November 1, 2024 — Nantucket’s commercial scalloping season opened Friday morning with roughly 20 boats returning to the water as temperatures hovered in the 60s.
Most of the island’s fleet was in town, concentrating on Nantucket Harbor but a few boats were in Madaket Harbor.
The wholesale price paid to fishermen opened at $12 per pound – down from last year’s opening day price – while the retail price settled around $22 to $26 per pound at island fish markets.
October 31, 2024 — Two companies have won development rights to construct floating offshore wind turbines off Maine’s coastline, but lackluster interest in the bids highlights the impact of inflation and other economic challenges that have slowed the industry.
On Tuesday, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced that the federal government’s “first-ever” wind energy lease sale resulted in nearly $22 million in lease payments for four parcels off the coast of Maine and Massachusetts.
Connecticut-based Avangrid Renewables submitted winning bids of $4.9 million and $6.2 million for two parcels about 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. In comparison, Invenergy NE Offshore Wind won a $4.9 million bid to develop wind energy more than 46 miles off Maine’s coastline and another project off Cape Cod for $5.8 million. Combined, the companies leased nearly 440,000 acres of federal waters.
However, only half of the areas offered for lease by the federal agency were bid on, far less than offshore wind leases in previous rounds. In 2022, developers bid $4.37 billion on six lease parcels off the coast of New York and another $757 million on areas off California’s shores, according to agency data.
October 30, 2024 — A U.S. auction of offshore wind development rights in the Gulf of Maine on Tuesday drew bids for only half of the eight offered leases, for a total of just $21.9 million in high bids, in the latest sign of deep industry malaise.
The sale was a stark display of the lack of industry appetite for new investment after a year of high-profile setbacks that include canceled projects, two shelved lease sales in Oregon and the Gulf of Mexico and a construction accident at the nation’s first major offshore wind project.
It also demonstrated a reluctance to bet big money on projects that will require floating wind turbines, an emerging technology required in very deep waters like those of the Gulf of Maine.
After just one round of bidding, four of eight offered leases sold to developers Avangrid (AGR.N), opens new tab and Invenergy, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said. They were among 14 companies that had been qualified to bid at the sale.
October 30, 2024 — There’s a chill in the air on this overcast morning in late September, as Buzz Scott steers his boat, the “Hurry Sundown,” out of a Rockland marina and toward the granite breakwater that protects the harbor.
He points to small specks displayed on the vessel’s navigation system. They’re abandoned fishing traps sitting on the ocean floor. Scientists estimate there are millions of them littering the bottom of the Gulf of Maine.
The plastic-coated wire traps are torn loose from their buoy lines in storms or accidentally cut off by propellers in high-traffic areas and collect at the bottom of Maine’s many coves and harbors.
“I think right in here is going to be a gold mine,” Scott said. “There’s one every ten feet it looks like on the sonar.”
Scott’s nonprofit, OceansWide, has been training scuba divers to recover derelict, or “ghost gear,” from the seafloor. They’ve primarily been diving in Boothbay Harbor but are in Rockland for the first time.
Scott tosses a buoy with a small orange flag into the water to mark their dive spot.
October 30, 2024 — NOAA Fisheries has awarded USD 387,404 (EUR 356,478) to two Maine-based groups to help train the next generation of fishers.
“Maine is known around the world for our proud fishing heritage thanks to the generations of hardworking men and women who have sustained it,” Maine’s congressional delegation said in a joint statement. “These investments in youth workforce development will help ensure that young Mainers entering the commercial fishing sector have the skills and support they need to succeed, preserving the strength of this vital industry now and into the future.”
October 29, 2024 — The U.S. Department of the Interior auctioned off the first offshore wind energy leases in the Gulf of Maine on 29 October, despite continued opposition from New England commercial fishers.
The auction included eight areas on the Outer Continental Shelf off the New England coast that winning bidders could develop for wind energy operations. The government claimed that if the leases are developed to their full capacity, the sites could generate 13 gigawatts of energy – enough to power 4.5 million homes.
October 29, 2024 — New Bedford officials are demanding more consideration for fishermen as the offshore wind industry continues to expand.
These concerns are not new but the frustration is starting to grow.
Recently, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management proposed a Central Atlantic 2 Call Area, showing development plans that could potentially impact New Bedford fishermen.
October 29, 2024 — The following was released by the U.S. Department of the Interior:
Today, the Biden-Harris administration completed its sixth offshore wind lease sale by offering areas in the Gulf of Maine – the first commercial sale for floating offshore wind on the Atlantic Coast. The sale, conducted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), resulted in two provisional winners on four lease areas and over $21.9 million in winning bids.
