May 2023 - The Director's Corner
The new community meeting space in moss landing at the cannery building.
Happy Spring! The seasons are finally turning, and this is the time of year when the wind picks up over the bay. It was fitting then that we got to hear a presentation from Mike Conroy of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) about the powerful movement to establish wind energy farms off California.
On the face of it, offshore wind energy sounds like a great idea. Indeed, humanity has very little time left to wean itself from fossil fuels and get renewables going on a big scale. The turbines would be far offshore…out of sight, out of mind, right?
Along with a handful of local fishermen who came to the community meeting room in Moss Landing on April 11th to hear Mike speak, I came away with a lot more questions, and some deep concerns about the pace, the process, and the potential for unintended consequences that could significantly impact the ocean ecosystem and our coastal economies. In short, there is promise in a renewable energy future, but also peril. Mike and many others are working not to oppose wind energy (that would be futile, he says), but to ensure that it’s implemented responsibly and with care to those who would be directly affected. Namely the fishing industry.
Current offshore lease areas off CA (courtesy Mike Conroy, RODA)
So far, I haven’t heard fishermen in our community talking about this potential threat. I understand why. No ‘lease areas’ have been announced near our region (see figure for where they are currently being planned). And given where fishermen have had to put their attention - challenges to the Dungeness crab season opening, market prices, and just recently the full closure of the 2023 salmon season - it’s no surprise that wind energy simply isn’t on our radar here in Monterey Bay. However, as Mike explained during his presentation, ‘just because we have a Sanctuary here does not mean we are protected from wind farms or the power transmission cables that need to meet the land’.
In addition to summarizing the leasing process, Mike went over various pieces of legislation addressing the quickly growing wind industry. AB 525 will require a full Strategic Plan by June 2023 for wind energy off California. Additional bills, such as AB 80 would create a regional offshore wind science entity to provide ecosystem science needed as offshore wind advances, and SB 286 which lays out a path for compensation for fishers whose activity would be displaced by the wind areas.
As I looked around the table that day, I could see some eyes widening and a somber recognition that the wind energy industry is coming and that it likely will change the landscape of west coast fisheries. The wind movement is still in the early stages here (relative to the east), so there is still plenty of time to get involved. If you are interested to learn more, please check out the RODA website. Also coming up on May 17th, 2023, the California Legislature’s Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture has scheduled a hearing on offshore wind. There are some great resources on their website as well.
We hope to offer more informational meetings like this one in the new community meeting room space on the island of Moss Landing. Thanks to Lusamerica, we’ve created a multi-functional meeting space and are open to hearing from you on more topics of interest.