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Federal Regulator Acknowledges Danger To Wildlife Caused By Offshore Wind Farms

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  • A federal fisheries council acknowledged that some power cables for offshore wind turbines could harm certain fish, according to a letter seen by the DCNF.
  • Multiple recent studies have demonstrated that a variety of commercially popular fish can be negatively impacted by their exposure to magnetic fields emitted by high voltage direct current cables, which can confuse their ability to navigate and in some cases leave them exposed to predators.
  • “We were previously aware of this study and agree that it has concerning implications for the possible effects of high voltage direct current cabling on larval behavior and resulting predation rates,”  Thomas Nies, executive director of the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), said in a January 18 letter.

The federally-chartered regulator responsible for managing fisheries in the oceans of New England acknowledged that offshore wind farms could pose a threat to the local marine wildlife, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Thomas Nies, executive director of the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), noted the “concerning implications” of a study by researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research, which found that the high voltage direct current (HVDC) power cables used by some offshore wind farms emitted magnetic fields that could hinder the ability of haddock larvae to navigate, according to a January 18 letter obtained by the DCNF. The negative impact on both the haddocks’ speed and ability to navigate could result in increased “predation” of affected fish.

Offshore wind farms typically utilize one of two cables to transport power back to shore, known as high voltage alternating current (HVAC) and HVDC, with the former preferred for short-range projects within roughly 30 miles of shore and the latter preferred for more long-range projects, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. Multiple recent studies have demonstrated that a variety of commercially popular fish can be negatively impacted by their exposure to magnetic fields emitted by HVDCs, which can confuse their ability to navigate and in some cases leave them exposed to predators. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: As Whales Were Washing Up Dead, Enviros Quietly Sounded The Alarm On Offshore Wind)

Captain Jerry Leeman, who heads the fishing vessel Teresa Marie IV, sent a copy of the Norwegian haddock study to Nies in a January 9 letter. Noting the similarities between cod and haddock, he expressed concern that any proposed offshore wind projects off the Gulf of Maine would require cables to be routed through cod spawning grounds, which could expose them to predators and fishers alike, depleting the population.

“Thank you for your January 9 letter … . We were previously aware of this study and agree that it has concerning implications for the possible effects of high voltage direct current cabling on larval behavior and resulting predation rates,” Nies said in a January 18 letter. “While most projects off the Atlantic coast are planning for alternative current transmission cables, this is not uniformly the case, and we are uncertain about the types of cables that might be used for projects in the Gulf of Maine.”

The NEFMC is a federally-chartered group responsible for “conserving and managing fishery resources” off the coasts of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, according to its website. The council has 18 voting members, one of which is the regional administrator of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, a federal agency responsible for ocean conservation nationwide, and the remainder of which are state officials or appointees confirmed by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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