“The big thing about trust is that trust has to be earned….The fishing industry is critical to the development of wind energy. Trust can be built between fishing and ORE development…”
Those statements are from a fishing industry representative and the wind industry lobbying group. Can trust be achieved for the nation’s future energy security at a time of climate change, to be developed while preserving fishing?
The 4th annual Seafarers Conference devoted a session to ‘Navigating Ireland’s Seafood and ORE ambition.’ There are many aspects of wind energy development versus fishing industry which, over the past three years have been discussed, often with considerable disagreement, at the Seafood/ORE Working Group under the chairmanship of Captain Robert McCabe. The Government’s stated offshore wind target for Ireland is: “Building on 2030 targets of 5 Gigawatts (GW) of grid-connected offshore wind plus an additional 2GW of non-grid connected offshore wind in development, by 2040, to deliver 20GW of ORE and by 2050, to 37GW, approximately six times current peak electricity demand.”
There are a wide range of issues about wind energy – whether structures should be fixed or floating; how close to shore or how far offshore should they be located; which areas should be chosen; for what weather/time periods can wind energy be depended upon; what impact visually will there on areas where they are sited; what will be their impact on wild life; on the environment?
Particularly important are the sites and how those locations will impact upon traditional fishing areas. That was the focus of the Seafarers’ Conference debate.There is a level of agreement in the current debate that the initial Government approach to offshore wind farm development was a mistake, because it was a policy that allowed developers to decide locations. Taking back control of development in a system involving consultation about planning and choice of locations is a better approach.
Justin Moran, Director of External Affairs at the lobbying representative group,,Wind Energy Ireland told me that the ‘plan-led approach’ facilitated a better level of engagement by the fishing industry in the siting of developments, which was now a State decision. “The fishing industry is critical to this process, because they are the only group of people whose livelihoods could be affected by the development of ORE. They need to be at the heart of it.”
Liz Goff is Chair of the South/East Regional Inshore Fisheries Forum of NIFF, part of the National Inshore Fisheries Forum set up in May 2014 to facilitate the development of a coherent inshore sector ‘voice.’ She has over 30 year’s business managerial experience and is married to a fisherman. She told me that over the past three years at the Seafood/ORE Working Group there had been engagement about the development process, documents drawn up about guidelines, procedures and sites, effects of their placing on the seabed and the impact on fishing communities, all of which had to be borne in mind in regard to the Government’s stated wind energy aims.
So, can fishing and wind energy industries co-exist, work together while protecting and preserving fishing and providing the State’s need for alternative energy in view of climate change?
Crucial issues are how fishermen will be compensated for the impact on fishing grounds and whether enough attention and consideration is being given by developers and the State to proposed wind farm sites and potential impact on seafood supplies.
There will be “losers” and “winners” in the process. How to compensate the “losers,” probably mostly the fishing sector, is a major issue. The big thing about trust is that it has to be earned.”
Is that possible?
Justin Moran of Wind Energy Ireland says “Absolutely. We need to build wind farms and we need to be energy independent, but we can’t do that at the expense of our food security and at the expense of an industry which employs and supports thousands of jobs, particularly in coastal communities around Ireland. The State must be involved, because only it can resolve some of the problems, to enable a real co-operative existence approach to be taken to the development of ORE and to the future development of fishing. We need to build trust, that is on us in the ORE industry. I think we can.”
Read a fuller report in the April edition of the MARINE TIMES newspaper out now and listen to the SEASCAPES MARITIME PODCAST April edition which will be issued on Tuesday, April 15.
