Due to the planned use of floating offshore structures for wind energy development in the Gulf of Maine, lease areas will become de facto closures to fishing. Technology is evolving to minimize the footprint of the base of an offshore wind platform, but current proposed technologies still have mooring lines and flexible cabling that will make any type of fishing – fixed or mobile gear – incredibly unlikely within a wind energy area (WEA). Offshore wind energy development in the GOM is therefore a topic of extreme concern to the region’s fishermen and fishing-dependent communities.
While fine-scale spatial resolution fishing data used in ocean planning is lacking throughout the country, data demonstating fishing effort in the waters off of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts are exceptionally limited. Because of this, extensive outreach and engagement with the fishing communities of the Gulf of Maine in the planning of potential wind energy areas is paramount.
On April 14, 2020 RODA sent this letter to the Governors of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts with requests for transparency and collaboration with fishermen in the process of offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine.