The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will conduct a regional environmental review of the six New York Bight offshore lease areas offshore New York and New Jersey. Leases for these six areas were awarded through BOEM’s February 2022 auction that brought in over $4.3 billion, a record for any U.S. offshore renewable or conventional energy lease sale.
This is the first time BOEM has conducted a regional analysis containing multiple lease areas for offshore renewable energy. Additional...
The National Marine Fisheries Service extended a “slow zone” voluntary vessel speed restriction zone southeast of New York Harbor on Wednesday, with escalating pressures to do more for protecting the extremely endangered northern right whales.
The speed zone notification, calling for vessels over 65 feet to maintain 10 knots or less, was already in effect when an acoustic buoy monitored by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute again detected right whales in the New York Bight, NMFS said in a...
Humpback whales are seen much more often around the approaches to New York Harbor, and with them come the potential for more deadly encounters with vessels, according to a new study.
“Whales feed in close proximity to the entrance of the Port of New York and New Jersey, creating potentially dangerous situations for both vessels and whales. Documenting humpback whale presence and identifying the risks are crucial for both short- and long-term management,” wrote researchers at George Mason...
Offshore wind power developer Equinor Wind US is entering a joint project with conservationists and scientists to deploy two new acoustic buoys to expand detection and monitoring of whales in the New York Bight.
To be operated with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, the buoys will provide near real-time monitoring of species including sei, fin and humpback whales, and the extremely endangered North Atlantic...
https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/equinor-to-support-new-york-bight-whales-monitoring/
That’s down from a peak of 84% in polls taken between 2008 and 2011, when the Obama administration began setting the stage for Mid-Atlantic wind energy leasing. The support drops sharply to 45% if residential electricity rates were to go up because of wind investment.
“This could be tricky for clean energy advocates. Support for wind energy could...
Up to 9.6 gigawatts of offshore wind energy could be generated on lease tracts in the New York Bight outlined by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency says.
Two weeks before a meeting with state and regional agencies in New York City, BOEM issued a draft plan for wind energy areas (WEAs) off the coasts of New York and New Jersey – a key stop toward preparing for future lease sales, like those already sold off southern New England.
The draft plan outlines up to 793,862 acres of...
https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/boem-outlines-new-york-bight-wind-energy-areas/