Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: Birds are attracted to offshore wind turbines. How Jersey Shore is preparing for risks.

October 28, 2024 — Much of the attention around what towering offshore wind turbines could mean for Jersey Shore animals has focused on whales and certain fish species.

Birds, some believe, have gotten short shrift.

As have bats.

Not that wind developers and environmentalists aren’t looking up to the skies.

During a recent tour of the Long Island South Fork wind farm — a project that could be instructive for what’s planned in New Jersey in the years to come — managers from Ørsted said they monitor for birds and bats.

How? With the Motus Wildlife Tracking System, an international collaborative research network.

The equipment is affixed to one of the projects’ 12 turbine platforms, the company said.
Worries have been shared by advocates about what wind structures, simply by the nature of their size and placement, will mean for birds and bats that travel off the coast. Bats have been shown to collide with turbines. Lighting has also been observed to attract certain birds to the structures, an organizer from the National Audubon Society told NJ Advance Media.

Environmentalists sue New York, New Jersey and Delaware over endangered sturgeon

October 25, 2024 — New York, New Jersey and Delaware were accused in federal lawsuits Thursday of improperly allowing Atlantic sturgeon to be killed by commercial fishing operations even as the prehistoric fish is on the brink of disappearing.

The three parallel lawsuits filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Hudson Riverkeeper accuse the states of violating the Endangered Species Act by not obtaining necessary permits that allow commercial fisheries to catch and kill Atlantic sturgeon while they fish for other species such as striped bass and summer flounder. The environmentalists say the once thriving fish’s recovery is threatened because they are unintentionally caught in commercial nets as “bycatch.”

Atlantic Sturgeon in the Delaware River and Hudson River were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2012.

“The Atlantic sturgeon of our two rivers are at risk from being wiped from the face of this earth within our lifetime,” Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum said during an online news conference.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

NEW JERSEY: Voters don’t think offshore wind should be a ‘major priority’ for N.J., poll finds

October 23, 2024 — New Jersey has ambitious plans to host hundreds of offshore wind turbines in the years and decades to come. One project may be in construction as soon as next year.

But as people prepare to head to the ballot box this November with a bevy of topics to consider, it turns out they don’t think harnessing power from the wind should be high on our To Do list.

Most voters in New Jersey don’t think offshore wind projects should be a “major priority” for the state, according to a Stockton University poll released Tuesday.

Alyssa Maurice, director of research at Stockton’s William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy, told NJ Advance Media that this was an independent poll with no external funding.

Read the full article at NJ.com

Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Clears Final Federal Hurdle

October 10, 2024 — While a local grassroots organization expressed disappointment over the federal government’s approval of the construction and operations plan for two wind farm projects planned off Long Beach Island, the developers and their supporters are elated at reaching the milestone.

“Atlantic Shores is thrilled to receive approval to build our first two projects and deliver sufficient clean power to serve one third of New Jersey households,” said Joris Veldhoven, chief executive officer of Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind. “Securing these critical approvals enables New Jersey’s first offshore wind project to start construction next year and represents meaningful progress in New Jersey achieving 100% clean energy by 2035.”

The company has until roughly the middle of November to pay the first year’s rent of $13,090 for Project 1’s easement and $112,040 for Project 2’s easement. Moving forward, the annual rent for the lease area and the project easement zone will be due on March 1, the lease anniversary, according to BOEM’s letter to company officials.

The leases, unless otherwise renewed, have a 25-year lifespan from the date of the approval of COP, according to the conditions of construction and operations plan approval issued by BOEM. The document also outlines the time frame for notification prior to construction activities on the outer continental shelf, including seabed preparation such as boulder relocation and pre-lay grapnel runs, and export cable installation among other items.

Read the full article at The Sand Paper

NEW JERSEY: ‘He knows we’re here’: Wind power critics protest Murphy to keep cables out of Sea Girt

October 7, 2024 — More than 100 protesters who oppose a plan to connect offshore wind power cables through this beachfront community descended on the area Sunday during a visit by Gov. Phil Murphy, urging him to stop the project and claiming it’s a health hazard.

Murphy was in town attending the New Jersey National Guard’s annual military review at its training center located just blocks from the Sea Girt beach.

Supporters of the group Stop The High-Risk Power Cables, which represents homeowners in Sea Girt, Wall, Manasquan and Howell, chose the event to let Murphy know of their objections.

“It’s a high-rise power cable,” said Kimberly Paterson one of the organizers. “People are upset.”

Read the full article at app.

