Saving Seafood

California’s first offshore wind project has Morro Bay fishermen worried

July 19, 2021 — Fishermen in Morro Bay are about to get a much taller neighbor than the ancient volcanic mound that stands like a giant at the tip of the harbor.

Wind turbines are coming.

“These things are as big as skyscrapers,” says Chris Pavone, who’s among roughly 120 fishermen who trap, troll, and drop lines off Morro Bay and Avila Beach.

He’s worried about what could become the first offshore wind farm on the West Coast. Approved by the Biden administration, the project would bring roughly 200 floating turbines into the open ocean off the Central Coast.

It’s a huge leap towards California’s goal of 100% clean electric power by 2045, but fishermen say a 399-square mile wind farm will become another place they can’t fish, in addition to dozens of marine protected areas already out of bounds to them.

“If you saw a map of where you can’t fish, it’s like a mosaic on the ocean,” says Pavone. “For me to make a really good day and make money, I’m driving an hour, hour and a half in my boat.”

Read the full story at KCBX

CALIFORNIA: Local fishing voices are left out of offshore wind discussions

July 16, 2021 — The waters off the shore of Morro Bay have been the focal point of a potential wind farm development site since 2015.

Between 2015 and 2017, a state intergovernmental task force that evaluated offshore wind power for the state of California was established, and its members included the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Morro Bay mayor and a City Council member, and regional state representatives. However, the fishing industry was largely left out.

At the time, the community engaged with the task force through public hearings to learn about the project’s blueprints—although its potential impacts weren’t shared. The project was halted in 2018 because the then-designated area conflicted with naval operations.

Public conversations about offshore wind regained steam in 2021 for two reasons. U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) led an effort to work with the U.S. Department of Defense to reduce the project development area to 399 square miles—enough to produce 3 gigawatts of energy. Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization President Tom Hafer said he believes there’s also a renewed interest in this type of energy generating project because of the new presidential administration.

Castle Wind has engaged with organizations and leaders within the fishing community, but there’s no guarantee that it will be the project developer. Annie Hawkins, executive director for the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), said that proactive engagement is needed from all agencies involved.

RODA was established and worked on the East Coast because there were concerns about the exclusion of fishing voices during offshore wind project discussions. Their first project was Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island, which is a five-turbine wind farm.

Read the full story at The New Times

NOAA grants $155,000 to examine floating offshore wind and fishing

July 16, 2021 — The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance has another grant from the federal government to bring experts together on how the big push for developing offshore wind power will affect U.S. fisheries.

The latest $155,000 award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will fund a second “Synthesis of the Science” symposium, this time on how floating offshore wind turbine may interact with fisheries.

It follows on a $150,000 grant the agency awarded to RODA – a coalition of commercial fishing groups and communities – in 2020 to conduct a first-of-its-kind symposium on the current science regarding fisheries and offshore wind interactions.

RODA says the next session will focus specifically on floating wind turbines – now foreseen as the offshore wind industry’s future frontier for waters beyond the shallow outer continental shelf.

Maine state energy planners see huge potential power coming from the windswept Gulf of Maine, and propose a test area for floating turbines anchored in deep water. Maine has started planning to apply for a lease from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for that project.

Meanwhile BOEM is working closely with the administration of California Gov. Gavin Newsom to plan floating turbine arrays off the West Coast.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Landmark bid would expand Ocean City offshore wind energy

July 15, 2021 — Ørsted, a Denmark-based company, has announced its plans to expand the Delmarva Peninsula’s wind energy operations in a bid submitted July 7 to the Maryland Public Service Commission.

The Skipjack Wind 2 site is slated to produce 760 megawatts of energy, which could power 250,000 homes in the region. The project would add to an already robust wind energy portfolio for the company that is already the largest in the nation.

 “Ørsted is privileged to already be a long-term partner to the state of Maryland as it works to meet its offshore wind goals,” David Hardy, CEO of Ørsted Offshore North America, said in a released statement.

According to a company spokesperson, the next step in the process is holding meetings with community stakeholders in both Maryland and Delaware to discuss the timeline and details of the project.

Read the full story at Delaware Online

Maine tightens up proposed offshore wind farm area, but fishermen still don’t like it

July 15, 2021 — Maine fishermen said they appreciate the effort by the Department of Marine Resources to get their input on the site for a proposed offshore wind-turbine array.

After collecting input over the past few months about fishing activity, marine wildlife and navigation in a 770-square-mile “area of interest” off the southern Maine coast, the Governor’s Energy Office on Monday announced a “narrowed area of interest” of 16 square miles.

But industry representatives said they’re still concerned about potential impact on fisheries.

“I’m concerned with this narrowed focus on an already heavily fished area,” Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, said during a virtual work session held yesterday by the Governor’s Energy Office on the latest proposal.

