Published: 2022
Total Pages: 0
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The New York Bight and New England marine spaces host a diverse fishing industry that includes a variety of gear types and fishing vessels from around the region. Offshore wind (OSW) energy development has the potential to affect commercial fishing activity at each phase of development, including restricting access to some fishery participants during construction and through the placement of fixed structures. For the two industries to coexist in an economically meaningful way, reducing risk for fishermen working within or transiting through an OSW development is critical. The overall goal of this study was to develop technical strategies and tools to minimize the disruption to commercial fishing, while also ensuring economical energy generation and safe operations for the developers and for mariners transiting in and around the OSW arrays. The study primarily focused on the Atlantic scallop and surfclam/ocean quahog fishing industries in the New York Bight, with study tasks including information gathering (e.g., literature review, interviews, and data availability assessment), techno-economic scenarios analysis, and a pilot project assessment with considerations for fixed bottom turbines and inter-array cables.
