Saving Seafood

Electric companies seek proposals for round of wind energy

May 28, 2019 — The three electric distribution companies in Massachusetts have together issued a request for a second round of offshore wind energy, as the winner of the first round — Vineyard Wind — looks to start its project later this year.

Eversource, National Grid and Unitil issued the request for proposals May 23. Initial, confidential responses from offshore wind developers are expected by Aug. 9. The utility companies are seeking contracts running from 15 to 20 years for at least 400 megawatts of offshore wind energy. Proposals from 200 megawatts up to 800 megawatts may be submitted.

Among the restrictions, the offshore wind developer must provide electricity from an offshore wind energy project located on the outer continental shelf and where no turbine is located within 10 miles of a inhabited area. Additionally, the wind farm must operate in a designated wind energy area where the developer received an initial federal lease on a competitive basis after Jan. 1, 2012.

All four offshore wind development companies that have leases for federal land south of the Islands — Vineyard Wind, Bay State Wind, Mayflower Wind Energy,and Equinor Wind US — had weighed in on preparations for the second round of bidding.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Vineyard Wind: May 22 Notice to Mariners and Fishermen

May 22, 2019 — The following was released by Vineyard Wind:

We wanted to let you know that Vineyard Wind will begin geological surveys on or about May 22. The estimated duration is approximately 77 days, ending on August 7, 2019. Surveys will take place in Vineyard Wind Lease Areas 501 and 522. Please see the full notice to fishermen and mariners here.

We encourage fishermen who may be working in the survey area to contact the fishery liaison.

This survey will gather data on seabed and subfloor conditions that will assist in identifying potential locations for future siting of offshore wind turbines and refine inter-array cable routes between each turbine.

Vineyard Wind is committed to communicating and working with the local fishermen in the region during all stages of development of the proposed offshore farm.

If you have any questions, please contact Crista Bank, Fishery Liaison via email at cbank@vineyardwind.com or via cell phone at 508-525-0421.

Vineyard Wind: Notice to Mariners and Fishermen

May 16, 2019 — The following was released by Vineyard Wind:

Please be advised that Fugro USA Marine, Inc will perform met-ocean monitoring for the Vineyard Wind project site located at approximately 43 nm from the port of New Bedford and approx. 17nm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The Vineyard Wind Lighted Research Buoy (VWM-01) with a water level recorder will be deployed at the above coordinates on May 16, 2019 and is expected to remain on site though 2019. Fishermen and mariners are requested to note the buoy location and to maintain a safe distance during fishing and marine activities. The buoy is moored using open link chain, with a heavy chain anchor.

The currently deployed buoy and mooring will be removed and a replacement buoy will be deployed nearby at the coordinates below. Download notice here.

“A Big Fugazi”: Why Fishermen Still Can’t Get Behind Offshore Wind

May 10, 2019 — In Ken Schneider’s 40-year fishing career, he’s fished for pretty much everything that’s out in the Mid-Atlantic.

Now, at 60 years old, Schneider spends most of his time hunting for lobster. On this day, he’s making some extra cash building a boat deck at Leonard’s Wharf in New Bedford before his next fishing trip. He takes his son with him sometimes.

“He don’t like fishing with me probably,” Schneider says. “Somebody else would be easier.”

His son works as an engineer at a drafting company. But if anything ever happens to him financially Schneider says, “he’s got a [fishing] license and everything and if everything else goes bad he’s always got this.”

Schneider’s daughter owns part of the family business too. But now, Schneider says all of it is at risk. He and other fishermen in New Bedford will soon have to share the open ocean with Vineyard Wind. The company is building the the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm…84-turbines about 14 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

There are final federal and state permits still pending approval but it’s expected onshore construction will start this fall. And by next year, construction will move to the ocean as the over 600 foot turbines settle in their new home.

Schneider says the seismic activity from the construction is going to change the ocean floor and marine life isn’t going to stay around. He thinks he could lose over 30-percent of his lobster catch because of the construction.

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

MASSACHUSETTS: New England Is Not Prepared For The World’s Largest Offshore Windfarm

May 2, 2019 –Commercial fishing families, as stewards of the ocean, are concerned that a new industry is developing at a rapid pace without adequate science and risk management. By the end of the year, Vineyard Wind intends to begin construction on its 84-turbine offshore wind farm south of Cape Cod. It will be one of the largest wind farms in the world and it will be built on essential marine habitat.

By the end 2025, Vineyard Wind and other foreign-owned wind energy companies, plan to build over 1,000 turbines in a 1,400 square mile lease area. Combined, they will dwarf other wind farms around the world. And they will build it without adequate scientific understanding of the harm they could cause to the migratory route for millions of marine animals, the feeding grounds for right whales, and the traditional fishing grounds of thousands of fishermen and recreational boaters.

Read the full release here

Vineyard Wind commits to fisheries monitoring

April 8, 2019 — Vineyard Wind has announced that it will adopt research measures recommended by a local university to monitor the effects on fisheries of the 84-turbine offshore wind farm, which when operational could be the first industrial-sized installation in the country.

The company, which intends to begin construction later this year of an 84-turbine wind farm south of Martha’s Vineyard, entered into a multi-faceted agreement in 2017 with the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology. Part of the agreement was for the school to design an approach to research that would be capable of monitoring the effects on fisheries of the one-time construction of the wind farm. The approach also needed to be capable of handling longer-term, regional studies.

