Vineyard Wind is developing a wind farm with more than 80 turbines south of Martha’s Vineyard.
That wind farm is expected to take up only a portion of the more than 166,000 acres of federal waters Vineyard Wind has leased for offshore wind development.
Local fishermen have raised concerns about wind turbines interfering with their radar navigation, which could affect a fisherman’s ability to navigate safely back to shore during bad weather.
As a part of the permitting process, Vineyard Wind has endorsed a new plan for ocean transit lanes meant to help commercial fishing boats reach land.
“This question of the location of transit lanes is important to fishermen, they’ve made very clear about that and we’re in agreement with it. So that’s why we wanted to confirm that, endorse that,” Erich Stephens, chief development officer at Vineyard Wind, said.
Stephens said Vineyard Wind and the fishing community agreed to a two-mile wide transit corridor in September and again in October.
However, Lanny Dellinger, chairman of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council’s Fishermen’s Advisory Board, said the fishing industry never agreed to two miles.
Dellinger said the fishing community has been advocating for four-mile wide transit lanes since, he said, that is the safest option.
This post has been updated. A previous version incorrectly stated the transit corridor was meant to help fishermen navigate throughout all of the wind turbines.
