As the sun set Sunday night at the Cove, tensions rose at what was another strong showing for opponents to offshore wind farms. About 100 people gathered on a cold, windy evening at the southern-most point of New Jersey to keep the light on the fight against offshore wind companies with a cairn lighting. But one man spoke our after U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, rallied the crowd against windmills, questioning everyone there if they truly believe whales are dying as a result off offshore wind site preparation work. Mark Heany, a city resident since 1995, was met with shouts of disapproval after he interrupted the lineup of speakers. A few people got in his face to argue. Four Cape May police officers, who were there to make sure things stayed peaceful, intervened as Heaney and others argued just inches apart. 9 Photos, >>click to read<< 10:23
Tag Archives: Bonnie Brady
Big Fish Offshore Wind Producers Catch Attention Of Texas Fishermen
There is a fight on the open seas in Texas’ Gulf, not between sailors and pirates but between two of America’s most ambitious offshore wind producers. BlackRock-backed RWE Offshore US Gulf LLC recently asked the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to pressure its competitor, Hecate Energy Gulf Wind LLC, to shell out big bucks to compensate Texas fishermen for potential damage to their fishing areas. “RWE urges BOEM to consider including an option for Hecate Energy –- and any future unsolicited proposals in the Gulf of Mexico — to commit funding for a Fisheries Compensatory Mitigation Fund,” the company recently said during a public comment period on a developing offshore wind project in south Texas. RWE also encouraged BOEM to require Hecate to develop a communication plan with fisheries and tribal governments. Texas’ fishing industry vigorously opposes RWE’s offshore wind projects, such as GOM WEA Option M near the TX-LA border. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 16:14
Fishermen Taking Aim At Offshore Wind Projects Across Texas
Fishermen are taking aim at offshore wind projects across Texas and the United States. On the same day that the Biden Administration pulled the plug on the second lease auction of a major proposed offshore wind project near the LA-TX border, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced that it had been approached by “Hecate Energy Gulf Wind LLC (Hecate Energy) to acquire commercial wind energy lease(s) on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in the Gulf of Mexico.” This potential project would transform thousands of aquatic acres into a wind farm. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 17:04
The fallout from Vineyard Wind’s broken turbine blade
When Nantucket residents began posting photos of the fiberglass and foam littering their beaches on the morning of July 16, everyone in the offshore wind world — proponents and opponents, alike — knew the industry was about to face a very public test in confidence. The debris had fallen from a damaged turbine blade at the nearby Vineyard Wind project. The part, made and installed by GE Vernova, had broken three days earlier, and no one really knew why. The project’s developer, also called Vineyard Wind, scrambled to clean up the mess and assure the public that the material all over their pristine beaches was “non-toxic.” But more and more photos of the bright green debris washed up on social media, many carrying captions like “It’s everywhere” and “STOP #Bigwind!” Soon, a picture of the broken turbine itself surfaced. The 351-foot blade had snapped about 65 feet from the base and what remained of it hung slackly, dangling over the ocean. photos, links, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:48
TX Fishing Industry Under Threat From BlackRock Wind Farm Project
The massive destruction wrought on Massachusetts’ Vineyard Wind project has raised new questions about the safety and prudence of a similar BlackRock-backed project planned off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas near Port Arthur. Bonnie Brady of the Long Island Commercial Fisherman’s Association posted several pictures of broken and mangled offshore wind turbines from a recent storm to her X account on July 20. The images depict turbines with snapped blades hanging from their mounts. They also show large shards of metal and other debris washing ashore. Brady directed her post to every East Coast governor and the major presidential contenders, save for Vice President Kamala Harris, who had not yet announced her presidential candidacy, warning of what could happen to the fishing industry. “Stop the madness while you still can, because when the fiberglass lands on your shores you will (eventually) be out of the job. Ps we will never forget you threw US commercial fishing industries under the bus,” she wrote. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:14
