Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen's Organization Archives

‘We cannot fish in a wind farm’: Local fishermen file lawsuit over offshore wind project

March 11, 2024 — Many people in Morro Bay have mixed feelings about a planned offshore wind project. Now, a lawsuit has been filed.

The Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization and the Port San Luis Commercial Fisherman’s Association claim some rules and regulations related to the project have not been followed.

The Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization was incorporated in 1972 and has around 100 members.

“We’ve been here for a while and we’ve got an incredibly good reputation in all of those years, and we are very proud of it,” said Jeremiah O’Brien, Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization Vice President.

Read the full article at KSBY

CALIFORNIA: Local fishing voices are left out of offshore wind discussions

July 16, 2021 — The waters off the shore of Morro Bay have been the focal point of a potential wind farm development site since 2015.

Between 2015 and 2017, a state intergovernmental task force that evaluated offshore wind power for the state of California was established, and its members included the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Morro Bay mayor and a City Council member, and regional state representatives. However, the fishing industry was largely left out.

At the time, the community engaged with the task force through public hearings to learn about the project’s blueprints—although its potential impacts weren’t shared. The project was halted in 2018 because the then-designated area conflicted with naval operations.

Public conversations about offshore wind regained steam in 2021 for two reasons. U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) led an effort to work with the U.S. Department of Defense to reduce the project development area to 399 square miles—enough to produce 3 gigawatts of energy. Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization President Tom Hafer said he believes there’s also a renewed interest in this type of energy generating project because of the new presidential administration.

Castle Wind has engaged with organizations and leaders within the fishing community, but there’s no guarantee that it will be the project developer. Annie Hawkins, executive director for the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), said that proactive engagement is needed from all agencies involved.

RODA was established and worked on the East Coast because there were concerns about the exclusion of fishing voices during offshore wind project discussions. Their first project was Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island, which is a five-turbine wind farm.

Read the full story at The New Times

The White House is backing plans to open up the California coast to wind farms.

May 26, 2021 — The following is an excerpt from an article published in the New York Times:

The notion of wind farms churning in the Pacific Ocean, creating clean energy to power homes and businesses, has long been dismissed because of logistical challenges posed by a deep ocean floor and opposition from the military, which prefers no obstacles for its Navy ships.

But evolving technology and a president determined to rapidly expand wind energy have dramatically shifted the prospects for wind farms in the Pacific. On Tuesday, the Navy abandoned its opposition and joined the Interior Department to give its blessing to two areas off the California coast that the government said can be developed for wind turbines.

The plan allows commercial offshore wind farms in a 399-square-mile area in Morro Bay along central California, and another area off the coast of Humboldt in Northern California.

The announcement came weeks after the Biden administration approved the nation’s first ever commercial-scale offshore wind farm, to be built off the coast of Massachusetts. About a dozen other offshore wind projects along the East Coast are now under federal review.

The administration estimates that wind turbines in Morro Bay and near Humboldt could together eventually generate enough electricity to power 1.6 million homes.

If those numbers are realized, it could make the California coast one of the largest generators of wind power in the world. The new coastal Massachusetts wind farm is expected to have up to 84 giant wind turbines. By comparison, Mr. Newsom estimated that the California sites could hold more than 300 turbines.

But groups representing the fishing industry are outraged, saying that the administration has sped forward with a plan that is larger and more potentially disruptive to marine life than they had anticipated.

“We’re totally against this,” said Tom Hafer, president of the Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization. “We’ve been consulting with the Castle Wind people for a long time, and we helped pick the spot and developed a memorandum of understanding on an area that we thought would be sustainable for us. That was about 120 square miles. This is 399 square miles. We’re going to lose a whole bunch of fishing grounds. There will be cables in the water. We don’t know how the whales will react. There are a lot of unknowns. People don’t realize how massive this project will be.”

Read the full story here

In response, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association (PCFFA) released the following statement:

Earlier today, the federal government and State of California announced, “an effort to advance areas for offshore wind off the northern and central coasts of California – opening up the Pacific Coast to its first commercial scale offshore clean energy projects.” In its Fact Sheet, the White House indicated its intent to change the size and shape of the Morro Bay Call Area; and to advance “the Humboldt Call Area as a potential Wind Energy Area.” Governor Newsom’s press statement pays homage to his California Comeback Plan which includes a proposed $20 million in funding to support California’s offshore wind capacity. Unfortunately, none of this funding will be used to support fisheries research or impacts mitigation.

