Offshore wind and habitat changes

Laurent Ballesta photo

The shift in Administration presented by the 2020 election signaled the national intent to pivot off fossil fuels and on to offshore wind (OSW). We had been deeply focused on offshore oil in the previous four years, so the shift gave us a little case of whiplash.

We’ve had a year of splashing around in the topic, and now have both a better feel for the environmental implications, as well had a lot of time to participate and contribute to the discussion.

As I originally asserted, shifting to offshore wind needs to be couched in a “balance of harms” argument: We know that fossil fuel is killing the planet, but we also know that the windfarms will be wildly transforming marine habitats and environments – with many implications, and many unknown impacts on marine life.

Much of my coverage and commentary on OSW has been precautionary. We have been able to contribute a lot to the various comments and monitoring practices for both the many Atlantic OSW projects, and the deep water projects proposed off the West Coast.

But the upshot of all of this is that as we begin installing the 30 proposed Atlantic, and the three (so far) Pacific OSW projects, we will be rapidly transforming habitats that marine life has been adapting to since the beginning of biological time.

Of course the operative word here is “adapting.” Many fish and marine invertebrates will likely flourish in the proliferation of vast amounts of vertical feeding surfaces, and concealed habitats provided by the masts, cables, and scour protection (large rocks placed on the seafloor) that these installations will provide. This could increase area biodiversity and abundance that are sure to please the fishermen – as well as all of the fishies and critters living there.

But there are a number of us who don’t believe the North Atlantic Right Whale will survive these new pressures. And it remains to be seen how the compromise in nutrient upwelling, or the imposition of mid-water obstacles from the forest of cables will affect the prolific west coast Outer Continental Shelf marine life.

And it won’t matter how much precaution and mitigation strategies we throw at this. The North American coastal ocean will be a different place in ten years.

I was at a “California Offshore Wind Summit” a couple of weeks ago. Six of the event’s eight “Platinum Sponsors” were from the oil industry. And of the perhaps 300 attendees, only about six of us were from the conservation community. The rest were from industry, labor, construction, and support services. Most of the attendees were ‘licking their chops’ at the prospect of all of the business that offshore wind will provide.

The event had the feel of a feeding frenzy about to begin…