Seafood group calls for ‘proper’ assessment and planning in offshore wind energy in industry first

The seafood industry has called for “a proper, qualitative, assessment and planning process” for the development of offshore wind energy to avoid “any repeat of past – especially planning – mistakes”.

The Seafood Industry Group submission, which represents the first time the seafood industry has come together as a single voice, says the industry is not against the development of offshore wind energy.

But, in a submission to the Minister for Environment and Climate Change Eamon Ryan, representatives of the catching, fish-farming, processing, and inshore fishing sectors have warned Government ambitions to develop up to 37 gigawatts of electricity from offshore wind by 2050, could result in wind farms 11km wide and 1,110km long.

It says it wishes to avoid “any repeat of past – especially planning – mistakes”. The comment is understood to be a reference to the Shell to Sea campaign which became a big battle between environmentalists and the oil industry.

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At the centre of the Seafood Industry Group’s concerns are sub sea cables which link the turbines and individual wind farms to the coast. The Group fears the network of cables would prevent trawling for fish such as cod, haddock, whiting and sole as well as the collection of prawns.

The group has submitted proposals for a planning process which provides “a sense of how decisions are being made, what factors are taken into account” as well as consideration of who is impacted and the costs involved”.

The submission, a copy of which has been seen by The Irish Times was made to Mr Ryan in recent weeks. It proposes what it says is “a comprehensive roadmap for the selection and management of sites for offshore wind in Ireland’s maritime zone”

In the submission eight separate sectors of the seafood industry stressed the “importance of engagement, communication, co-operation, and coexistence in the development of offshore wind”. Seafood, the submission says, is a low carbon, healthy, and sustainable part of food supply.

“Increasing our adaptability to climate change and encouraging low greenhouse gas emissions in a way that doesn’t threaten our food supply is at the heart of new approach proposed by the group” said group rapporteur Michael Keatinge.

John Lynch, chief executive of the Irish South & East Fish Producers Organisation said “Ireland’s seafood industry recognises that an orderly development of offshore wind is critical to the future relationship between the seafood and offshore renewable industries”. That relationship is essential if the state is going to meet it targets for ORE development”, he said.

Sean O’Donoghue, chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation said the “true test” of State plans to develop the offshore wind sector would be whether the Department for the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) accepted the recommendations made in the Seafood Industry Submission.

This point was reiterated by Seamus Breathnach, director of the National Inshore Fishermen’s Association, who spoke of a “poorly structured, often opaque, developer led approach” used for a series of wind farms recently sanctioned in the Irish Sea and Atlantic coast.