A discussion Tuesday between local commercial fishing operators and representatives of the state Department of Natural Resources about how US Wind intends to compensate fishermen for wind farm-related financial losses made one thing clear: the fishing community fears for its existence.
Beyond that, the process, plan and the particulars of the commercial fishing “Compensatory Mitigation Fund” that US Wind has pledged to create remain adrift in a sea of unfinished business.
Speaking before roughly two dozen commercial operators at the Ocean Pines Library, Carrie Kennedy, of DNR’s Data Management & Analysis Division, and Catherine McCall, of its Coastal and Ocean Management office, invited watermen to suggest services and forms of assistance that could be included in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to be executed between the DNR and US Wind by January.
The MOU would spring from a July 8 letter of intent between the department and US Wind in which the company agrees “to provide financial compensation to eligible Maryland fishermen for mitigating direct losses/impacts to commercial and for-hire (charter) fishing from and caused by the construction, operation and decommissioning of the Project in federal waters.”
The project entails planting up to 114 wind turbines in an 80,000-acre offshore tract about 11.5 miles east of Ocean City, according to the company’s letter of intent and BOEM documents.
Just cut off the whole works and give us the bug food. I’m sick of the charade.
keep bitching and get nothing
I sadly believe the deal is done and wind mills will be coming to Ocean City’s coast in about 3 years. The government doesn’t care what us locals think. The rich get richer.