Saving Seafood

Westport will wait and see following wind farm halt

September 2, 2025 — Westport officials are waiting and watching, but so far have heard no news on whether Vineyard Wind is next on a list of threatened projects following news late last week that work on Revolution Wind, a 65-turbine off the coast of Rhode Island that is 80 percent complete, has been halted by the Trump administration.

“Nothing yet,” Jake McGuigan, a select board member and chairman of the Offshore Wind Advisory Committee, said Monday.

The advisory committee has no regulatory authority but was formed last year to monitor the potential impacts of offshore wind on Westport. It was established after residents raised concerns that Vineyard Offshore had listed Westport as one of two possible landing sites for offshore cables from a wind farm it is proposing south of Nantucket. But in late February, company representatives appeared before the advisory committee and said there are no plans to route any cables through Westport, and they are instead focusing on New London, Ct. as a potential landing zone.

Since then, the board has reduced its meeting frequency to quarterly; McGuigan said the next will be held in October, and he suspects any potential regulatory news will be on the agenda.

Read the full article at East Bay RI

RHODE ISLAND: Are Rhode Island River Herring’s Problems Really Out at Sea?

August 28, 2025 — While Rhode Island has spent decades and millions of dollars erecting fish ladders, removing dams, and cleaning up its rivers to shore up dwindling herring populations, it’s a different case when the fish are in the ocean.

River herring, both the blueback and alewife species found in Rhode Island, are diadromous fish, meaning they spawn in freshwater but live their adult lives in the ocean.

Read the full article at ecoRI

RHODE ISLAND: ‘You are our only chance’: Why fishermen are applauding Trump’s halt of Revolution Wind

August 27, 2025 — While Gov. Dan McKee and state elected leaders have roundly criticized the Trump administration’s order to stop work on Revolution Wind, members of the Rhode Island fishing industry are applauding the decision to halt construction of the 65-turbine offshore wind farm.

A handful of industry representatives gathered Tuesday, Aug. 26 on the Galilee waterfront to thank the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for the stop-work order, and to urge the administration to take similar action against other offshore wind projects proposed or being built in Atlantic Ocean waters in the region.

“I have one thing to say to the U.S. government,” said Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for North Kingstown-based seafood distributor Seafreeze. “Save our fishing grounds from offshore wind. All of them. You’ve started with Revolution Wind, and for that we are grateful. Now, go down the list because it’s long, and you are our only chance.”

Read the full article at The Newport Daily News

With Little Explanation, Trump Throws Wind Industry Into Chaos

August 26, 2025 — When the Trump administration ordered that construction stop last week at Revolution Wind, a giant wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that was nearly finished, it alluded vaguely to national security concerns but did not offer any further explanation.

It’s becoming a striking pattern.

The order was the third time the Trump administration had revoked permits or halted work on wind farms that had already received federal approval while offering little legal justification for doing so, following actions against wind projects in New York and Idaho. Legal experts say that there is little basis for blocking projects that have already received permits.

The Trump administration has signaled in a court filing that it next plans to rescind federal approvals for yet another wind farm, the Maryland Offshore Wind Project, which had not yet begun construction but would consist of up to 114 wind turbines off the coast of Ocean City, Md. The filing was first reported by WBOC.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Democratic governors demand Trump resume offshore wind project near Rhode Island

August 26, 2025 — A nearly complete wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut faces an uncertain future as the states’ Democratic governors, members of Congress and union workers are calling Monday for the Trump administration to let construction resume.

The administration halted construction on the Revolution Wind project last week, saying the federal government needs to review the project and address national security concerns. It did not specify what those concerns are. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Monday it’s not commenting further at this time.

Read the full article at PBS

CT officials, workers decry Trump administration’s halt to nearly completed offshore wind project

August 26, 2025 — Wind turbine pieces stood hundreds of feet tall above dozens of trade workers and Connecticut officials Monday, as they spoke out against the Trump administration’s sudden pause of Revolution Wind, an offshore wind farm project. It was poised to soon provide electricity to at least 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

“This is a project that our grid operator was counting on to turn on at the end of next year,” Katie Dykes, commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said from the State Pier in New London.

Read the full article at Maine Public

‘Offshore Wind Gets a Pass’ When It Comes to Environmental Concerns

August 19, 2025 —  In 2024, I penned an op-ed here at ecoRI News entitled Commonsense Environmentalism is Being Destroyed by a Wind-Less Revolution, opening with a statement that, “the Ocean State has become ground zero for the most important environmental battle in modern times.” Indeed, this battle persists — that is, whether to preserve and protect nature, versus to concede nature for the fantastical ideology of a greenwashed industrial panacea.

This rift was exposed through recent reporting that summarizes the outcome of a recent Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) meeting in Portsmouth, R.I. The meeting aimed to productively discuss the plans for South Coast Wind to run a power cable from 60 miles offshore extending up through the Sakonnet River, beneath Portsmouth, and then up through Mount Hope Bay to Brayton Point. The meeting was well attended, with equal numbers of public comments presented by both opponents and supporters of the project. Despite these equal voices, the ecoRI News article emphasized that those opposed were the minority opinion, even denigrating such opinions as parroted views of those under the thumb of fossil fuel lobbyists.