Sunrise Wind on the Horizon
At a May 29 open house addressing the new Sunrise Wind project, consisting of up to 84 turbines to be built 26.5 miles off the coast of Montauk, its corporate parents, Orsted and Eversource, projected the new wind farm will yield 924 megawatts of energy. enough potentially to power hundreds of thousands of houses. The company’s officials said they expect their construction and operations plan to be approved by the federal Department of the Interior by the end of the summer. The proposal is to connect the turbines to the mainland through Smith Point County Park, at the eastern end of Fire Island. From there the cable would run under the Great South Bay and up to the Long Island Power Authority station in Holbrook. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:49
Experts fear American fishing industry, boating at risk as Biden prioritizes climate, green energy
The Biden administration has prioritized green energy at the expense of endangered whales and the U.S. fishing industry with regulation that limits both commercial fishing and recreational boating, according to experts. As they are imposing more regulations, they are also promoting offshore wind, which is actually harming commercial and recreational boating and potentially killing whales, Brady and Lapp said. “They positioned us as being these evildoers and now, 20 years later, whales are dropping dead like pigeons in Manhattan,” Brady said. “Here commercial fishermen and coastal communities are at the front line of fighting to protect the ocean itself, and we have crickets from virtually every NGO.” Video, >>click to read<< 09:09
The ‘very liberal’ doctor, the pro-GOP car dealer and the movement against offshore wind
This story is based on interviews with a dozen people who are organizing efforts to oppose offshore wind projects, as well as scientists and environmentalists. E&E News also reviewed tax documents, regulatory filings and emails obtained under New Jersey’s Freedom of Information Act. The wind opponents are gaining traction. Some Republicans in Congress have called for a moratorium on offshore wind projects. In New Jersey, where the debate has been particularly fierce, more than 40 mayors organized by a D.C. lobbyist called for a wind moratorium, and a recent poll found that more residents support halting wind projects (39 percent) than building them (35 percent). Wind detractors have packed public meetings in Rhode Island, and opponents have filed lawsuits in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey to halt projects. >click to read< 14:49
Letter: Informative wind energy resources out there, by Carol Frazier
I just watched a video on YouTube entitled “Bonnie Brady’s Crash Course in Offshore Wind and the Anti-Fishing Lobby”. I don’t recall any of our local news media (other than Mike Bradley of WGMD 92.7 fm) reporting on any of the information and facts contained therein. That said, I have also been made aware of a new fact regarding offshore wind of which people need to be aware. The wind turbines must be regularly “cooled” which is done by drawing ocean water into electrical substations using “once through” cooling systems – these systems are now prohibited in newer power plants because of the devastating effects on aquatic life. The first planned project off our coast calls for 121 turbines and up to four transfer stations. I would suggest everyone read the article “Offshore Wind Electrical Substations: The Secret, Silent Killers” by Jim Lovgren at Fisherynation.com. >click to read the letter< 08:38
Advocacy Groups Demand Transparent Investigation into Deaths of Six Endangered Whales
Calling the deaths of six endangered whales that have washed up in 33 days on the beaches of New Jersey and New York “alarming and environmentally harmful,” local, state and regional ocean advocacy groups are calling for President Joe Biden to immediately address the unprecedented trend. “The noise from the offshore wind vessel is a potential cause of the recent whale stranding and increased near-shore sightings,” said Bob Stern, president of Save LBI, a nonprofit, non-partisan coalition opposed to the placement of offshore wind farms off Long Beach Island. “The beached whales bear no sign of vessel strike or fishing gear entanglement, leaving natural causes or noise as the potential causes and raising the likelihood that our concerns were well-founded.” >click to read< 16:03
Commercial Fishermen Wary Of Proposed Sanctuary For Hudson Canyon
