Are Offshore Wind Farms Delaying Coast Guard Rescues?

Photos: US Dept. of Energy, US Coast Guard.

A prominent commercial fishing industry advocate is raising the alarm that New England’s rapidly expanding offshore wind farms are actively delaying life-saving U.S. Coast Guard rescues at sea. Speaking on 77 WABC with John Catsimatidis, Bonnie Brady, policy director of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, (NEFSA), stated bluntly that offshore turbines are compromising maritime safety, pointing to three recent examples.

Her first concern stems from a recent medical evacuation near an offshore wind construction site. According to Brady, a Coast Guard broadcast on emergency Channel 16 explicitly stated help would arrive in 10 minutes “if it can make way past the wind farms.” Flight tracking data later showed an MH-60 helicopter taking a critical 12 minutes just to descend near a turbine. In a story covering the accident, the Mass Daily News noted they could not independently confirm the radio transmission.

Brady’s second example involves the tragic October 3rd crash of a Latitude Air Ambulance jet south of Nantucket. In this case, Brady argues the turbines severely hampered the recovery. She claims a Coast Guard fast response cutter was forced to detour around the grid, adding 30 minutes to its transit.

The most haunting example ties into a seven-year-old maritime mystery. The fishing vessel Mistress sank off Block Island on New Year’s Day 2019, claiming two lives. This September, the advocacy group Green Oceans announced it located the missing wreckage—along with apparent human remains—sitting 92 feet down and just 50 feet from a Block Island Wind Farm turbine. Green Oceans president Michael Lombardi suggests the hull’s position indicates “the captain may have made a fatal starboard maneuver to avoid the turbine.”

Written by Tom Schlichter