NEW JERSEY: Community Offshore Wind Donates Fresh Seafood Meals to New Jersey Families in Partnership with Local Fisheries

October 4, 2024 — This fall, Community Offshore Wind is partnering with local fisheries and hunger relief organizations to provide thousands of fresh, locally-sourced seafood meals to families from disadvantaged communities, helping to alleviate food insecurity while supporting New Jersey’s fishing industry.

“We are so thankful for the seafood donation from Community Offshore Wind,” said Jennifer Apostol, Executive Director of Replenish. “It’s a top priority here at Replenish to get nutritious, local, and fresh food to our neighbors in need. The pan-ready porgies and clam chowder were a delicious and protein packed way to do so.”

Approximately one in nine people in New Jersey face food insecurity. To help address this need, Community Offshore Wind donated 4,080 pounds of porgy (scup) and 3,600 cans of clam chowder from seafood processors like Lund’s Fisheries Inc. in Cape May, NJ and other regional suppliers to Replenish Food Bank in East Brunswick, Fulfill in Neptune, Lunch Break and the Vin Gopal Civic Association in Tinton Falls, and Grace Pointe Seventh Day Adventist Church’s Food Pantry in Montclair, NJ.

Read the full article at TAPinto East Brunswick

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey offshore wind farm clears big federal hurdle amid environmental concerns

October 2, 2024 — The federal government gave a key approval Tuesday to an offshore wind farm in New Jersey, even as residents in the town where its power cable would come ashore worry it could go through underground toxic waste that’s still being cleaned up.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved Atlantic Shores’ plan to construct and operate an energy facility, a major milestone in moving the project forward. The project still requires a review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and several state permits, the company said.

The project, consisting of two phases, would be built between Atlantic City and Long Beach Island in southern New Jersey. It would generate 2,800 megawatts from 197 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes.

Read the full article at Associated Press 

Construction approval for NJ Atlantic Shores wind

October 2, 2024 — The first New Jersey offshore wind project moved forward Tuesday with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approving the Atlantic Shores construction and operations plan. With up to 197 turbines and offshore substations, the two-phase project within 8.7 miles of Long Beach Island and Brigantine, N.J., would have a maximum nameplate rating of 2,800 megawatts.

BOEM issued its record of decision on Atlantic Shores in July, setting the stage for approval of the construction and operations plan for the joint venture by Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF-RE Offshore Development, LLC.

“Securing these critical approvals enables New Jersey’s first offshore wind project to start construction next year and represents meaningful progress in New Jersey achieving 100% clean energy by 2035,” said Joris Veldhoven, CEO of Atlantic Shores.

“We are grateful to the Biden-Harris administration, our agency partners at the U.S. Department of the Interior and BOEM, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, and all our federal and state agency partners who helped deliver this moment for Atlantic Shores.”

Atlantic Shores is the target of ferocious opposition from Jersey Shore groups against offshore wind development. The coalition of beachfront property owners, municipal governments and commercial fishermen have focused their legal and public-relations fire on Atlantic Shores since wind developer Ørstedabruptly withdrew from its planned 1,100-megawatt Ocean Wind project in late 2023.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Lawmakers seek pause in offshore wind energy amid whale deaths

September 30, 2024 — House lawmakers are seeking a pause in offshore wind energy projects amid a string of whale deaths along the coasts of Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Maine. [FoxNews]

Last week, a deceased whale beached off Maryland’s coast, the second whale carcass discovered in the area in three weeks. In 2023, 37 humpback whales carcasses were discovered along the East Coast.

While a definite cause of death could not be determined, wind-energy proponents continue to argue the deaths have nothing to do with offshore wind farms.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) hosted a public hearing in August in which experts testified about the danger installing wind turbines poses marine wildlife. Harris called for an end to offshore wind energy in Maryland.

Read the full article at CalCoastNews.com

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey hits pause on an offshore wind farm that can’t find turbine blades

September 26, 2024 — New Jersey hit the pause button Wednesday on an offshore wind energy project that is having a hard time finding someone to manufacture blades for its turbines.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities granted Leading Light Wind a pause on its project through Dec. 20 while its developers seek a source for the crucial components.

The project, from Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRE, would be built 40 miles (65 kilometers) off Long Beach Island and would consist of up to 100 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes.

Leading Light was one of two projects that the state utilities board chose in January. But just three weeks after that approval, one of three major turbine manufacturers, GE Vernova, said it would not announce the kind of turbine Invenergy planned to use in the Leading Light Project, according to the filing with the utilities board.

Read the full article at the Associated Press