Carl Wilson, director of the Department of Marine Resources’ Bureau of Marine Science, who has spearheaded the effort to gather fishermen’s input, said he agreed that not all of the fishing data is in on fisheries such as lobster and groundfish.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Over 200 Offshore Wind Turbines Approved on the New Jersey Coast

July 15, 2021 — New Jersey paved the way for hundreds of wind turbines off the state’s coast in the coming years with 2,658 MW of offshore wind approval on Wednesday.

Two wind projects have been approved, providing enough electricity for 1.1 million households, officials said.

The approval will be added to the 1,100 MW already approved by the Public Utility Commission of New Jersey, which announced the approval of the new project at a special meeting. New Jersey currently approves more offshore wind than any other state.

The two projects are a 110-turbine wind farm by Atlantic Shores owned by European utilities Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America, and an 82-turbine wind farm by Ørsted called Ocean Wind 2.

The Atlantic Shores farm is about 10.5 miles from the coast of the coastal town north of Atlantic City. Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 2 is about 14 miles from Cape May.

However, a huge amount of power still needs to pass federal permits and overcome potential hurdles such as fishing and proceedings from coastal areas. Neither offshore wind farm is scheduled to begin construction by mid-2023 at the earliest, and the two latest projects are not expected to be online by 2027 at the earliest.

Read the full story at Pennsylvania News Today

Site in New England identified for nation’s 1st floating offshore wind research area

July 14, 2021 — Maine officials have identified a preferred site for an offshore wind farm that would be the nation’s first floating offshore wind research area.

The administration of Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is working with the University of Maine and New England Aqua Ventus on the planned research array. Administration officials have said the project will contain up to 12 turbines.

The Mills administration released the specifications of its preferred site for the project on Monday. The site is a 16-square-mile area in the Gulf of Maine located about 30 miles off the Maine coast.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at MassLive

Maine compromise prohibits new offshore wind development in state waters

July 13, 2021 — Maine Gov. Janet Mills on July 7 signed into law a new measure that prohibits new offshore wind projects in state waters, in a compromise aimed at protecting Maine’s commercial lobster and recreational fisheries, while potentially allowing future wind power development in federal waters farther offshore.

Mills in June had signed a bill to plan for what would be the first U.S. research area for floating offshore wind in Gulf of Maine federal waters. But the state’s politically and culturally influential fishing industry has been deeply opposed to allowing any wind turbines off Maine, since Mills in November 2020 announced state government’s intention to seek a federal lease for 16 square miles for an array of up to a dozen floating turbines.

The ensuing debate led in June to a compromise in the Maine Legislature, where Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, a Winter Harbor lobsterman, introduced a measure that would ban wind development in state waters and prohibit issuing state permits for cables and other supporting infrastructure to connect projects in federal waters to Maine.

Lawmakers were also considering a bill setting up Mills’ proposal to impose a 10-year ban in state waters but allow the Aqua Ventus demonstration project near Monhegan to proceed with other research projects and issue permits for federal waters projects.

Final amendments reached a bipartisan compromise that sets up a new Offshore Wind Research Consortium that includes representation from Maine fishermen.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Maine narrows location for proposed offshore wind turbines

July 13, 2021 — After reviewing potential impact to fisheries, marine wildlife and navigation within 770 square miles of ocean off southern Maine, the Governor’s Energy Office is now focusing on a 16-square-mile area to site up to 12 floating wind-power turbines.

The preferred site for the research array is an L-shaped swath of the Gulf of Maine, about 25 miles south of Muscongus Bay, according to a report issued Monday.

The office is inviting comments on the site through July 30 to inform its final siting decision, which will be included in a federal lease application to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior that’s responsible for managing development in some offshore waters.

The application will be the first step in a subsequent multiyear permitting process by the bureau, which includes further impact studies and opportunities for public input, according to a news release.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Empire Wind plans power delivery to New York in 2025

July 13, 2021 — Electricity from the Equinor and BP Empire Wind project should start coming into New York’s power grid in 2025, according to updated plans the joint venture has filed with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The first offshore wind energy project laid out for the New York Bight is a 79,350-acre tract, shaped like a slice of pizza wedged between two of the ship traffic separation lanes in the New York Harbor approaches.

With the enormous volume of vessel traffic in the region – container vessels at the port of New York and New Jersey, coastwise tug and barge tows, plus commercial and recreational fishing fleets – navigation has been the foremost issue since New York state energy planners first began looking to ocean wind as a power source.

“There is certainly a concern about setback” from the shipping traffic lanes, said Lucas Feinberg, a project manager with BOEM, during a July 8 online virtual public scoping session hosted by the agency.

Early on, planners agreed to a 1-nautical mile setback along the Empire Wind frontage along the shipping lanes. Formally known on charts as traffic separation schemes, the lanes fan out from the New York Harbor entrance at Ambrose Light.

Read the full story at National Fisherman