Fishermen in the United Kingdom have warned that wind farm projects risk leaving them displaced and have “enormous scope” to disrupt the industry.
The Government’s decision to rapidly expand areas of the sea covered by wind turbines would further reduce their fishing opportunities, they fear. The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations said the “colossal scale of expansion is hard to comprehend” and would “encroach extensively on customary fishing grounds”. Downing Street wants to create 60,000 jobs in offshore wind by 2030 by expanding capacity from 22 gigawatts to 154 gigawatts.
A similar shift to renewable energy is being planned by French President Emmanuel Macron as he hopes to lead the way in the global fight against climate change.
Barrie Deas, chief executive of the NFFO, said: “We’ve already seen displacement effects of fishing boats by wind farms already in place, and this is a massive expansion.”
In a briefing with journalists yesterday, he stressed that both wind farms and the seabed cables connecting them to the grid were shrinking fishing grounds.
Modern turbines are now five times larger than when they were first deployed and are now being constructed over 100km from shore in waters over 50 metres deep.
Mr Deas also accused the Government of “burnishing its green credentials” by creating 40 marine protected areas.
He said the changes had forced Dutch trawlermen into “pristine areas that have never been fished before”.
The NFFO has called for more time to examine what fishing methods were compatible with the environmental goals of such protected areas.
Environmentalists have disputed the fishing lobby’s approach, insisting that the Government’s decision to enforce marine protected areas are “welcome and long overdue”.
Charles Clover, executive director of Blue Marine Foundation, said 60 percent of scientifically assessed UK stocks are still being overfished.
He told the FT: “Not all fishing methods are likely to be banned in these offshore protected areas anyway – only the carbon-emitting, habitat-destroying dinosaurs, the dredgers and trawlers that NFFO mostly represents – a large proportion of which are foreign-owned.”
Fishermen have been warned they are facing a decades-long “war of attrition” with Brussels over post-Brexit fishing rights.
The industry warned it expects EU-UK relations to turn “toxic” over access to British coastal waters.
2021 Express Newspapers