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Offshore wind energy may be killing whales, but there’s no question it’s killing American fishermen.
I have been a fishing captain for over 20 years. I live on the island of Maine and sail from New Bedford, Massachusetts. My brother and cousin are Lobstermen.
Fishing is a trade our family has been in for generations. We are proud to practice the art of building a nation. When settlers first settled in New England, they looked to the sea to sustain them. And that is true of our coastal communities, four centuries after him.
But how long? Federal regulators and foreign green energy companies seem determined to keep us out of the water and devastate communities that rely on fishing. If their well-conceived development plan succeeds, biblical calamities will follow for working people across New England.
Biden administrators face blow over building wind farms that threaten marine life: ‘Let in wakeful whales!’
Consider how fishing works. Commercial fishermen run nets into the water column behind their boats to land fish. When foreign green energy companies sink their wind turbines into the seabed, those areas are permanently shut off from our net. We call this an obstruction bottom. You can’t go through the net.
Fishing boat captain Jerry Lehman (Courtesy Jerry)
On the Maine coast alone, about 10 million acres are designated for offshore wind development. As the adjacent Marine Energy Management Authority diagram shows, this is virtually the entirety of Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine.
I have worked in these waters for 20 years. They are highly productive and sustainable. But once it’s full of turbines that reach the bottom of the sea, you’ll never work those areas again.
The rest of the fishermen are forced to stay close to shore, with fierce competition in some bays and estuaries. Those waters are spawning grounds for many species of fish. Restricting the fleet to these regions endangers the same species that regulators claim to protect.
Jerry Lehman’s fishing boat.
I am also concerned about the impact of wind turbines on marine life. Survey from Norway show that HVDC cables running inland from offshore wind farms generate magnetic fields that disrupt the swimming patterns of juvenile fish such as haddock. The magnetic field drives them out of their “seedbeds” and directs them toward water areas without more predators or more abundant food sources.
Dead humpback whale found off New Jersey
Haddock is the main fish species I catch, and a Norwegian study warned that these magnetic fields could have “population-scale effects on haddock in the wild”. It seems like
As far as I know, no fisherman is against alternative energy sources. However, the transition to the environment should not be achieved by massive destruction. Domestic fishing fleet and the communities that depend on it. After all, we are the consumers that wind energy companies claim to serve. We are the citizens our government is trying to protect. But few, if any, of our elected officials stand by us.
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This is an inexplicable dereliction of duty by elected leaders. FLEET KEEP EMPLOYMENT In shipyards, fuel stores, processing centers, and transportation. Our coastal towns make their living by putting their hands on the water, or rely on someone who does. It is like the tree of life that grows out of the sea.
The pressure on fisheries tracks the influx of new residents to my home state of Maine. Maine was the top destination for remote his workers during the pandemic. The state added more than 30,000 new residents to her in July 2020 alone.
Fishing boat captain Jerry Lehman
These new neighbors are supposedly because Maine lives up to its billing as “vacation land.” But as everywhere, new arrivals are replacing those of us who were born here. Fishermen are often separated from our lives and homes.
my business is not going well I can’t afford to fish if the weather permits. I am at sea seven to ten days at a time all year round. This time of year means handling 15-foot swells for hours at a time in freezing temperatures.
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The work is demanding and constant. We often choose between eating and sleeping. Every workplace has its stresses and challenges. in the sea, a really bad day can end fatally. When I woke up, I was lying on the cabin ceiling. In the middle of the night a raging wave overturned our boat.
A natural challenge is enough. Now our own government is also trying to destroy us.
