The Mythic Cohabitation of Wind Energy and the Fishing Industry

The waterfront of New Bedford is lined with piers, boats arranged in the harbor like a game of Tetris and warehouses made of pale metal siding. A faint breeze stirs up the scent of fresh fish. It is evident the fishing industry has claimed its territory. 

However, that claim is now being challenged. New Bedford, the nation’s wealthiest fishing port, is setting its sights on a new offshore venture: wind farms.  

City officials teamed up with Vineyard Wind—an offshore wind development venture with prominent investment from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners—to bring a 62-turbine offshore wind development to the shores of New Bedford, according to New Bedford Port Authority Director Gordon Carr. The project, which will be built 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, is partially funded by a new federal grant designed to make wind power more reliable and affordable. 

“We’re very excited in New Bedford to be the host of the first commercial-scale offshore wind deployment, Vineyard Wind,” Carr said. 

Vineyard Wind’s goal is to generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.   

The development of wind energy is just the latest chapter of evolution in New Bedford, a city that has deftly navigated the ebbs and flows of demand from whaling to textiles to ground fishing and then to scalloping, according to Mayor Jon Mitchell. 

Most recently, New Bedford, along with the rest of New England fishing industry, had to pivot away from relying heavily on catching and selling Atlantic cod. Overfishing by domestic and foreign companies caused the cod population to drop. 

Overfishing Historically, cod was so abundant off New England that early explorers named Cape Cod for the fish. In New England, Atlantic cod commercial landings in 2021 totaled 1.3 million pounds and were valued at $3 million, according to the NOAA Fisheries commercial fishing landings database. The industry peaked in 1990 when New England companies caught 95.3 million pounds, which was valued at $60.7 million. 

It is around the time of the value decline of Atlantic cod that price of scallops skyrocketed, causing more fishermen to harvest the more lucrative offer.  

Bringing wind power to New Bedford is a proactive measure on Mitchell’s part to ensure that the city diversifies economically, ensure it can better adapt to a changing environment and public demand. 

However, Some experts and members fishing industry raised concerns that the investment in wind energy comes at the expense of scallopers, whose prime fishing zones are going to be lost to the Vineyard Wind turbines. 

“We want New Bedford to be a leader in both industries because I think that’s necessary for our city to thrive in the long run as a place where maritime industry can grow together,” Mitchell said in response to the concerns of the fishing industry. “We’ve been working to try to mediate between the two industries, but I need to think about how the city can remain competitive in all of these industries so that people invest here.” 

Mitchell argues offering companies investment opportunities in both fisheries and wind will make New Bedford unique—it would become a hot commodity in the world of venture capital, so to speak.  

Not everyone is as optimistic as Mitchell or as confident in the balancing act the city’s government is trying to strike, especially not fishermen and their advocates. 

“I don’t think it’s possible for both industries to thrive,” said Tyler Miranda, who captains two scallop boats. “I am all for green energy—no one is a bigger conservationist than a fisherman—but we just don’t know enough about the effect these turbines are going to have. I think those windmills are gonna do damage to certain fisheries that will never it’ll never, it’ll never come back.” 

To Miranda, the wind turbines and their environmental impact threaten his livelihood.   

“I don’t see the [wind energy industry and the fishing industry] cohabitating for extensive periods,” Miranda added. “Unfortunately, in that battle, I think the wind was right. I really do. I think we’re dying industry.”   

Possible negative impacts of the wind turbines, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are an increase of ocean noise that disrupt marine life behaviors, altering existing habitats, the introduction of electromagnetic fields that disrupt navigation sensing for fish and a high rate of contaminants being spread in the water. Organism life cycles, including spawning, can also be negatively impacted.  

New Bedford Seafood Coalition’s Captain Jim Kendall, a fisherman’s advocate and former scalloper, echoed Miranda’s concerns. 

He spends most of his mornings walking along the piers, looking for fishermen to talk about what can be improved, and the biggest concern he heard was that people were worried about boats crashing into the turbines. Kendall works with companies like Vineyard Wind to fight for fishermen’s rights and safety. 

The construction of the turbines is also taking up needed pier space, said Benjamin Tweeda, a crew member of the scalloper Arcturus.  

However, some fishermen are not concerned about the wind farms.

“I don’t understand why all these young guys are making such a big fuss about them,” said Alan Curtis, who worked on scalloping boats for 30 years. His voice rumbles like tires rolling over gravel—a smoker’s voice. “They can just sail around the wind turbines. It’s not that hard.”

Curtis represents the divide in opinion—ranging from indifference to fear—within the New Bedford community. Although, people like Curtis are not the loudest voices in the debate, unlike Kendall and Miranda.

As the government creates regulations to combat the depletion of cod, rising ocean temperatures and dependency on fossil fuels—all necessary goals, as Kendall and Miranda acknowledge—fishermen are the ones being left behind during the policy-making, according to Kendall. 

“Government people—the ones making policy in the office instead of having to be out there in the water—are prioritizing wind energy over our jobs and safety,” Tweeda added. 

“The whole approach from the government right now as the setup these wind towers and renewable energy, and they don’t care where and how they do it,” Kendall said. “The turbines have been impacting the industry because it’s been in spite of us rather than working with us. With the government, fishermen are usually out of sight, out of mind.”