State and federal authorities must rethink our renewable energy policy in light of a growing body of scientific research that indicates offshore wind farms pose a threat to marine life and ocean ecosystems.
As a fourth-generation lobsterman, I’m proud that New England lobster stocks are robust and sustainable owing to our ethic of conservation and that of our forebears. But my optimism about our future is dimming because foreign green energy companies are on the verge of industrializing our ocean with thousands of wind turbines, sealing fisheries and harming lobster stocks.
I’m also chief operating officer of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, which has just released a summary of scholarly articles that identified gaps in our understanding of wind energy’s implications for the marine environment. Some articles found evidence of dangerous outcomes for marine life and fishing communities that depend on a healthy ocean. State leaders must ensure that the science is fully developed, and the interests of coastal communities are well accounted for before development proceeds.
The state of Maine is developing a floating offshore wind research array at a 15-square-mile site in the Gulf of Maine. The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association and its allies are asking authorities to delay any further development until experts have monitored and studied the research array. We should rescind the existing Gulf of Maine Call Area and conduct an environmental review for the Gulf of Maine before authorizing any commercial wind energy areas.
Some published research is extremely alarming to lobstermen, particularly.
For example, a 2022 study in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering examined lobster larvae exposed to electromagnetic fields. Subsea cables that carry energy inland from offshore platforms generate EMF. The researchers found lobster larvae exposed to EMF throughout their embryonic development had “significantly smaller” overall length, shell height, and eye diameter as compared to a control group.
Apart from these birth defects, larvae exposed to EMF showed diminished vertical swimming ability. That’s a problem because juvenile lobsters need to reach currents and food sources in the uppermost levels of the ocean.
Based on these troubling results, the researchers warned that cable EMFs “could have a measurable impact on early development of two commercially important crustaceans.”
These findings also demonstrate that restricting offshore development to particular areas will not suffice to protect marine life. Wherever wind turbines are situated, EMF-emitting cables will nonetheless run miles and miles back to shore, threatening lobster habitats the entire way.
Other studies show that wind turbines churn up miles-long sediment plumes observable from space and warn EMFs could have “population-scale implications for haddock in the wild.” Needless to say, haddock are an essential seafood product for New England’s fishing fleet.
The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association’s research summary explains these and other findings. The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance has more information still.
I’ve been fishing on my own boat since elementary school. I’ve learned how sensitive the ocean environment is through experience. Foreign green energy companies are barreling toward construction without careful study of the consequences. Their behavior is a contrast with that of lobstermen, who maintain one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world.
We maintain a robust lobster population by following size restrictions and returning egg-bearing females to the water with a small “notch” as a warning to all boats. We deploy traps with weak link devices to head off entanglements. We mark all our gear with specific colors to ensure any marine mammal entanglement is attributable to our fishery.
The economic benefits of lobstering match our environmental contributions. A 2018 Colby College study found that the lobster supply chain generates $1 billion in revenue each year in addition to lobster landings.
The offshore wind industry threatens this economic activity, which is essential for our region. Lobstermen demand more of our elected leaders, whose responsibility is to protect their people. They can start by delaying plans to industrialize the ocean until necessary preconditions are met.
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