May 24, 2021 — Vineyard Wind, the company given federal approval this month to build the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind project, could be the harbinger of a new age of wind energy in the U.S. — but some fear it also could irreparably harm Massachusetts fishing and lobstering industries where it will be built.
The 62 wind turbines will be located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and generate enough electricity to power approximately 400,000 homes by the time the project is completed in 2023, Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen said. He also said it also will create about 3,600 jobs — half of them permanent, the other half construction jobs.
But what worries Ed Barrett of Marshfield is what it might do to his livelihood. A commercial fisherman and lobsterman for 43 years, Barrett fears the project and others like it that are still in the planning stage, such as Mayflower Wind 20 miles south of Nantucket, could change the seasonal migration of many fish or even create “dead zones.”