Today’s lease sale is yet another significant milestone in the Biden-Harris administration’s work to meet the President’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind energy by 2035.
“Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, we’ve been committed to achieving our ambitious clean energy goals. With ten approved offshore wind projects capable of powering over 5 million homes, we are well on our way to a clean energy future,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “Today’s successful auction marks yet another critical step in our fight against climate change. Together, we can create good paying jobs, build a domestic supply chain, and ensure that the momentum of this offshore industry continues for generations to come”
Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of the Interior has:
Through today’s sale, Avangrid Renewables, LLC won Lease OCS-564 at $4,928,250, which consists of 98,565 acres and Lease OCS-568 at $6,244,850, which consists of 124,897 acres. Both lease areas are approximately 29.5 nautical miles (nm) from Massachusetts.
Invenergy NE Offshore Wind, LLC won Lease OCS-562 at $4,892,700, which consists of 97,854 acres and is approximately 46.2 nm from Maine and Lease OCS-567 at $5,889,000 which consists of 117,780 acres is approximately 21.6 nautical miles (nm) from Massachusetts.
Together, the leased areas have the potential to power more than 2.3 million homes with clean energy.
“To ensure we got the process of bringing offshore wind to the Gulf of Maine right, we’ve engaged in over a hundred outreach efforts with local communities and connected with thousands of partners and stakeholders,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “Collaboration with partners and stakeholders is key to making progress. By working closely with states, Tribes, ocean users, and industry leaders, we are building a sustainable new industry that will meet our nation’s current and future energy needs.”
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is growing the American economy from the middle out and bottom up – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to driving nearly a trillion dollars in new private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States, to creating good-paying jobs and building a clean energy economy that will combat the climate crisis and make our communities more resilient. The Biden-Harris administration is harnessing these historic investments and using tools from across federal agencies to support the growing American offshore wind industry, leading to the approval and construction of the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind projects, which has created new jobs in factories and shipyards across the country. Today’s lease sale will support development of floating offshore wind in deep water sites, and the Administration is working through the interagency Floating Offshore Wind Shot to position the United States as a leader on these new technologies.
Today’s sale resulted in over $5.4 million total bidding credits. These bidding credits represent binding commitments by companies to invest over $2.7 million in workforce training and domestic supply chain development, and an additional $2.7 million for fisheries compensatory mitigation.
In addition, lease stipulations require that the lessees make every reasonable effort to enter into a project labor agreement covering the construction stage of any project for the lease areas; develop communication plans for engagement with Tribes, agencies, and fisheries; and provide semi-annual reports on engagement activities with Tribes and communities.
The leases awarded today do not authorize the construction or operation of any offshore wind facilities. Rather, they provide the right to submit a project plan for BOEM’s review. BOEM will develop an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to analyze the specific impacts of any project proposals before making decisions on whether to approve a proposed construction and operations plan. The EIS will be prepared in consultation with Tribes and appropriate government agencies, and informed by input from stakeholders, ocean users, and the public.
BOEM is committed to workforce development and to the establishment of a durable domestic supply chain that can sustain the U.S. offshore wind energy industry. More information about today’s sale, including a map of the lease areas, requirements regarding the bidding credits, and lease stipulations can be found on BOEM’s website.
October 28, 2024 — According to a letter he wrote to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, New Bedford Port Authority Executive Director Gordon Carr has “grave concern” for the scallop fishing industry in the face of a potential new call area to be leased out to offshore wind projects.
The 13,476,805-acre area off of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina — dubbed the “Central Atlantic 2” call area — encompasses a large portion of key scalloping grounds, Carr wrote.
In his Oct. 21 letter, sent on the last day of BOEM’s comment period, Carr wrote that throughout New Bedford’s process of developing “the first large scale offshore wind industrial marshalling port,” the port “has been diligent in providing comments for multiple offshore wind projects underway and proposed for the future.”
October 28, 2024 — Even as it prepares to take down additional defective blades, repair others, and retrieve the remaining debris on the sea floor from the July 13 blade failure, Vineyard Wind is still forging ahead with the construction of its 62-turbine wind farm southwest of Nantucket.
Despite the turmoil and delays, the offshore wind company announced Saturday that the crane vessel Orion would be returning to the area this week to conduct pile driving and installation of the remaining monopile foundations within its lease area.