'I can see the industry disappearing': US fishermen sound alarm at plans for offshore wind

[hunter]

Fishermen say their concerns, from safety issues to how offshore wind will alter the ocean environment, aren’t being meaningfully considered by regulators

or the past nine years, Tom Dameron has managed government relations for Surfside Foods, a New Jersey-based shellfish company. If you asked him five years ago what his biggest challenge was at work, the lifelong fisherman would have said negotiating annual harvest quotas for surf and quahog clams.

Today, he’d tell you it is surviving the arrival of the offshore wind industry, which is slated to install hundreds of turbines atop prime fishing grounds over the next decade.

While there isn’t a single wind turbine spinning off the coast of the Garden state yet, plans are under way for new offshore wind developments that hope to power more than a million homes with carbon-free energy over the next several years.

--more--

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/24/offshore-wind-development-new-jersey-us-fishermen-ocean-life

Neither industry, offshore wind power or commercial fishing, makes the world a better place.

I think we should protect the oceans for the creatures who live there.

[DonCoquixote]

1. one question

where would YOU put the windmills? Personally, I say the cities could be a start, as well as the midwest plains.

[Salviati]

8. You want to put them where there is wind.

Offshore wind tends to be stronger and more steady than on land.

[hunter]

10. Nowhere. All they do is further entrench our dependence on natural gas.

Hybrid wind-gas power systems will not save the world.

Typically somewhere around half the power in these systems comes from gas for the simple reason that the wind isn't always blowing when the demand for electricity is great. These calms can last for days or weeks.

If these hybrid wind power systems are adopted world-wide, replacing conventional fossil fuel systems, the world still burns.

Sadly, "better than coal" isn't nearly good enough.

[pwb]

2. Fish gather around structure.

Has been my experience. ?

[Vogon_Glory]

6. Your experience is valid

Observation and acknowledgement is being part and parcel of the reality-based community.

[CrispyQ]

3. I'd think they'd be more worried about over fishing & climate change than a few windmills. -nt

[GPV]

5. Ayuh, you'd think it. Maine is in for hard times.

[Vogon_Glory]

4. I disagree

I think that the threat to marine life from wind turbines is vastly overblown. Artificial reefs and deliberately-sunken ships not only attract divers but provide habitat for near shore fish. I’d trust their observations and photos a lot more than I’d trust the polemics of some deskbound polemicist who hasn’t put on his fins and looked for himself.

Scuba divers in Texas know that even abandoned offshore oil platforms attract fish. This is not to promote drilling, just an observation.

I suspect that this Dameron guy probably is spouting industry propaganda designed to deter obstacles to trawling, a devastating form of commercial fishing.

[pwb]

7. Right

You have to dig for clams usually. This is a hit on clean energy. The oil platforms are no problem????

[Vogon_Glory]

9. Cleaned-up after decommissioning they're

No problem. Active, dirty, and polluting, they are.

Mandating that they all get demolished or towed in after decommissioning is stupid, IMO.

[Finishline42]

12. I agree. It was the Summer of 1975 on a trip to CA

We stopped in New Orleans. We went on a fishing trip into the Gulf on a boat with maybe 30-40 other people. And yes the boat went straight to an old oil rig. Bait the hook, drop it to the bottom and bring it up a bit and hit after hit I caught fish. So many times I got bored. We ate good that night.

There is nothing that an off shore wind farm does to destroy the habitat of fish. It might disturb it initially, but there's nothing it would do over time to pollute the area.

[msongs]

11. simple solution - stop eating fish nt

[NickB79]

13. New Jersey has run an artificial reef program for 40 yr

Sinking decommissioned ships to improve habitat, with great success.

I don't see how the turbines could be worse.