Saving Seafood

Dutch fishermen to sail fleet into Amsterdam in wind turbine protest

June 5, 2018 — The Netherlands may be the land of the windmill, but fishermen are planning a major protest on Saturday against the Dutch government’s latest wind turbine construction in the North Sea, with an armada of fishing boats sailing into Amsterdam.

After alighting from at least 15 boats at the back of Amsterdam’s central station, it is understood that hundreds of fishermen will march to the capital’s Damrak canal, where they will upend bags of small fish deemed too small for sale by the EU, and cover them with red dye.

Fishing community leaders say they are being crowded out of their waters and that the towering turbines damage fish stocks and deafen and displace the local porpoise populations.

The Dutch government has announced plans to build three more windfarms off the Noord-Holland coast and north of the Wadden Islands, in addition to five new windfarms already agreed upon, at a cost of €20 billion (£17.5bn).

It is claimed by local fishermen that 25% of Dutch fishing waters will be covered with turbines by 2025 and made out of bounds for larger fishing vessels.

A Dutch energy network is additionally drawing up plans for an island of wind turbines on Dogger bank, a patch of shallow fishing waters 78 miles off the east Yorkshire coast frequented by Dutch, Danish and UK fishermen.

Read the full story at The Guardian

 

Fishermen Fear Damage From Wind Farms Along The Eastern Seaboard

December 4, 2017 — Fishermen are worried about an offshore wind farm proposed 30 miles out in the Atlantic from Montauk, N.Y., the largest fishing port in the state. They say those wind turbines — and many others that have been proposed — will impact the livelihood of fishermen in New York and New England.

Scallop fisherman Chris Scola fishes in an area 14 miles off of Montauk. He and his two-man crew spend 2 ½ hours motoring there, then 10 more dredging the sea floor for scallops before heading back to port.

“We have this little patch that’s sustained by myself and a few other boats out of Montauk, and a couple of guys from Connecticut also fish down here,” Scola says.

Scola — like many fishermen — is concerned about state and federal regulations. But his big concern is the prospect of hundreds, and perhaps even thousands, of giant wind turbines spread out in the New York Bight, an area along the Atlantic Coast that extends from southern New Jersey to Montauk Point. It’s one of the most productive fishing grounds on the Eastern Seaboard.

“To me, building wind farms here, it’s like building them on the cornfields or the soy fields in the Midwest,” he says.

Scola belongs to the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, which is run by Bonnie Brady, the wife of a longtime Montauk fisherman. She’s an outspoken critic of the wind farms.

Read the full story at NPR

 

Offshore Wind Power Will ‘Absolutely Cost Jobs’ Of US Fishermen

May 8, 2017 — The fishing industry is worried the first offshore wind farm to come online in the U.S. will ruin their way of life and kill jobs.

An offshore wind turbine three miles off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island, will kill large numbers of fish and potentially drive hundreds of small coastal enterprises out of business, according to a fishing industry representative. Fishermen fear offshore wind turbines will continue to pop up along Atlantic Coast, eventually make it impossible to be a commercial fisherman.

“This will absolutely cost jobs in the U.S.,” Bonnie Brady, director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “If New York Governor [Andrew] Cuomo’s administration gets what it wants from offshore wind that’s thousands of fishing jobs. It’ll rip the coastal communities apart.”

Deepwater Wind (DW) powered up a nearby island from the Block Island turbines Tuesday. DW says it created 300 local jobs during the wind turbine construction process at Block Island.

Read the full story at The Daily Caller

Fishing and offshore wind can co-exist, leaders say

May 3, 2017 — New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell and about 20 civic, business, and academic representatives spent the first full day of their wind-focused trade visit to England Tuesday in Grimbsy, the largest fishing port in the world in the 1950s — which gives the New Bedford group food for thought.

New Bedford has landed the highest dollar-value catch in the United States for 16 years running. But in Grimsby and England at large, the fishing industry declined sharply in the 20th century following a period known as the “Cod Wars,” when Iceland asserted territorial authority over waters where English vessels were fishing.

Thus, as SouthCoast leaders learn from Grimsby about its success in offshore wind, they also have their minds on fishing, and how the two industries can coexist.

Around 5:45 a.m., some of the New Bedford group left their hotel for the Grimsby Fish Auction. Grimsby still handles about 70 percent of all the fish processed in the United Kingdom, according to Neil Mello, Mitchell’s chief of staff.

Among the auction visitors was John F. Quinn, a former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives who now chairs the New England Fisheries Management Council. Asked if he could see evidence that offshore wind is compatible with the fishing industry, he said, “most certainly.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford-Standard Times

NEW YORK: With new interest in offshore wind, state agency re-calibrates strategy

March 17, 2017 — As a new proposal for an offshore wind project looks likely to trigger a federal auction for development rights, a state agency that was willing to spend big in a previous auction is rethinking its strategy.

German-based PNE has submitted plans for a 400 megawatt offshore wind farm off the coast of Fire Island. The project, submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, would put as many as 50 turbines in the 40,000 acre area.

That’s likely to spark competitive bidding on the area, said Alliance for Clean Energy’s Anne Reynolds, and could move offshore wind along more quickly in New York.

But the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority may not be one of the bidders. The agency said in a statement it “may, but does not expect to” participate in future bidding.

“NYSERDA is executing a strategy to create competition for offtake agreements for areas that meet our standards and provide the best path to cost effectiveness for New York State consumers,” the agency said . “We look forward to working with any successful winning bidder to help us achieve these goals.”

Read the full story at Politico