Offshore Wind Farms
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What is the background of the Irish Sea wind farm proposals and why are fishermen concerned?
Countrywide on RTE Radio One. Well we are off to Louth now. There is a small trawler outside of Clotherhead this morning that's used to heading out at first light for prawns and whitefish. But lately its skipper has been keeping an eye on something else entirely the shape of Ireland's offshore wind future. Because five new wind farms are waiting on planning approval in the Irish Sea, and it appears that the sites line up with some of the best fishing grounds on the east coast. So it's no great surprise that the fishing industry is worried, both about losing the space to work, but also about what these structures under the water might do to the marine environment they depend on. Well Lorna Siggins went to Claharhead and climbed aboard a fishing boat to hear both sides of the story.
We're just coming up on a pot here. Just engaging the holler now. Right.
Make
it up with the hook. Okay.
Horikakushtala, owner of this vessel named the Silver Leaf, is originally from Inishmian but now lives on the east coast. He's been fishing for over 30 years since he was 16 years old and he fished a curruk which his father fished before him. So the pot's just coming in on the hauler.
Uh Green crab, no com no commercial value anyway for us and
Okay, so that goes overboard.
How do the planned wind farm sites overlap with the region’s most productive fishing grounds?
The velvet crab, they have a commercial value, but uh We we don't really target them that much. I I heard something flapping in here. There he is. Well so this is a a a lobster but as you can see he's I I can tell straight away he's a bit small.
So he's going over, is he? Yeah, there's a gauge here. So this is
eighty seven. So you you put the gauge on him so you can see if if if it was up here he'd be good to keep. He's well back here. So he goes straight back over the side.
Borick is part of a seafood industry in crisis over Brexit, loss of quotas, and fuel price hikes. Added to this are the planned offshore wind farms along the Irish coast. Concerns have been mounting over what the full impact of this latest development will be.
The bay starts just really around the corner there, that's Dunany Point. So there'd be a proper nursery. We get lots and lots of small lobsters here.
Who is Pat Hennessy and what role does the North Irish Sea Array play in the offshore wind plan?
So we're looking at Dunany Point. Yeah, and
then it y you can't see it but it goes right up and Dundalk will be up there, Bay comes out and these are the m mountains of Moorin over here. Hardingford is just at the at the end there, straight across.
It is,
yeah, it's beautiful. See where these two boats are here when you're looking right over at the at the end of the Moor Mountains, there's going to be a wind farm going in out here. It's called Oriel Wind Farm. That's the northernmost one. That's the northernmost one.
On board with us is Pat Hennessy, a former fisherman from Kerry's Maheris. He's now working as a senior marine and fisheries advisor for the North Irish Sea Array, which is responsible for this particular offshore wind farm project. NISA is owned by Norwegian state company Stadcraft and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. So there's there's five offshore wind farms planned for the Irish Sea.
Yes, so the North Irish Sea Array starts three miles northeast of Rockaville, three plus miles northeast of Rockaville and comes up in a rays to the north-northwest. Between the six and the twelve miles.
You're from a fishing family. You know all about the worries and concerns and you've also had some personal tragedy 'cause your brother and your uncle were lost in the Pear Charles which sank off Dunmore East in two thousand and seven.
That was a tough time.
What does ‘co‑existence’ mean for fishing around the new turbines and how close can vessels operate?
I was interested in salvage after the Pear Charles. Then I pivoted into offshore wind. Just for the work really I ended up working on a project in England. And after that then I ended up um being a skipper on lots of different projects. Uh for ten years or so all in the North Sea. Um did a spell down the Suez Canal as well, doing a bit of dredging.
And are there many Irish fishermen who went into the Yeah, there was a lot at the time. Yeah, there was a lot at the time.
Yeah, there was a lot at the time. We all knew each other and you know if we got a job on the boats we used to bring more lads out.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the background of the Irish Sea wind farm proposals and why are fishermen concerned?
0:00–1:23
2
How do the planned wind farm sites overlap with the region’s most productive fishing grounds?
1:23–2:17
3
Who is Pat Hennessy and what role does the North Irish Sea Array play in the offshore wind plan?
2:17–3:42
4
What does ‘co‑existence’ mean for fishing around the new turbines and how close can vessels operate?
3:42–4:31
5
How will the spacing and depth of turbines affect marine life and fishing practices?
4:31–5:12
6
What are the potential impacts of subsea cables and electromagnetic fields on lobsters and crabs?
5:12–6:00
7
What job opportunities and training programmes could arise from the offshore wind projects?
6:00–6:50
8
What are the fishermen’s main fears for the future and how are regulators responding?
6:50–8:01