Tag Archives: New London
Mystic Aquarium (the Whale People) expands offshore wind exhibit with youth in mind
In light of New London’s growing offshore wind industry, the Mystic Aquarium expanded its Renewable Ocean Energy Exhibit to educate the region on protective ocean wildlife methods this week. The expansion is in collaboration with Ørsted and Eversource, two developers of Connecticut’s first large-scale offshore wind farm. The offshore wind projects are expected to power up to 70,000 homes on Long Island when completed. The two companies gave the aquarium two grants totaling $1.25 million to study the effects of wind turbines on marine mammals and sea turtles. more, >>click to read<< 12:21
New London: Does Orsted/Eversource charter of NL fishing boats violate city lease?
Many fishermen resent the interference in the waters they regularly use and suggest still-unknown harm will be done to undersea environments and marine life. But I didn’t realize until recently that wind partners Orsted and Eversource actually have a fishing fleet strategy, chartering some fishing boats to “scout” for their wind turbine work in offshore fishing waters. One fisherman I met recently, Rob Morsch, claims the big utilities are driving a wedge between fishermen by “buying off” some of them with thousands of dollars in daily charter fees. Morsch raises the interesting point that the mooring of the boats being used for offshore wind, he calls them “windmill boats”, is a violation of the city’s intent, with its low-cost rent, to have a fishing fleet based there. >click to read< 08:10
Lobster prices on the rise
If you want lobster for dinner tonight, you’re going to pay dearly for it. The prices for lobster are right through the roof. “A year and a half ago fuel was about $1.60 a gallon. Now we’re paying almost 5 dollars.” Mike Theiler’s been lobster fishing these waters for 33 years. “No matter what we do with our fish and lobsters its predicated-on Diesel fuel,” Theiler said. A lobster fisherman’s daily cost includes fuel at 20 gallons per hour or $100 an hour, then add the cost of bait for the pots, and crew. Video, >click to read< 10:05
Connecticut Port Authority obtains final permit for State Pier work
Offshore wind partners Ørsted and Eversource have partnered with the state to fund the $235 million overhaul of State Pier as a staging area for several planned offshore wind farms along the East Coast. Ørsted has said the project is projected to produce 460 construction jobs and 100 offshore wind-related jobs and provide a boost to the local economy. Critics of the project have said that most of the jobs are temporary and the lease of the pier by the offshore wind industry will serve to block traditional cargo vessels and a diversity of economic opportunities there. >click to read< 14:27
Fishing fleet lives a productive but unstable existence in New London
The 96-foot trawler Mystic Way is back home from a four-day stint at sea and its crew is unloading a 35,000-pound haul, using a crane to swing to shore containers overflowing with whiting and a variety of other fish species. The crew members join with dock workers to move the fish, shovel ice and pack the fish into hundreds of wax-coated boxes. A teen on a forklift hauls the pallets of boxes into an awaiting refrigerated truck headed to a fish market in New York. Workers are tired and sweating but focused on moving the fish out of the summer heat before too much of the ice melts. Overseeing the operations at Fisherman’s Landing is Gary Yerman, 71, owner and president of New London Seafood Distributors and one of the two men credited with bringing this modern-day fishing fleet to New London. >click to read< 08:20
I liked Mayor Passero’s State Pier comments before he signed a gag order
I am sorry to say that not only did New London Mayor Michael Passero sell out the other victims of Gov. Ned Lamont’s $200 million remake of State Pier from road salt contractors and longshoremen to local fishermen when he signed a deal with the rich utilities that will profit from the project. But he settled cheaply. We all know that Eversource has legions of Connecticut politicians in its back pocket. I assume the utilities have prepared a T-shirt for Mayor Passero, with a big “E” for Eversource on the front and an “O” for Orsted on the back, and he might be expected to wear it whenever they call a news conference, jerk on his leash and demand a performance, as they are enabled to do by the host community agreement. >click to read< 09:53
Key Word -“displaced”: New London wants state to fund new pier for displaced fishermen.
The city is calling on the Connecticut Port Authority to help establish a new home for two commercial fishing businesses being displaced from State Pier. The city says it’s found a spot on its waterfront for a new pier but doesn’t have the money to fund a project. Mayor Michael Passero is calling on the port authority to provide the funding. The fishermen — Montville-based Donna May Fisheries and Waterford-based Out of Our Shell Enterprises — are among the tenants of State Pier being displaced by a $157 million project to redevelop it into a staging and assembly hub for the offshore wind industry. The redevelopment project is a partnership between the Connecticut Port Authority, Ørsted and Eversource. >click to read< 07:56
New London commission submits input for State Pier plans
The New London Harbor Management Commission is asking state environmental officials and the Connecticut Port Authority to retain a diverse mix of water, rail and land-based operations at State Pier. The request is one of several contained in a six-page letter,,, The commission requests that consideration be given to the movement of the commercial fishing fleet now operating at the Central Vermont Railroad Pier. At least four vessels operate from that pier. Mayor Michael Passero said he is working with stakeholders to explore the idea of Fisherman’s Pier, on the city’s waterfront, as a new location for the fleet. >click to read< 07:32
Will Connecticut Gov. Lamont entertain public input on a wind-only port?
Let’s all humor Gov. Ned Lamont and join him in looking away from the messy scandals at the Connecticut Port Authority and concentrate instead on the wind deal that the troubled agency hatched, a plan that could close the port of New London to traditional cargo for the better part of a generation. If I have the governor’s timetable correct, there will soon be a grand unveiling of the final $93 million plan, as already sketched out in permit applications, to convert New London’s port to a giant wind turbine assembly pad. >click to read< 10:20
The “Silicon Valley of renewable energy”? – New London gets shorted in the wind deal
There was enough hot air blowing around New London for the recent announcement about plans to spend $93 million for a new wind turbine assembly facility here to light up more than a few quadrants of the state’s power grid. The politicians and wind power purveyors who secretly have been hatching this plan for many months in back rooms finally pulled back the curtain to congratulate themselves and tell the public, who will pay for it all, what is to be foisted on them. >click to read<20:44
