BIM’s new chief executive Caroline Bocquel has warned the offshore renewable energy (ORE) sector that it must improve its communication with the Irish fishing industry.
She has also told offshore wind developers that there should be “minimal impact” on the commercial fishing sector, which is already experiencing significant challenges, including the impact of Brexit.
Addressing the second national seafarers’ conference in Limerick late last month, Bocquel said that communication is a “key piece”, and such communication must be “early” and “authentic” and “not just for the sake of it”.
Communication has to be a “key part of the discussion”, she said.
She noted that Ireland’s seafood/ORE working group chaired by Capt Robert McCabe had done “huge work” on this and would be producing a set of communication protocols.
These communication protocols need to be “embedded” in the consenting regime to the extent that they “cannot be sidelined”, she said.
A second lesson which Ireland could learn from other jurisdictions is the need to work together, with discussions that could lead to better understanding.
She said that the current “developer-led” approach was “very problematic” as there were already “lines on maps”.
“We really need to be engaging on impact before drawing lines on maps,” she said.
She cited exclusion zones around wind farms, and the impact of such infrastructure on marine species, along with the appeals process, as concerns for the fishing industry.
She said BIM was working with the Marine Institute on gathering data.
While some developers were engaging directly with the industry or through representative organisations, others were not engaging at all, she said.
She said BIM was looking at technical support in relation to opportunities and approaches to co-location and developing training opportunities for fishers in the ORE sector.
Irish South and East Fish Producers’ Organisation chief executive John Lynch said that he had warned the ORE and fishing industry sectors were on a “collision course” last year, and this was still the case.
The fishing industry was “united” in its concerns about spatial squeeze, and food security was an important human requirement as energy.
He said the industry was working on its own marine spatial plan from a fishing industry point of view, as the Irish state had failed to produce one.
Several speakers were critical of the lack of a marine spatial plan, while consultant Michael Keatinge called for coastal communities/the fishing industry to have an actual equity stake in ORE projects – not just compensation.
He said there was a “klondyke” for ORE in Irish waters, and dialogue with the fishing industry had not developed at all.
The project off the Donegal coast involving Hexagon and the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO) showed there could be a new approach, he said, and the fishing industry was not against offshore wind but “just wants to be part of it”.
Marine scientist Damien Haberlin of University College Cork’s MaREI research centre for energy, climate and marine spoke of the gaps in knowledge on the impact of offshore wind.
Whereas there were tens of thousands of scientific papers on the biomedical sector, there were less than 200 papers relating to ORE, he said.
Haberlin said that if he had a “pot of money”, he would wish to spend it on research into the cumulative effects of offshore wind farms, both spatial and temporal.
Though there would be a price for not developing ORE in the context of climate change, “let’s do it, but let’s do it right”, Haberlin said.
