Fishing industry calls for ‘emergency plan’ for proposed offshore wind farm

Members of the Inishowen fishing industry have demanded that a fisheries management plan from the Government be put in place before plans for a major offshore wind farm progress any further.

Haven Offshore Array is preparing to investigate the feasibility of developing an offshore wind farm off the north coast of Inishowen.

The company has submitted an application for a five-year foreshore investigatory licence for a project containing a mixture of static and floating wind turbines in initial sites of more than 1,500 km2, with the nearest point to the coast being 20km from Malin Head. A geophysical survey was carried out last year.

Haven Offshore Array has said the licence would allow the company to refine the site choice and to carry out surveys to assess the viability of the project properly.

A meeting in Carndonagh between around 30 members of the local fishing industry and consultants on behalf of the company heard concerns about the possible impact of the proposed project on the fishing industry, including on spawning grounds for crab and herring.

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Fishers told the meeting that all the fishing grounds in the area would be impacted by the project and expressed concern about the impact cabling linking the project to shore would have. They said there was an urgent need to know what is happening and how it will impact them. There were also calls for the company to contact each fisher individually.

Paul Bradley, Chair of the Lough Swilly Wild Oyster Society Ltd (LSWOS) which represents oyster fishers on the Swilly and the Foyle, called for an “emergency plan” to allow the fishing communities to “co-exist with the offshore renewables”.

Mr Bradley expressed concern that legislation to allow renewable off-share energy development was deliberately weighted against local fishing interests.

He called on the fishing communities not to cooperate with the project until “there is a satisfactory plan to ensure the security and sustainably of the inshore fishing fleet”.

Consultation with the companies behind the project was pointless because they “can’t make any assurances”. 

He said communication about the project needs to go through the Regional Inshore Fisheries Forum and it needs to be held to account along with the National Inshore Fisheries Forum.

“That is our only line of communication,” he said.

“We need to use and harness the energy that we have at the minute, the lever that we have, and get a plan across that sustains our future. Our industry cannot be given away and it is not going to be given away”.

Spokesman for the inshore fishing industry Liam O’Brien described moves to erect off-shore wind farms as “ocean grabbing”.

“The Government should be ashamed of what they have done on their people,” he said.

Risteard Ó Domhnaill, stakeholder manager with Aqualicense LTD, told the meeting that it is acknowledged “there's a huge gap” in data and two years of surveying would be required before the project could proceed.

He said consultations with the fishing community, which began last year,  have started “ahead of the statutory process”. If the project does go ahead, it is accepted that the concern that the fishing industry should not be worse off for it was a reasonable request, he said.

The consultants gave a commitment to the meeting to provide an update on the latest policy statement from the Government, to seek clarifications on concerns and to make contact with individual fishers and the representative bodies for the industry.