The Biden Administration has renewed a longstanding proposal,,, Even though most of the Hudson Canyon is about as far from the South Fork as Queens and Brooklyn, commercial and recreational fishermen from East End ports frequent the waters above it, and news of the sanctuary nomination was met with some reflexive concern from commercial fishermen, in particular, who worry that if the designation is made it could lead to them eventually being blocked from fishing in an area critical to their annual harvests. “About 25 percent of what we catch is from there, squid, scup, fluke, a lot of stuff comes out of that area,” said Hank Lackner, one of the owners of Montauk’s largest commercial fishing trawlers, the 94-foot Jason & Danielle. “And for the local fleet, the mid-sized trawlers, that’s the end of their rope — that’s as far as they can go. They don’t have another option.” photos, >click to read< 17:58
New York: Wind farm’s fish monitors irk fishermen
East-End fishermen expressing outrage over a fish-monitoring program funded by a wind-farm conglomerate that may end up leaving more than 40 large concrete blocks on the ocean floor in vital fishing grounds. A research boat was working off the coast near Wainscott Thursday to collect data and install new monitoring devices that are smaller and longer lasting than those installed just over a year ago. However, no plans have been developed to remove the 500-pound anchors for the older devices,,, Fishermen say Orsted has ignored their pleas to leave monitors out of crucial fishing grounds and to remove the 500-pound blocks. >click to read< 11:36
Offshore Wind Farms: As turbines rise, small-scale fishermen have the most to lose
David Aripotch is 65, a weathered man with gray hair, just tall enough to see over the helm. He has been fishing for almost a half-century, but he still gets excited every time the net is lifted from the ocean. It’s all the other things that eat at him. The federal fishing quotas that sometimes make him steam as far south as North Carolina to catch fish he can find off Long Island. The mind-boggling expenses of running a fishing boat: $5,000 a month for insurance, $30,000 for a new net, $60,000 for a paint job. Worst of all are the wind farms. “There’s so many things going against you as a commercial fisherman in the United States,” he said. “And now these wind farms, it’s almost like that’s the final nail in the coffin.” >click to read< (2nd article of 2 parts, >part 1<) 09:20
Fishermen Protest Upcoming Bid for Wind Farms in New York Bight
With the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management preparing to open more lease areas on the Continental Shelf to wind farm developers by the end of the month, the fourth and last meeting between fishermen and BOEM officials took place Aug. 6 in New Bedford, Mass. with fishermen calling for a halt to leasing until more science on potential environmental impacts could be completed. The New York Bight is a triangle in the ocean between Montauk Point at the end of Long Island and Cape May at the southern tip of New Jersey. A total of eight leases will be for sale there. The larger portion of the lease area is located 35 miles off New Jersey and can’t be seen from shore, but it does pose hazards for fishing ships transiting the area and impacts the quahog, surf clam, squid and scallop fisheries. >click to read< 12:02
A push to boost commercial fishing industry, post-Coronavirus on Long Island
With the pandemics, the industry suffered on Long Island as restaurants all but shut down, wiping away an important client base for commercial fishing. As the economy continues to reopen, Suffolk County has launched a survey aimed at developing a real-time snapshot of the Long Island commercial fishing industry, which officials say has been “especially hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to a press release from the county. The survey is available here. The information and data collected through the survey will highlight the needs of local fishermen and will guide and assist agencies in providing the resources necessary to continue to support a viable and sustainable fishing industry. >click to read< 11:48
Long Island Commercial Fishermen oppose Governor Cuomo’s artificial reef expansion plan
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to expand artificial reefs in the waters off Long Island is hitting a wave of opposition from commercial fishermen who say it would rob them of their fishing grounds and income. The state wants to double the size of the reefs.,, Malcolm McClintock, who owns two fishing trawlers, says he has already spent a long time learning where the existing artificial reefs are. He says more would create a larger problem for an industry already under stress. “One more thing piled on top of many other things. Every little bit hurts.” video, >click to read< 12:40
Coronavirus: LI fishermen concerned about restart of onboard monitoring program
