RODA maintains that mitigation of fisheries impacts from new offshore development should follow a step-wise approach that follows the principles of avoiding conflicts, minimizing those that are unavoidable, mitigating the impacts from new development, then—and only once those have been adhered to—consider compensation for any residual losses.
More on this topic can be found in the following letters submitted regarding the Vineyard Wind project, which is the only proposed federal-waters project to execute formal mitigation plans to date:
December 18, 2018 letter to Vineyard Wind
February 22, 2019 comments on Vineyard Wind Draft Environmental Impact Statement
July 27, 2020 comments on Vineyard Wind Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
Currently, compensatory mitigation for federal offshore wind energy projects is addressed on a state-by-state basis, most commonly through the Coastal Zone Management Act’s “federal consistency” review process. To our knowledge, the only formalized agreements of this nature are between Vineyard Wind and the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island: