sea, Denmark even plans to build two artificial islands to house the large amount of offshore wind infrastructure there and export the power.

2. Conflicts are complex

There are so many aspects of interactions between offshore wind and fisheries that will be better understood the more the fishing industry brings its knowledge to the table. Offshore wind projects are not simply a series of “sticks in the water.”

In deeper waters of the Pacific, Hawaii and Gulf of Maine, floating platforms will be connected through a series of suspended cables. Inter-array cables run between turbines, and scour protection and mattressing extend far beyond the bases. The southern New England lease area alone is 1,400 square miles in area and transit distances around installations could be significant if adequate safety corridors are not required.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

US fishing alliance challenges offshore wind study

July 2, 2020 — The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) has called for a correction to a US Coast Guard (USCG) offshore wind study.

Referring to the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study (MARIPARS), the fishing industry group has cited “serious foundational and analytical errors that merit correction”.

On 29 June RODA filed a formal Request for Correction under the Information Quality Act in order to “improve the objectivity and utility” of the disseminated information.

The MARIPARS study examined current waterway uses in the areas off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, which are sites of proposed offshore wind energy development.

RODA stated: “Understanding these ocean use patterns is critical for successfully designing any offshore development, and for minimising interactions between the proposed developments and existing activity.

“Unfortunately, the Coast Guard’s final report, issued on 27 May, contained several key errors, and the process ‘failed to address nearly all of the substantive comments from fisheries professionals’”.

Read the full story at ReNews

Coast Guard challenged on offshore wind traffic study

July 2, 2020 — A Coast Guard study that recommends against designated vessel transit lanes through New England offshore wind turbine arrays “contains serious foundational and analytical errors that merit correction,” commercial fishing advocates say in a formal objection to the findings.

The Coast Guard’s Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study endorsed wind power developers’ proposal for a uniform grid layout of 1 nautical mile between turbine towers on their neighboring federal leases off southern New England.

The report found fault with a proposal for up to six vessel transit lanes, up to four nautical miles wide, that was proposed by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of fishing industry groups.

Developers of Vineyard Wind, the first 800-megawatt project to start construction in the region, and their supporters stressed the Coast Guard’s support for a uniform grid layout as the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management commenced public hearings on its environmental review of the plan.

RODA fired back this week, filing a request to revisit the Coast Guard’s study that was released in the May 27 issue of the Federal Register.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Responsible Offshore Development Alliance Calls for Correction on Coast Guard Study; Cites ‘Serious’ Errors

July 1, 2020 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA):

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) has officially requested that the U.S. Coast Guard revise and correct its Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study (MARIPARS), citing “serious foundational and analytical errors that merit correction.” On June 29th, it filed a formal Request for Correction under the Information Quality Act in order to improve the objectivity and utility of the disseminated information.

The Coast Guard MARIPARS study examined current waterway uses in the areas off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, which are sites of proposed offshore wind energy development. Understanding these ocean use patterns is critical for successfully designing any offshore development, and for minimizing interactions between the proposed developments and existing activity.

Unfortunately, the Coast Guard’s final report, issued on May 27th, contained several key errors, and the process “failed to address nearly all of the substantive comments from fisheries professionals.” These include dozens of comments from vessel operators, fishing companies, and fishing associations, as well as independent experts including the New England Fishery Management Council, the New Bedford Port Authority, the Rhode Island Fisheries Advisory Board, and Dr. Thomas Sproul.

One key error involved the Coast Guard’s reliance on “inappropriate data sources.” RODA previously warned the Coast Guard that most fishing vessels in Massachusetts and Rhode Island do not use Automatic Identification System (AIS) technology onboard, and that any analysis of fishing vessel activity and movement should not rely on AIS data. Despite this warning, the Coast Guard cited only AIS data in its study. Additionally, while the MARIPARS contains a list of nearly 900 contacts in its “stakeholder outreach” section, only two are active commercial fishermen – hardly sufficient to inform a study primarily focused on fishing vessels.

Despite drawing conclusions about the amount of space necessary to conduct fishing operations, the study similarly did not include important information on the nature of fishing activity in the region, including the spatial requirements of vessels and their gear, and the changes in vessel traffic patterns that are likely to result from wind turbine construction.

The study’s flaws were not limited to its analysis of fishing activity. The Coast Guard also failed to properly analyze a range of alternative spacing proposals for wind turbines that included dedicated transit lanes for fishing vessels. Rather than provide an analysis of the impacts transit lanes would have, the Coast Guard simply asserted “project developers have made clear that larger corridors … would result in reduced [turbine] spacing.” RODA asserts in its appeal that the Coast Guard should have conducted a full, independent evaluation of this claim. Instead, “it relied on developers’ attestations that there are a predetermined number of turbines that will be placed in the wind energy areas,” which is at odds with the public record and how the development process is supposed to work.

RODA’s Request for Correction raises further issues, including unsubstantiated claims made by the Coast Guard about the nature of potential radar interference from wind turbines as well as simple calculation errors included in the study.

In light of these numerous errors, RODA considers the conclusions of the study “wholly unsupported and unsubstantiated by the record” and is requesting that the Coast Guard address and correct these errors. It is specifically asking for relief in the form of: (1) revising the analysis using appropriate data and calculations; (2) clear documentation of the MARIPARS’ limitations; (3) a formal, independent peer review; and (4) not using the MARIPARS as a basis for regulatory decisions pending these corrections.

Since the publication of the final MARIPARS, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Vineyard Wind I project to analyze cumulative impacts of offshore wind energy development off of New England. That document relies heavily on the MARIPARS in assessing the navigational safety impacts of the project’s preferred layout.

Read RODA’s full Request for Correction here

RODA Nets $150,000 Grant from NMFS to Hold Symposium on Fisheries and Offshore Wind

June 11, 2020 — The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) received a $150,000 grant from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to hold a symposium on current knowledge of fisheries and offshore wind interactions.

The first of its kind project, “Understanding the State of the Science,” will advance agency, fishing industry, offshore wind energy developer and public understanding of existing research on interactions between the two industries, RODA said.

Read the full story at Seafood News

RODA Receives NMFS Grant to Convene State of the Science Symposium on Fishing and Offshore Wind Interactions

June 10, 2020 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) has received a $150,000 grant from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to aggregate existing knowledge, then convene a first-of-its-kind symposium on the current science regarding fisheries and offshore wind interactions. The project, “Understanding the State of the Science,” will advance agency, fishing industry, offshore wind energy developer, and public understanding of existing research on interactions between the two industries.

“We are thrilled about the opportunity to design a forum that will bring together everything we know, and don’t know, about how fisheries and offshore wind energy development interact,” said Annie Hawkins, RODA’s Executive Director. “Fishermen provide a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and many are involved in research and science efforts. This project is a great opportunity for their participation in informing a strong research and science agenda.”

The project consists of two parts. First, RODA will develop a much-needed summary of scientific knowledge and current research and monitoring efforts. Given the rapid growth and large scope of offshore wind development in the U.S., many fishing associations, academic institutions, federal and state agencies, offshore wind developers, and others have been conducting research on the effects of offshore wind development. This part of the project results in a new resource for understanding the knowledge gaps and most important questions for further research.

Second, RODA will convene a “state of the science” symposium and workshop jointly with NMFS and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), as well as state, academic, and private and public sector science experts. At these meetings, participants will identify research and monitoring needs that the Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA) can use to develop its work.

ROSA is an independent organization that works collaboratively to advance regional research and monitoring of fisheries and offshore wind interactions in federal waters. It is intended to fill the need for broad-scale coordination on prioritizing work and on information sharing.

“Much of the work on offshore wind is occurring on a development-by-development, state-by-state basis. Yet the science and management of our fisheries, marine mammals, and marine endangered species occur at a regional-scale – North Carolina to Maine,” said Jon Hare, director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “Therefore, I am excited to be able to work with RODA and BOEM to support the state-of-the-science symposium with the goal of developing a regional science plan.”