Some fishermen in Montauk this week said they plan to refuse to allow the federally mandated observers and monitors to board their boats, given the resurgence of COVID-19 around the country and the uncertainty around potential infection from observers, some of whom are housed in Hampton Bays, once considered a Long Island hot spot for the virus. The federal agency ordering the resumption of monitoring said it has enacted a series of safety protocols to protect fishermen and observers, including requiring that observers quarantine for 14 days before the start of a fishing trip. >click to read< 17:14
Fishermen Finding Windows Of Opportunity, Necessity Opened By Coronavirus
“Guys are getting creative,” said Edward Warner Jr., a commercial bayman from Hampton Bays. “You have some guys going on the internet and selling and going to the green markets in the city more. Different people are trying different things to make few bucks here and there.” Before the epidemic, the majority of fish landed by local boats was simply packed in waxed cardboard boxes, topped with crushed ice and trucked into New York City’s central seafood market in Hunts Point, Brooklyn.,,, In mid-March, when restaurants and thousands of other businesses were ordered to close, and people scrambled to pack into their homes and venture out as little as possible, prices for fish cratered. >click to read< 12:25
Coronavirus: Fishermen See Market Dry Out
Unable to sell a 1,000-pound catch of fluke last week, Capt. Chuck Morici of the dragger Act 1 spent three days filleting the fish at Montauk commercial dock and offering it for free straight from his boat. On Saturday morning, he gave it away from the back of his pickup truck in downtown Montauk, a big handwritten sign announcing, “Free Fish.”,, In addition to the closure of most domestic restaurants, foreign markets such as Spain and Italy, which before the pandemic were historically large buyers of squid landed on the East End, for example, have stopped all imports. As a result, many fish buyers have implored fishermen to stay ashore. >click to read< 15:10
Radar interference ‘hype,’ Furuno sees no issue with offshore wind turbines and marine radar.
Furuno, a global leader in marine radar systems, does not consider offshore wind turbines an interference threat to maritime radar navigation, according to its U.S. and European representatives. Furuno radar domes are a common sight atop Massachusetts motor yachts and commercial fishing vessels.,, Capt. Dave Aripotch, a trawler captain out of Montauk, Long Island, shared a photograph he and his wife, Bonnie Brady, head of Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said shows a marine radar screen taken in the vicinity of the Block Island Wind Farm that allegedly depicts interference or scattering. >click to read< 12:29
Bonnie Brady: A Diversity of Experience
“What you see is what you get,” is how Bonnie Brady, a longtime Montauk resident and EH Fusion Party candidate for East Hampton Town Board, described herself in an interview with Star staff this week. “I’d like to think of myself as a fair, honest person, someone who would work their butt off” for constituents. As executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, Ms. Brady has long been a proponent of that industry’s interests, which in recent years means she is also a vocal opponent of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, which fishermen fear will disrupt or destroy their livelihood. >click to read< 08:56
East Hampton Candidates Debate Future
The candidates fielded questions on issues ranging from offshore wind and energy sustainability to coastal retreat due to climate change,,, On how the proposed South Fork Wind Farm will affect local fishermen, Mr. Gruber said the Danish firm Orsted, which now owns Deepwater Wind, the original company that got leases and power purchase agreements for the project, knows from its experience in Europe the importance of not locating wind farms in fishing grounds. “If there is displacement [of fishermen] it is compensated as a matter of law,” said Mr. Gruber, adding that the proposed wind farm, is on Cox’s Ledge, “one of the most fertile fishing grounds in the northeast.” >click to read< 11:42
Candidates Face Off for East Hampton Town supervisor and town board
The debate, sponsored by the East Hampton Group for Good Government, saw discussion of a familiar range of topics including the proposed offshore wind farm, affordable housing, the board’s plan to relocate the town’s shellfish hatchery from Montauk to a residential area in Springs, the near-constant traffic to and from East Hampton Airport in the summer months, and other environmental and quality-of-life issues. Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said that “the whole point” of the wind farm “is to shave peak,” or offset electricity demand during peak periods, “and improve resiliency. It does neither.” >click to read< 13:47
An Inlet Seafood owner says lease is not a ‘partnership,’ – Orsted Wind Plans Montauk Operations Site