Also today, BOEM announced it will hold “a virtual California Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force meeting open to the public to listen and attend on June 24, 2021 to discuss both central and northern California offshore wind planning areas considered for future leasing and next steps in the BOEM leasing process moving forward.” Unfortunately for many in the fishing community, that is when the June Pacific Fishery Management Council begins. It is inexcusable that BOEM, who has claimed to engage closely with the Council, would schedule a Task Force meeting during the Council’s meeting. The fishing community will now have to choose between attending the Council meeting and participating in discussions fostering our sustainable fisheries or attending a meeting where they will be told that dire consequences are possible for the fisheries the Council manages.

“The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) remains concerned about rushing unproven technology, with unknown impacts to our ocean ecosystem, in locations which were not identified with any meaningful input by the fishing industry. Floating wind turbines have not been deployed in the scale being considered off the California coast. Far too many questions remain unanswered regarding potential impacts to marine life which is dependent on a healthy ecosystem” said Mike Conroy, PCFFA’s Executive Director. “For example, potential impacts to upwelling, potential impacts of noise generated by construction and operation of an industrial offshore wind farm, and impacts of electromagnetic fields on pacific coast salmon stocks, other important commercial and recreational fish stocks, marine mammals and sea birds are all still unanswered.”

“The fishing industry has been told these areas work best for offshore wind developers; but no one has asked us what areas would work best for us” added Mike Conroy. “There has been no effort to engage with or partner with fishermen, no planning process to evaluate fisheries data and spatial needs to inform this development, nor is there a clear process for how to do that through permitting now that we have missed the opportunity to plan effectively. The areas announced today are large areas; and with additional Call Areas likely to be identified off California and Oregon later this year, a comprehensive, upfront, cumulative effects analysis should be required.”

We do want to offer our sincere thanks and appreciation to California State Senator McGuire for the comments he made today during the Senate Budget Subcommittee #2 hearing when addressing the $700,000 earmarked for outreach “to ports, Tribes, labor, coastal communities and more” he noted the commercial fishing industry is missing. “We need to look at what potential impacts there will be for commercial fishermen with offshore wind.” He went on to say, “we need to make sure that the commercial fishing fleet have a seat at the table.” We thank Senator McGuire for his continued support of the commercial fishing industry and look forward to discussions with him and his staff regarding Senate Bill 413.

Read the full release here

Fishing leaders: Has the Monterey Bay sanctuary kept its promise?

December 22, 2017 — The answer is no, not to fishermen; please let us explain.

Reflect back to 1992 when the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was proposed. While fishermen and most others agreed that it could help prevent offshore oil development, we had concerns about how sanctuary authority might affect those of us who provide food from ocean resources.

There was also public discussion about how stakeholders would have a say in the new federal bureaucracy. Commercial fishermen and recreational anglers had killed two earlier sanctuary proposals over these concerns.

In response, fishermen heard that the new sanctuary would not threaten our livelihoods or create fishing regulations. It was a broad assurance, and repeated often by both elected and NOAA officials. Based on this, fishing leaders weren’t neutral, they supported it, even traveling to Washington, D.C.

This promise was never a free-pass from fishing regulations. Rather, it acknowledged that fishery laws, such as the Magnuson-Stevens Act, already provided science-based management. Under that law, overfishing has ended on the West Coast, and several thousands of square miles of quality habitat are protected. It also acknowledged that sanctuaries are not intended to manage fisheries.

The promise is written into the sanctuary’s designation document. If any problem arose, the sanctuary would work with us for a solution.

Read the full editorial at the Santa Cruz Sentinel

Marine Sanctuaries Program is Bad for Fishermen, California Fishing Captain Tells Senate Subcommittee

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — July 10, 2017 — Marine sanctuaries are hurting commercial and recreational fishermen and overruling the fisheries management process created under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, said Capt. Jeremiah O’Brien, vice president of the Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization, at a Senate hearing June 27.

Speaking before the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard at a hearing convened by chairman Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Mr. O’Brien criticized marine sanctuaries for their “weak science capabilities” and “poor, self-serving public process.” He said that policymakers are interpreting the National Marine Sanctuaries Act in a way that steadily limits human uses of marine resources, violating the principles of ecosystem-based management and the law’s mandate for comprehensive and coordinated management.

“For fishermen and fishery managers, the fact that sanctuaries can overrule the Regional Fishery Management Councils, with eight National Standards serving as the council’s guide, is disconcerting, and not in the best interest of ocean health,” Mr. O’Brien said. “I hope Congress will make it clear that the Magnuson-Stevens Act is the nation’s law for fisheries and habitat management.”

Read the full testimony here