“The fishing industry has raised important questions about the impacts of offshore wind development on the marine environment and on sea life,” the company said in a statement released Friday.

While Rhode Island fishermen in February approved a mitigation package that includes $4.2 million in payments over 30 years for direct impacts to commercial fishermen as a result of the wind farm, as well as the creation of a $12.5-million trust set up over five years that could be used to cover additional costs to fishermen resulting from the project, tensions continue to exist.

“It’s this industry against the world,” Lanny Dellinger, a leader in the Rhode Island commercial fishing community, said at a February meeting. “Look around and see what you’re up against. That’s what we had to weigh as a group. There is no choice here.”

The methodology the school is recommending is based on workshops held in November and December, and pilot projects. The procedures should encompass an array of fish species, and an integration of methods that can support additional and on-going fisheries research; the use of a “nested and modular” study design for both a relatively small construction site as well as a wider region; the creation of a standing committee of commercial fishermen to review findings and make recommendations; and the use of local fishermen to provide vessels to support the studies.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

SMAST studies on wind and fisheries poised to begin

April 8, 2019 — Fisheries scientists at the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology will begin a series of studies this spring to evaluate the effects of large-scale offshore wind farms on fish populations and habitat.

As part of an agreement with a wind farm developer, Vineyard Wind, SMAST scientists will monitor commercially fished species during construction of the company’s 84-turbine project south of Martha’s Vineyard. The school will also launch longer-term research to evaluate the regional fishery implications of offshore wind.

The research will begin later this spring, according to Vineyard Wind. SMAST has already conducted a Vineyard Wind-funded trial of video trawling in the wind energy area.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA questions Vineyard Wind environmental impact study

March 21, 2019 — A Gloucester-based division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has raised concerns that a government environmental impact study about the proposed Vineyard Wind project lacked sufficient detail.

Michael Pentony, the head of NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, warned in a March 15 letter that the report on Vineyard Wind completed by the U.S Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in December included conclusions that were not well supported by data and needed additional analysis of several key angles of impact.

“We determined that many of the conclusory statements relating to the scale of impacts for biological and socioeconomic resources are not well supported in the document,” Pentony wrote in his letter to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. “Specifically, impacts categorized as major appear under-inclusive, while impacts designated as moderate seem overly inclusive.”

The letter, posted online by fishing industry advocacy group Saving Seafood, serves as the office’s official response to the federal draft environmental impact statement on the construction and operation plan for Vineyard Wind’s proposed offshore wind farm.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Fisheries Issues Public Comments on Vineyard Wind Project

March 20, 2019 — (Saving Seafood) — Last Friday, in a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), NOAA Fisheries expressed concern over how the proposed Vineyard Wind offshore energy project may negatively impact New England’s fisheries, marine life, and ocean habitats.

The letter was the agency’s official public comment on BOEM’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Vineyard Wind project, which is proposed for off the coast of Massachusetts. In the letter, NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Administrator Mike Pentony raises issues with BOEM’s analysis of the project’s negative impacts.

Specifically, the letter notes that the BOEM analysis does not include “the most accurate or updated data on fishery landings and associated revenue” for several fisheries, including squid, Jonah crab, and American lobster. The letter also faults BOEM for not sufficiently addressing the potential economic impacts of the project, particularly on the issues surrounding fisheries displacement.

“In some cases, if fishermen are displaced from an area they will move somewhere else, which can have direct economic impacts such as increased fuel costs, longer trips, etc., as well as indirect impacts such as increased conflicts with other fishermen,” the letter states. “However, it is also possible that the fish are simply unavailable to the fishery outside of the area.”

NOAA similarly criticizes BOEM’s analysis of potential mitigation measures for the project, noting that “the analysis is solely dependent upon an undefined financial mitigation package, while impacts to the fishing communities go beyond just revenue loss.”

Other areas of the DEIS criticized by NOAA include its limited analysis on critical habitats, impacts with marine mammals and endangered species, and the effects of project development and construction. The agency offered to continue to collaborate with BOEM to address these issues.

Read the full public comments here

 

Fishing Report: Regional panels could assess wind farm impacts

March 8, 2019 — It’s very hard to get a handle on offshore wind. We have 20 or so lease areas from Massachusetts to the Carolinas, six of them (all granted to developers now) are off Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The kicker is that each of these lease areas will house multiple projects — projects that could harm or help habitat and fish in their area. However, the big question being asked by fishermen and scientists alike, is what cumulative impact they will they have on fish and habitat when they are all built, up and running?

For the past few months Vineyard Wind has been in negotiation with fishermen on a mitigation plan for one project… eventually many projects will be built on the East Coast. The permitting process and various stages of approval for any one wind farm is daunting, including hundreds of meetings, hearings, permits, negotiations, etc. Who knows what effect several projects in an area will have, developers have been just trying to get their project up and running.

Offshore wind farm developers are much like land developers. They acquire or lease a parcel and then develop it with ocean wind farms as they have the electricity sold. Much the same way that a land developer would develop a large parcel of land only building what they have good reason to believe they can sell in stages.

Last month during mitigation negotiations Rhode Island fishermen on the Fisheries Advisory Board (FAB) of the Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC) approved a $16.7-million negotiated mitigation agreement with Vineyard Wind. The settlement provides funds for research to study safe effective fishing in the project area as well as research that may help future projects and their relationship to fishing. The agreement also includes $4.2 million in payments spread over 30 years for assistance with direct impacts of the wind farm on fishing in Rhode Island.

Read the full story at The Providence Journal