Congressman Joe Courtney visited Sea Services North America earlier this spring for a briefing on the work being done and to share his view on the state of the industry.

Courtney said despite what you hear in the media, “there is strong bipartisan support for an all of the above approach”– including offshore wind power – to the current Administration’s focus on increasing domestic energy production.

Craig Devlin, Chief Operating Officer, presented an overview of all that Sea Services provides, stressing the financial benefits to crewmen and vessel owners in both direct payments as wages and vessel upgrades in safety and technology.

Gary Yerman, Co-Founder and Fleet Manager, highlighted the value in having local fishermen partner with Sea Services to communicate with other fishermen actively working in a wind farm area. He described the collaboration involved before the power cable was laid from Revolution Wind offshore through Narragansett Bay to its landfall in Quonset Point, RI. Sea Services crews identified a significant amount of lobster, crab, and other ground gear that was relocated nearby to ensure fishermen were still operating where they wanted to be while avoiding entanglements between their gear and the cable lay activity.

Rep. Courtney had previously visited Sea Services soon after Gary and CEO Gordon Videll established the co-op.

“It’s impressive to see how you’ve grown over these few short years and to hear that you’ve got more than 150 commercial fishermen supplementing their income with jobs in the offshore wind industry,” Courtney said. “You kept at it and created a unique model that unites the skills and local knowledge of fishermen with the complex needs of wind developers – and you’ve united two industries that many felt could never work together.”