The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries in the US has expressed concern about potential negative impacts that the proposed 800MW Vineyard Wind offshore project could have on New England’s fish industry, marine life and ocean habitats.
The concern was raised in a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as part of the public comment on BOEM’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the project, which would be located off the coast of Massachusetts.
NOAA Fisheries north-east US regional administrator Mike Pentony said in the letter that BOEM’s analysis of the project’s negative impacts did not contain the most accurate and up-to-date data on fishery landings and related revenue for several fish species.
Vineyard Wind chief development officer Erich Stephens told reNEWS: “The BOEM approval process is designed to ensure a robust final environmental impact statement through input from stakeholders with a variety of subject area expertise, which improves the initial draft EIS and makes for an even better project.”
The NOAA letter also criticised BOEM for not sufficiently addressing the potential economic impacts of the project, particularly on the issues fisheries displacement.
It said: “In some cases, if fisherman are displaced from an area they will move somewhere else, which can have direct economic impacts such as increased fuel costs, longer trips, etc, as well as indirect impacts such as increased conflicts with other fisherman.”
The letter added that there is also the possibility that “fish are simply unavailable to the fishery outside the area”.
BOEM’s analysis of potential mitigation measures for the project was also questioned.
“The analysis is solely dependent upon an undefined financial mitigation package, while impacts to the fishing communities go beyond just revenue loss,” the letter said.
Other areas for concern cover pile driving analysis. “The analysis of impacts on pile driving to sea turtles, marine mammals, and fish (including ESA-listed Atlantic sturgeon) and fisheries does not sufficiently address our requirements as written in the DEIS.”
NOAA Fisheries recommended including a summary of the impacts of pile driving noise on marine mammals “based on available literature to reach conclusions on relative impact levels”.
It offered to continue to collaborate with BOEM to address the concerns.
Vineyard Wind is a 50:50 joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables.