Saving Seafood

Standoff at sea sours fishermen, US Wind relations

November 15, 2021 — After an on-the-water standoff between commercial fisherman Jimmy Hahn  and a US Wind survey boat, Rep. Andy Harris met with area fisherman to discuss encroachment into fishing areas.

The closed meeting Wednesday, also attended by state Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, R-38-Worcester, included more than 12 fishermen primarily from Ocean City who discussed survey ships damaging potentially lucrative fishing pots in allowed fishing areas.

“On Nov. 1 at approximately 3 p.m., we were on on our way to set more conch pots and I noticed a US Wind survey boat was tearing through my gear,” Hahn said. “I contacted them on a radio channel, as well as our fishing liaison from US Wind, and we had a conversations for 30 minutes and they would not stop going through my gear.”

What followed was Hahn placing his ship between his pots and the much larger boat. Eventually, the survey ship begged off.

Read the full story at the Salisbury Daily Times

 

Offshore turbines could be a windfall for the US steel industry

August 10, 2021 — The Biden administration frames addressing the climate crisis as the greatest opportunity to create jobs in generations. It’s a claim that many of the workers watching the number of well-paid, unionized jobs in fossil fuels diminish are skeptical of. But an announcement made last week offers a preview of what’s in store if the energy transition is fueled by Made-in-America technologies.

US Wind, a developer of offshore wind farms, announced plans to expand its in-development 22-turbine project off the coast of Maryland, adding up to 82 more turbines that will make the facility capable of powering half-a-million homes. In conjunction with the expansion, US Wind has also proposed constructing a new wind turbine manufacturing facility just outside Baltimore.

The plant, called Sparrows Point Steel, will fabricate monopiles, the steel foundations that anchor giant wind turbines to the seafloor. It will sit on the site of the former Bethlehem Steel Corp. mill and shipyard, which during its heyday produced steel for World War II ships and the Golden Gate Bridge, according to E&E News.

Read the full story at Grist

Fishermen’s Energy Loses Bid for Wind Farm Leases Off LBI

November 10, 2015 — The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held an offshore land lease sale for the purposes of developing future wind farms on Monday, Nov. 9.  Although a locally held company, Fishermen’s Energy, participated in the auction, it lost out to two other concerns.

US Wind Inc. won the right to develop the Wind Energy Area off Ocean and Atlantic counties by bidding$1,006,240 for 183,353 acres, Outer Continental Shelf Lease Area 0499. RES America Developments Inc. won the right to develop the 160,480 Wind Energy Area acres from Atlantic City south to Cape May County, paying $880,715 for Lease Area OCS-A 0498.

The New Jersey Wind Energy Area starts about 7 nautical miles offshore and extends roughly 21 nautical miles seaward. To see a map of the New Jersey Wind Energy Area, go to boem.gov/New–Jersey.

Each lease will have a preliminary term of one year, during which the lessee will submit a site assessment plan to BOEM for approval. A site assessment plan describes the activities (installation of meteorological towers and buoys) a lessee plans to perform for the assessment of the wind resources and ocean conditions of its commercial lease area.

Fishermen’s Energy Chief Operating Official Paul Gallagher was not available for comment on Tuesday.

Fishermen’s Energy was developed in 2007 by a consortium of eight commercial fishing and dock facilities along the East Coast from Massachusetts to Virginia. In New Jersey, Viking Village in Barnegat Light, Atlantic Cape Fisheries and Cold Spring Fish and Supply Co. are some of the partners.

The idea was to take a leadership role in building wind energy farms that would be sensitive to fishing areas and the marine environment.

Read the full story at The SandPaper