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My report on the Focus Group meeting. There were 10 industry/fishing/business participants ranging from tackle shop owners, rec fishing, charter boat operators, and tourism businesses that offer tours. I was the only surfcaster.
Most of the participants mentioned that the wind farm had impacted their business/fishing success in a positive way. There is great interest in the turbines. Some clients of charter boats even tell the captains they want to fish by the turbines even though the fishing may be better elsewhere. The only negative comment from a boat fishing perspective was that the wind farm area is now actually too crowded at times.
Non-fishing tours of the wind farm have increased business dramatically for some tour companies. So much so that they will be using the wind turbine farm in their advertising campaigns for 2018.
I incorporated many of the concerns of those who commented here. I mentioned that it would be hard to measure any decrease/increase in surfcasting “catching” success from such a small sample of data. I mentioned the concern about the electrical current emitted from the turbines/cable possibly impacting fish migrations. I did mention the “degraded” esthetic experience for many surfcasters. The facilitators of the meeting were very interested in this aspect. I mentioned the whale stranding s/deaths. But also mentioned there are more and more seals around the island than ever.
At the end of the meeting they gave us an update on other proposed wind farm projects yet to be approved. There are quite a few but all of them are much further offshore than three miles and all in New England are east of Block Island. Even the proposed Montauk Wind farm is actually well east of Block Island.
Other focus groups were held in various places including on Block Island. All this data will be compiled and submitted into a report for the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
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