This project is a key step toward jointly building a regional fisheries and offshore science agenda. Participants in the project will include fishermen, fishing industry representatives, NMFS, BOEM, and ROSA experts, wind energy developers, relevant federal fishery management councils, states, and other expert scientists from the U.S. and Europe. The Consensus Building Institute will provide expert facilitation and coordination for the symposium. The intent is to reduce redundancies, identify knowledge gaps, and solidify opportunities for future increased coordination. Partners can then use workshop outcomes to collaborate further, refining regional science and monitoring agendas.

Examples of topics to be covered by the state of the science symposium include:

  • Physical oceanographic factors: the Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool, currents and vertical mixing, scour and sedimentation, marine winds, waves, coastal upwelling;
  • Ecosystem effects: larval dispersal, recruitment, spawning, electromagnetic fields, migration corridors, noise and vibrations, species shifts, invasive species and colonization, entanglement, benthic habitat disruption;
  • Fisheries: displacement of effort, displacement of species, increased competition for grounds, safety; and
  • Floating wind technology effects: specific effects of floating wind platforms on fishing effort and biological processes.

Funding for this project was made available through NMFS’ Broad Agency Announcement award process, and advances a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in March 2019. This ten-year MOU among RODA, NMFS, and BOEM allows the groups to collaborate on the science, research, monitoring, and process of offshore wind energy development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. More broadly, the project will help local and regional fishing interests become better involved in the offshore wind development process, and ensure that the interests and concerns of commercial fishermen are communicated effectively.

Responsible Offshore Development Alliance Calls for Changes to ‘Broken and Ineffective’ Wind Development Outreach

June 3, 2020 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) is calling on state and federal regulators to extensively revise their approach to planning offshore wind development off of Oregon, calling the current system “broken and ineffective” for preserving sustainable seafood production. The comments come in a public comment letter submitted by RODA on the engagement plan for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) Oregon Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force.

In the letter, RODA calls for BOEM to develop a new planning and engagement model that brings fisheries stakeholders into the process early, with greater participation from fisheries members on task forces and greater opportunities for public input.

Task forces need to work with the industry identify potential impacts on fishing before any offshore leases are issued. Often input from the fishing industry is sought too late in the process, after leases have been awarded and sites selected.

“Fisheries participants and experts must be wholly integrated into every step of the planning process through true collaboration,” the letter states.

Collaboration with the fishing industry is vital because of the many documented conflicts between fishing and wind energy development. These include potential environmental impacts on marine species and habitats; limiting fishing access; disruptions of scientific surveys; and interactions with protected species such as whales.

RODA is a membership-based coalition of fishing-related companies and associations committed to improving the compatibility of new offshore development with their businesses. RODA’s approximately 170 members represent every Atlantic coastal state from North Carolina to Maine, and Pacific coast members in California, Oregon and Washington.

Read the letter here

Fishing industry group wants Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire offshore wind planning postponed during pandemic

April 29, 2020 — A group representing the fishing industry has written to New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Maine Gov. Janet Mills and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker asking for a six-month pause in planning Gulf of Maine (GOM) offshore wind development amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The letter from the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) seeks to ensure that fishermen have a say in the early stages of any proposed projects, RODA executive director Annie Hawkins told The Center Square.

“The idea behind the letter was the Gulf of Maine is at the beginning of planning for offshore wind. Given how important it is to fishermen’s work routes and interactive site mapping, it has to be done when everyone can be at the table,” Hawkins said. “And right now, the fishing industry is dealing with their own things brought on by the pandemic.”

Hawkins said in other regions of offshore wind development, fishermen haven’t had enough of a voice in the planning process because work commitments often preclude them from being at meetings.

“What we’re seeing in other regions, fishing interests are brought in late in the game,” Hawkins said.

Read the full story at The Center Square