“We are pleased to be locating an operations and maintenance facility in Montauk to service our South Fork Wind Farm and bring additional jobs to the area,” Thomas Brostrom, chief executive officer of Orsted,,, In the same announcement, Bill Grimm, an owner of Inlet Seafood, is quoted saying that the agreement between Inlet Seafood and the developers outlined how fishermen and offshore wind developers “can work at the dock alongside each other.” Yesterday, however, Mr. Grimm denied that he had made that statement, which has been reported elsewhere. >click to read< 16:21
Wind farm developers reach agreement with Montauk dock owners
Developers Orsted and Eversource last week announced the agreement with Inlet Seafood on East Lake Drive in Montauk, an operation that’s partly owned by Dave Aripotch, one of the region’s most active commercial fishermen who has consistently criticized the offshore wind-energy projects as “wind-scams.”,,, “I’m not happy with it, but I’m not going to stop my partners from doing it,” said Aripotch, who is married to Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, who also has opposed offshore wind. >click to read< 20:29
NY spending $2M to study offshore wind impact on waterways, fishing
New York State said Thursday it will spend more than $2 million for five studies to examine ways to reduce offshore wind farms’ impact on marine environments and commercial fishing.,,, Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, offered tepid applause for the state’s decision to award the study grants. “It’s great that we’ve gotten some funding but there’s a ticking time bomb once these turbines hit the water,” Brady said. “The monitoring and research should have started long ago, so we are playing catch-up to try to get data we need to make sure we do no harm.”Said Brady, “Being an environmentalist means you do no harm, but everyone is throwing that out the window”, >click to read< 08:57
European utility sees big opportunity in U.S. offshore wind – One of Europe’s largest utilities intends to become a player in the U.S. offshore wind industry, as it sees the Northeast as the biggest opportunity in the worldwide market. >click to read<
Inside Montauk’s commercial fishing industry
Montauk is not only the biggest commercial fishing hub in New York, it’s one of the largest in the Northeast.,,, Unlike Gurneys’ or the iconic Shagwong Tavern, Montauk’s commercial fishing boats don’t attract investors eager to keep their businesses afloat, and their property (boats, gear and permits) is not easily transferable from one person to another.,,, John Nolan, his wife, Laurie, and their son John Nolan III are owner-operators of the F/V Seacapture,,, >click to read< 07:35
New York’s Prized Sea Scallop Faces Off Against Offshore Wind
Developers pushing to install massive wind turbines in the waters off New York and New Jersey have run into a delicate yet mighty foe: the Atlantic sea scallop.,,, “It’s an insane amount of ocean to occupy, and it will leave a trail of destruction,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. >click to read<14:19
No monument changes planned, but up to Trump
U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said Wednesday he has no plans for additional changes to national monuments,,, Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said its disappointing the administration won’t enact the recommendation to allow commercial fishing at the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts monument off the New England coastline. That would reverse what she considers an unfair designation by President Barack Obama in 2016.,,,”It’s unfortunate that the secretary is unwilling to do anything at this time because these areas are extremely important for the domestic commercial fishing industry,” Brady said. “They are very fertile fishing grounds.”Zinke also recommended allowing commercial fishing at the Pacific Remote Islands National Monument in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii and at the Rose Atoll National Monument in the Pacific Ocean near American Samoa. >click to read<19:11
Its Deadline for Comments Day on South Fork Wind Farm Environmental Report
BOEM, which recently finished its draft environmental review of the South Fork Wind Farm, gave the public a chance to weigh in on the document at three virtual public hearings in mid-February, and is accepting further written public comment through midnight tonight… Meghan Lapp of Seafreeze Ltd. in Narragansett, Rhode Island, “Our vessels will have to fish in the area, which will be impossible if this goes through as planned,” she said, adding that the DEIS “does not contain any cumulative impact analysis” of how the offshore wind industry will affect the fishing industry. Bonnie Brady of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, based in Montauk, agreed with Ms. Lapp, adding,,, >click to read< 12:05
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