NEW BEDFORD, MA / ACCESSWIRE / August 31, 2022 / In an Aug. 22 letter to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Amanda Lefton, the New Bedford Port Authority (NBPA) emphasized the Port's continuing commitment to ensuring that offshore wind advances in ways that safeguard the viability of commercial fishing enterprises. The letter addresses BOEM's draft guidelines for Offshore Wind Fisheries Mitigation and supplements comments the NBPA submitted in January.
New Bedford is the nation's most valuable commercial fishing port, home to the nation's first purpose-built offshore wind servicing facility and an emerging epicenter of the fast-developing offshore wind industry, making the NBPA uniquely positioned to address the relationship between the two industries.
The NBPA encourages BOEM to consider increased protections for the commercial fishing industry and cautions that current policies for offshore wind development could "greatly underestimate the shoreside impacts to seafood processors and fleet operations in our ports."
As such, greater and more-binding regulatory language is needed to ensure offshore wind developers show - ideally prior to development - that they are not causing environmental or economic harm to the fishing industry. BOEM "has the clear statutory authority to require certain actions and hold [offshore wind] developers to standards" in accordance with the law.
"BOEM and all those working to develop the offshore wind resource must take into account New Bedford's unique role as the epicenter of commercial fishing from the Gulf of Maine to the Carolinas," Mayor Jon Mitchell said.
Port of New Bedford. Credit: Spectrum Marketing Group
BOEM guidance should make clear that mitigating impacts on fisheries is an ongoing effort subject to regular monitoring. BOEM often has relied on offshore wind developers' statements and studies about the industry's potential impacts, rather than implementing firm requirements.
"The fishing industry deserves a complete understanding and sound science of the impacts on habitats, safety and navigation, and the social and economic impacts to fisheries and the ports they rely on," the NBPA states in its comments to BOEM.
A commitment to properly and extensively funding surveys before, during and after construction - in collaboration with academia, scientists and industry - would go a long way in gaining trust from fishermen, according to the NBPA's comments. Major long-term research should be funded by offshore wind developers, based on the fishing industry's research priorities.
Additionally, BOEM must put more emphasis on community investment and make such investment part of mitigation frameworks, the NBPA writes.
New Bedford has been the most economically valuable fishing port in the country for 21 straight years, worth $451 million in ex-vessel landings in 2019. According to a recent study, the Port generates more than $11 billion in annual economic activity and supports more than 6,700 jobs.
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SOURCE: Port of New Bedford
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