NEW BEDFORD — Frustrated, angry and skeptical fishermen unleashed their criticism Wednesday to a group of state and federal officials who had come to town to talk about wind farms south of Nantucket.
This time, it was the Coast Guard, the Interior Department and the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, not NOAA and not fisheries managers.
But the events of the past year resulted in a fishing industry that doesn't trust federal officials — and is willing to say so face to face.
The map is what bothered them the most. Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Enforcement prepared a map of the region when it issued a "request for interest" for potential wind power developers.
The map contains 3,000 square miles in a polygon shaped like a dog. And despite the fact that its eastern edge contains a large chunk of fertile Georges Bank fishing grounds, this is the first time fishermen had been consulted about it.
But several in the room pointed out that the map is proof that the process started some time ago and people have already made some preliminary decisions.
Read the complete story from The South Coast Today.