Researchers from UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology plan to study how the commercial fishing and wind energy industries coexist off the coast of Massachusetts. The goal is to address one of the major uncertainties in trying to manage offshore fisheries and offshore wind – how to safely fish near a windfarm.
The project will track the behavior and position of fishing vessels and their gear in areas near offshore wind farms. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) is funding the research with a $419,000 grant.
“This funding gives us an opportunity to work with the New Bedford Port Authority and with fishermen in the region to conduct field trials on fishing in and around wind farms — quantifying the distance and the risks of fishing in wind farms in different conditions, different wind conditions, sea conditions and tide conditions,” said Steven Cadrin, a UMass Dartmouth professor working on the study. “What we'd like to do primarily is to minimize the impacts of offshore wind farms on fisheries, and doing that by siting them in the right locations and designing them in ways that don't impact the fish stocks or the fisheries.”
The state of Massachusetts has invested more than $390 million in the offshore wind industry, including roughly $150 million to build the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, the country's first offshore wind staging port.
Cadrin explained that this study could help the energy companies compensate the seafood industry for any lost fishing opportunities.
“There is always inevitably going to be some impact,” Cardin said. “There's going to be some loss of fishing grounds to fishermen, and that's going to have some economic impacts to them.”
The New Bedford Port Authority is organizing meetings with local fishermen that will design the field trials. Cardrin said he expects to launch the meetings this winter.
