Massachusetts fishermen say feds are hypocritical in Gulf of Maine wind energy designation

Right whales seem to not be a concern in new plans; The designation of a two-million-acre wind energy area in the Gulf of Maine is receiving a sharp hook from Massachusetts fishermen. 

A move to designate two million acres in the Gulf of Maine as a hub for wind energy is snagging a sharp hook from Massachusetts fishermen who say the development overlooks risks to the North Atlantic right whale.

A handful of Bay State fishermen advocacy groups are teaming with counterparts from across New England in criticizing the Biden administration’s plans to industrialize the area off the coasts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management finalized the designation earlier this month, an action it says looks to support President Biden’s clean energy goals.

The area, which ranges from 23 to 92 miles off the coasts of the three states, has the potential to support generation of 32 gigawatts of clean energy, the bureau said. That amount of energy surpasses “current state goals for offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Maine: 10 GW for Massachusetts and 3 GW for Maine,” BOEM said.

Specifically, industrialization could lead to the deployment of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind energy capacity by 2035, according to the feds.

Local, state and federal officials over the years have mandated fishermen to follow a growing number of protocols to preserve the endangered right whales — in some cases, barring them from taking to certain waters.

Fishermen, however, say the industrialization of the two-million-acre area is “flatly inconsistent with a policy of endangered species protection.”

“Fishermen are disheartened that the WEA designation favors foreign energy developers over marine mammal protection,” the Gulf of Maine Fishing Associations said in a statement last week. “This preferential treatment is in stark contrast to the federal government’s aggressive campaign to burden commercial fishing needlessly with crushing restrictions to protect whales.”

The Bay State group’s part of the coalition include the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance; Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association; Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership; Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association; and Massachusetts Seafood Collaborative.

Initially, the feds looked to industrialize a much larger zone in the Gulf of Maine, but feedback from local residents, fishermen and other stakeholders led to a 80% reduction in the final designation for possible leasing.

“The resulting (wind energy area) avoids important areas for lobster fishing, North Atlantic right whale habitat, and other important fishing areas and habitats,” the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management stated in a release.

Katie Sinding Daly, senior vice president of law and policy at the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, said she believes the feds “did a thorough job of listening to concerns about protecting marine life.”

“CLF will continue to work with BOEM to ensure all possible protections for vulnerable marine wildlife and important habitats are built into the process as it moves toward leasing and construction of these floating turbines,” Daly said in a statement.

The designation continues a years-long effort by environmentalists to make offshore wind turbines a major source of power, with initial efforts in Massachusetts focused on areas south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. The newly designated zone lies to the east of the state.

Fishermen acknowledged the improvements in the final designation but concerns remain around whether the offshore wind development will directly imperil “commercial fishing, sensitive habitats, and maritime communities that depend on the fishing industry.”

The designation came a day after a federal judge ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service was not in the right when it added a 200-square-mile wedge between state and federal waters to an existing closure that stretches roughly 9,000 square miles off the Massachusetts coast.

The closure, in effect from February to the end of April, is viewed as a measure to protect right whales.

There are less than 360 right whales left in the ocean, including 70 reproductively active females.

Federal officials and scientific agencies say climate change is the biggest threat to the right whale contrary to a belief from opponents that offshore wind projects are to blame for a spate of whale deaths over the past year-plus on the East Coast.

Many have been struck by ships or become entangled in fishing gear, the leading causes of death, environmentalists say.

A female calf was found dead off of Martha’s Vineyard in late January, with officials reporting a rope was entangled around its tail. Weeks later, a New England Aquarium aerial survey team counted 31 right whales in shipping lanes east of Nantucket.

BOEM and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released final plans in January to protect the endangered species, including a strategy that would use artificial intelligence and passive acoustic monitoring to determine where the whales are at a given time and to monitor the impacts of wind development on the animals.

Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association urged the feds to proceed with caution in developing the Gulf of Maine designation based on how the construction and operation of the wind farms could further threaten the right whale.

“The noise and disruption caused by such developments are not fully understood, but they have the potential to affect the migration, feeding, and breeding patterns of these whales,” she wrote in a letter last November to BOEM. “The uncertainty surrounding these impacts calls for a cautious approach, considering the critical status of the right whale population.”