September 17, 2024
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management published final lease areas and sale notice for Gulf of Maine offshore wind leases in the federal register this morning. New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association CEO Jerry Leeman issued the following statement:
The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) remains steadfast in its opposition to the industrialization of our oceans, despite the shrinking of the original proposed lease area.
The final eight lease areas encompass a total of 827,886 acres in the Gulf of Maine and pose an existential threat to all marine species, habitat, and to the livelihoods of current and future generations of sustainable fishermen upon whom their communities rely on for survival.
The six lease areas in the southern Gulf of Maine comprise a Great Wall of Windmills that threaten mariners and the marine environment.
Few of our members will transit through the southern lease sites once they are industrialized. Wind farms interfere with marine radar for reasons we do not yet understand. The prospect of radar failure over a huge swath of ocean strongly discourages fishermen from approaching these sites or points east of them.
In addition, our members are gravely concerned that they will not be able to safely navigate through or between the southern lease areas during inclement weather.
With access to George’s Bank and the eastern Gulf of Maine effectively blocked, we anticipate fishermen will concentrate in the Gulf’s western portions. This puts needless stress of the fish stocks closer to shore. That is especially troubling because near-shore fisheries act as nurseries for many different species.
These lease areas are a worst-case outcome for fishermen.
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