Menhaden fishing company requests increased buffer for future offshore wind projects
An Ocean Harvesters fishing vessel, which Omega Protein uses. (Courtesy of Omega Protein)
Omega Protein, the menhaden fishing operator in the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean east of Virginia, is asking for a 15-mile buffer from the coast wherein future offshore wind projects can’t be built, to avoid conflicts with their operations.
The company submitted the Oct. 16 request to the federal government’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as part of the process to identify future offshore wind energy areas, or WEAs, as President Joe Biden’s administration has a goal of producing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
After giving Dominion Energy the green light to construct its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project in one WEA 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, and in August awarding the utility a second WEA directly east of CVOW, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is accepting comments ahead of drafting the new WEAs in what is called the Central Atlantic 2 Call Area, a span of about 13.4 million acres off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.
Along with progressing toward the federal government Biden’s goals, Dominion’s two offshore wind sites, and a third site 36 miles off the coast of North Carolina the utility recently finalized acquisition of, are critical to the utility’s compliance with the Virginia Clean Economy Act. The 2020 law seeks to decarbonize the state’s electric grid, which is facing challenges amid surging demand nationwide.
But Shaun Gehan, counsel for Omega Protein, wrote in the company’s request that extending the 6-mile buffer currently proposed for any future WEAs off the coast of Virginia is “vitally important.”
“Not only are the waters around the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay the area where most of the conflicts with the menhaden fishery would be most acute, it is also an economically vital shipping lane, important area of military operations and traffic, and a high traffic area for recreational vessels,” Gehan wrote.
Omega Protein, the lone menhaden reduction fishery in the Chesapeake Bay, is a staple in fishery management in Virginia, with lawmakers, regulators and recreational striped bass fishers clashing over how to oversee the company’s operations. Critics have said Omega has a negative impact on the fish, while the company has called for sound science to prove those claims.
The Reedville-based company focuses their catches of the tiny-nutrient rich menhaden fish in the calmer waters of the Bay to reduce them to fishmeal and oil. The company says it catches 93,000 metric tons, or 70%, of its menhaden annually in an area extending along the coast from North Carolina to Long Island in New York within the Exclusive Economic Zone, while a “majority of the harvest occurs in the waters off of Virginia.”
The company deploys two vessels about 40 feet long and 13 feet wide that will circle schools of menhaden with a 1,100-foot long purse seine net in between them to scoop the fish up, Gehan explained. The operation involves spotter planes flying as low as 500 feet above sea level, and the boats potentially floating within a 2-3 mile distance of their net sets across a 30 minute to 2 hour duration in order to make their catches.
“It seems amply apparent that a fifteen-mile buffer would still provide ample areas for wind energy development,” Gehan wrote.
While other fisheries have raised concerns over potential conflicts in the past, recreational fishers have touted the potential for new fishing opportunities around wind turbines that can simulate diverse coral reefs and attract different species. The Nature Conservancy is partnering with Dominion and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration to study any marine life benefits or harms to guide future offshore wind policies.
“The Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Assn is in favor of this 15 mile buffer if it means that Omega will be fishing more often in the EEZ rather than the waters of the Chesapeake Bay where there have been conflicts with recreational fishers and associated small businesses for many years,” Steve Atkinson, chairman of the VSSA, told the Virginia Mercury.
But compared to recreational fishers, the larger vessels of Omega Protein need more space to operate, explained company spokesperson Ben Landry said in an interview.
“Traditional, very well established (fishing grounds) are at stake here,” explained “We are not anti-wind energy or renewables.”
