Offshore Turbines a “Runaway Train” Heading for Fisheries?
by Laurie Schreiber
Dave Preble, NEFMC, Habitat Committee. “The process itself is moving entirely too slowly, compared with what history is placing on us right now. We have one big gorilla in the room right now that is not adequately recognized, and that is the situation with wind power.” © Photo by Sam Murfitt
MYSTIC, Conn. — A northeast regional planning body, tasked with formulating a plan to better protect the ocean and coast, was urged by regional fishery managers to work faster.
Otherwise, one new user of the ocean – the fast-developing offshore wind energy industry – may slam into the commercial fishing industry like “a runaway freight train,” as one member of the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) put it recently.
At its April meeting, NEFMC heard a presentation from the Northeast Regional Planning Body’s (NRPB) Nick Napoli, regarding NRPB’s planning progress. NRPB was launched in November 2012, in response to a 2010 presidential executive order to establish a national ocean policy. The order called for the formation of nine regional planning bodies; New England was the first region to respond.
According to NRPB’s mission statement, “The ocean and the livelihoods it supports are vital to New England. People in New England greatly value our ocean heritage and are seeking basic needs from the ocean—jobs, food, energy, and recreation, among others—in new and increasingly complex ways. At the same time, environmental changes are affecting the health of the ocean and its creatures. Ocean planning is a way to meet these challenges. Government agencies and stakeholders can work together to anticipate needs, set priorities, and make decisions from a regional perspective.”
According to Napoli, the NRPB (neoceanplanning.org) is overseeing three activities—data gathering and sector engagement, agency coordination, and communications and outreach. NRPB aims to characterize the ecosystem, economy and cultural resources with baseline data and maps, and other information; to support existing restoration and conservation programs; to better coordinate such programs; and to develop a regional ocean science plan.
Between August 2012 and July 2013, NRPB held more than 50 gatherings throughout New England to obtain advice and input for developing maps of commercial fishing activity, and to discuss ocean planning in general. It plans to hold another round of public meetings this September and October, and again in the spring of 2015. The schedule calls for finalizing the plan in the winter of 2016.
It has engaged with stakeholders in maritime commerce, energy, aquaculture, commercial fishing, recreational boating, and environmental organizations, and gathered data and mapping information on marine life distribution and abundance, habitat classification, and the fisheries. This information is being used to develop a statement of the goals of the NRPB.
According to Napoli, additional information is needed on the commercial and recreational fisheries, including those for highly migratory species.
A project to map commercial fisheries in New England began in 2012. Starting with existing data available for certain fisheries, maps were developed and discussed with the fishing industry, scientists, and managers. Work is expected to continue to produce more complete information.
NEFMC members expressed approval of the overall project. But, said one member, “The process (The NRPB information gathering process) itself is moving entirely too slowly, compared with what history is placing on us right now. We have one big gorilla in the room right now that is not adequately recognized, and that is the situation with wind power. We don’t have time to mess around with that one. This is the priority item now. Our response has been too slow.”
According to the Portland-based American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the northeast is one of the fastest-growing regions in the U.S. for wind power, and 2014 will be a turning point for the U.S. offshore wind energy industry.
Nationally, offshore wind projects are in advanced stages of development, and several states have plans for lease auctions; “the U.S. offshore wind energy industry is picking up speed and momentum,” AWEA said. “The United States has a vast offshore wind energy resource and in early 2011, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Energy unveiled a coordinated strategic plan to achieve the deployment of 10 GW of offshore wind power capacity by 2020 and 54 GW by 2030. State and federal processes for developing offshore wind projects in the U.S. are well underway. At the end of 2013, there were 12 offshore wind projects in the proposal stage that have achieved at least one significant milestone. These 12 offshore wind projects in various stages of development span 10 states off the East, West, Great Lakes and Texas coasts. These 12 offshore wind projects represent over 5,000 MW of offshore development with turbine sizes ranging from 3.0 to 6.0 MW, along with a transmission project that could carry up to 7,000 MW.”
NEFMC members said the pace of offshore wind energy is overtaking resource managers before they’ve had a chance to formulate management direction.
“The impact on ocean bottom will be profound,” said one member. Developers of this cost-efficient energy source will not be slowing down anytime soon, he said: “We need to move on this one.”The fishing industry needs to be better informed about, and more involved in developing the baseline data around its activities, he said, so it can participate in policy and management discussions around co-use of the ocean.
He added, “This has happened so fast. The technical breakthroughs have caught everyone flatfooted, particularly us. I’m stunned by how fast this has been. It’s a whole different world than it was even a year ago. Another member agreed: “While this effort of ocean planning is well intended and desirable, it’s probably not at the stage of development, from the legal or policy point of view, that it’s going to have the influence necessary,” particularly with regard to the protection of essential fish habitat.
“It [offshore wind development] is as big as any event that’s going to occur in the next several decades, with respect to essential fish habitat, the council or agency should develop a strategy for how it’s going to represent the interest of essential fish habitat in this decision process,” he said.
The NRPB will hold a public workshop on June 25-26. For more information, visit http://neoceanplanning.org/news/june-2014-natural-resources-workshop-and-rpb-meeting.