David Monti, Guest columnist

On April 16, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management “to immediately halt all construction activities on the Empire Wind Project until further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”

Like all offshore wind projects, Empire Wind went through years of reviews including the National Environmental Policy Act process guaranteeing stakeholders, including fishermen like me, the right to review project plans and to speak out at public hearings. I have testified many times at such hearings.

A week later, Secretary Burgum posted, “By reducing a multi-year permitting process down to just 28 days, @Interior is cutting through unnecessary red tape to fast-track the development of American energy & critical minerals.”

Stakeholders are being denied their right to learn about and comment on projects that impact them. The processes used to vet offshore wind farms are now being ignored to burn more fossil fuels, creating negative impacts such as ocean acidification, habitat degradation, and warming ocean water that all have a negative impact on fish and their reproduction.

This is the real threat to fishermen: a rapidly changing climate that is throwing the balance of our oceans into chaos.

Yet one of our top solutions that would help our climate and improve our fishing ecosystems ‒ offshore wind energy ‒ is being attacked under false claims that it is bad for fishermen.

Climate impacts are turning the fishing world upside down. Anglers and scientists in Rhode Island addressed these impacts in their symposia series “Climate impacts on recreational fishing and boating.” Key learnings included how cold-water animals such as lobster and winter flounder have left their region, while an abundance of warm water fish such as scup and black sea bass arrived, making it harder to know where stocks will be.

As a charter captain, I spend my days looking for, and setting clients up on, structures to catch fish. Structures like bridge abutments, rock piles, and even oil drilling platforms create habitats for fish, provide food, and create water movement, tossing small bait or forage fish around so they become easy prey.

Wind turbines have the same effect. An analysis of studies examining fish abundance around European wind farms compared to control areas outside the wind farms found that wind farm areas had a greater abundance of fish compared to control areas.

The Block Island Wind Farm has proven to be a great fishing area. I’ve fished there for years and worked with my charter boat association to mitigate fishing loss during construction. A seven-year study conducted before, during and after construction showed a greater abundance of cod and black sea bass in the wind farm area compared to two control areas south and east of the wind farm, while every other species was equal. Anglers at South Fork Wind Farm have sent me published photos showing a variety of fish caught there including cod, pollock, and pelagic fish like mahi and bluefin tuna.

Input, approval, research and monitoring plans at American offshore wind projects have been successful. We need renewable energy to stem the tide on negative ocean impacts, and offshore wind projects will help with that. But they have also been proven to create habitats with a greater abundance of fish that our anglers catch, eat and or release.

Offshore wind farms will benefit fish, ocean habitats, and fishing as long as they are developed responsibly ‒ as they have been. By halting offshore wind and cutting fishermen out of other energy approval processes, this administration is working against our fishing communities.

Dave Monti holds a master captain’s license and charter fishing license. He serves on a variety of fishing boards and commissions and has a consulting business. He writes the Fishing Report in The Providence Journal.