The significance of the South Fork Wind project dates back to 1882 when Thomas Edison illuminated Manhattan for the first time, giving New York an “energy first” distinction across America, igniting the modern electric utility industry.

South Fork Wind has become another first for New York, the country’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, a story going beyond turbines, megawatts, and homes powered – also uniting union workers, engineers and conservationists – and with the help of Sea Services North America, the commercial fishing industry, too.

SSNA’s mission as a cooperative between the offshore wind industry and  commercial fishermen not only provided the entire project with layered measures of safety and asset protection, but also provided the blueprint for future projects, such as SSNA’s upcoming campaign on Revolution Wind.

“We’ve completed 11 campaigns,” SSNA co-founder, Fleet Manager and longtime fisherman Gary Yerman said. But the completion of South Fork marks our first project completed from the early days of site investigation, surveys, boulder removal, cable installation and turbine installation.”

Yerman continued, “our managed fleet has demonstrated the importance of adhering to the highest safety standards, training, and organized, consistent communication and data collection. All of this experience and increasing skill set will serve the Revolution Wind project and the industry as a whole as we grow together.”

CEO Gordon Videll said SSNA’s duties included an export cable job that allowed SSNA to develop and improve command and control functionality across safety vessels. SSNA also helped in the ability to quickly react to changes in safety vessel positions with multiple, successful interactions with the fishing fleet to de-conflict situations in real-time.

“It all contributed to a very successful project,” Videll said. “We’ve perfected our managed fleet approach to asset protection during every phase of South Fork Wind. This has allowed us to expand our fleet of qualified fishermen while improving safety and providing commercial opportunities to supplement fishing income.”