Five politicians from Maine – including the governor and both US senators – have written to the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) asking that offshore wind development be limited because of fishing in the Gulf of Maine.
BOEM issued a final ‘call for information and nominations' in the Gulf of Maine in late April. The final call area is 40km2 – reduced by nearly 30% from what had originally been proposed because of conflicts with other users and environmental concerns.
The politicians – led by Governor Janet Mills, and Senators Susan Collins and Angus King – say that wind development should not be permitted in areas off-limits or partially off-limits to fishing, such as a lobster management area, as BOEM is proposing.
They note that the endangered right whale is a primary reason for the limitations on fishing.
“If an area is closed to fishing, how could this still be considered for offshore wind development?” they wrote. “This is inconsistent with the fact that fishermen are required to comply with closures in these areas.”
It comes as North Carolina, on the mid-Atlantic coast, joined nearly a dozen other east coast states in the special initiative for offshore wind’s fisheries mitigation project. Maine is already a member. The wind developer-supported programme aims to provide financial compensation for economic loss from offshore wind development off the Atlantic coast.
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