February 2, 2021 — The multinational partnership that wants to build an offshore wind farm hosted “another feel-good seminar to show that they care,” in the words of fisherman Bob Rush Jr.
A virtual session, it was attended by roughly 90 fishers, many of whom made comments less pointed than Rush’s, but who nonetheless did challenge the partnership to prove its wind farm would not ruin New Jersey’s vital recreational fishing industry.
Fishers expressed concern that summer flounder, black sea bass, bluefin and other species would be driven off — either by electromagnetic fields that result from underground cables, or by “cold pools” stirred up from the blades of 900-foot turbines.
Officially titled, “Second Recreational Fishing Meeting & Listening Session,” (the first happened earlier this month), the meeting was hosted on Thursday by Atlantic Shores, a collaboration between gas giant Shell and Paris-based EDF Renewables. The partnership has gained preliminary state and federal approval for a project that could see offshore construction as early as 2025, with operations slated to begin in 2027.
Running between Barnegat Light and Atlantic City, wind turbines would be as close as 9 to 10 miles from the beach. Up to 3 gigawatts of electricity could be produced, “a tremendous amount of energy for the state,” enough to power 1.5 million homes, Atlantic Shore s development manager Doug Copeland said at the meeting.