This is nothing further from the truth, and a significant disservice to those seeking balanced environmental reporting from which their own opinions may be formulated.

While it would take multiple volumes of literature to collate the plethora of very valid concerns for harms that both onshore and offshore industrial activities inflict, it is worth dispelling the mythology promulgated in the follow-up to the EFSB meeting. I will do so here through several exemplary issues that are very real and should resonate for all — regardless of your personal opinions on the windless revolution.

First, the ecoRI News reporting claimed South Coast Wind is “expected to generate 2,400 megawatts (MW) of electricity, powering around a million homes by the end of the decade.” On Jan. 17, 2025, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced approval of a Construction and Operations Plan with the potential to generate up to 2,400 megawatts of which could power 840,000 homes. These facts matter when separating marketing propaganda from reality. For visual perspective, the project is slated to span 127,388 acres of the continental shelf — more than 10 TIMES the land area of Providence. Would you advocate that an equivalent farmland area be mowed for a solar farm? Unlikely.

Read the full article at EcoRI

Uncrewed Vehicle Helps Fill Data Gaps in Northeast’s Difficult-to-Reach Areas

August 19, 2025 — Between April 16 and May 5, 2025, a team of ocean researchers conducted the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s second DriX survey out of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. The DriX operated nearly 24/7 for 20 days. It collected data to characterize fish and plankton in Southern New England, including within five wind energy areas at various stages of development. This is a step toward using this innovative technology to study and sample marine life and habitats in places that are challenging for larger research vessels to access.

“Uncrewed systems have the ability to support various stock and ecosystem assessments through data acquisition, particularly in areas that have traditionally been or are increasingly becoming challenging to sample,” explained Conor McManus, Advanced Technology Program Lead for the science center. “We are learning more about how marine ecosystems are changing while improving the technology and operations to be able to use it more expansively in the future.”

The DriX is a submarine-shaped, 25-foot-long uncrewed surface vehicle. Unlike a sub, the DriX operates entirely on the surface. The vehicle is programmed to collect data along transect lines but can correct its course to avoid objects in the water. Similar to a car’s cruise control, it is monitored by trained operators who are remotely present and can take control when necessary. DriX is a flexible platform that can carry many sensors needed to collect oceanographic data. For this survey, DriX was outfitted with:

  • Seapix multibeam sonar (150 kHz)
  • Konsberg EK80 echosounder (38, 70, 120, 200 kHz)
  • Nortek Signature 500 kHz echosounder and acoustic doppler current profiler

These instruments collected data that will help scientists identify fish and plankton fields, as well as currents and other environmental information. For example, data collected by the Seapix can be used to estimate the volume of a school of fish.

DriX and other autonomous and semi-automous vehicles can complement ship-based surveys and improve the efficiency of collecting acoustic and biological data. The DriX could help fill data gaps by working in tandem with our long-term ecosystem surveys, such as the Bottom Trawl Survey. The science center’s surveys, including the Bottom Trawl, have been consistently collecting data on fisheries, ocean conditions, and habitat from the Gulf of Maine to North Carolina for more than 50 years.

During the first week, scientists launched and accompanied the DriX aboard the R/V Gloria Michelle, a 72-foot research vessel homeported in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. They calibrated the acoustic equipment and plankton sampling systems while collecting oceanographic data in the Revolution Wind Energy Area.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

RHODE ISLAND: Federal officials look to stop illegal fishing fleets near RI coast

August 11, 2025 — In the weeks since the Senate Commerce Committee passed the bipartisan Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act in May, its momentum continues to build.

Spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the bill is now primed for a full Senate vote, as lawmakers use summer hearing information to press their case against foreign fishing fleets that threaten American waters, jobs, and sustainability.

“Our bill cracks down on illegal pirate fishing operations to level the playing field for Rhode Island fishermen and processors who play by the rules, and will help nurture the fisheries that keep our oceans and coastal communities so healthy and vibrant,” Whitehouse said.

Read the full article at The Independent

RHODE ISLAND: Proposed NOAA cuts raise concerns for Rhode Island’s fishing industry

August 4, 2025 — President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the upcoming year includes significant cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), spurring pushback from Rhode Island lawmakers.

The administration is proposing a $1.6 billion year-over-year reduction to NOAA’s budget. The plan specifically calls for the complete elimination of funding for climate research in fiscal year 2026, which begins Oct. 1.

Some of these proposed cuts have already raised alarms among those who depend on NOAA’s services — particularly commercial fishermen in the Ocean State.

Point Judith fisherman Frederick Mattera has more than 40 years of experience. Mattera said his industry relies heavily on two specific aspects of NOAA that are at risk in next year’s budget: climate research and weather data.

Read the full article at WPRI