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Reviewed by: Andrew Lipsky and Jeff Grybowski

Last Update: September 14th, 2020

At the Global Ocean Summit Series: Session 4, Andrew (Andy) Lipsky (Fisheries & Offshore Wind Lead at Northeast Fisheries Science Center, NOAA) and Jeff Grybowski (Former CEO of Deepwater Wind) explain the current thoughts on co-locating aquaculture with offshore wind in the United States from both a federal entity and developer’s perspective.

The United States is behind other parts of the world in terms of developing industrial-scale aquaculture in its federal waters. Part of the reason being is that the regulatory framework is still under construction. For years, there has been talk of advancing offshore aquaculture in the nation; but, advancements have not yet been made on an industrial scale. Lipsky states that “we are behind other countries but there are efforts in the U.S. to sustainably develop aquaculture in federal waters .” He adds that an Executive Order, which aims to advance domestic seafood production in terms of both wild-caught and farmed food sources, has recently been signed. 

In Europe, there are groups that are looking at the co-location of offshore wind and aquaculture. But, Lipsky explains that it is complicated to advance an offshore wind farm in ways to ensure coexistence of existing fisheries and wind energy needs; and, there will be additional complexities to advance an offshore wind farm in conjunction with an aquaculture facility. However, doing so could be advantageous as the scientific understanding and information required to permit and regulate both facilities has the potential to create efficiencies. “At face value it may make sense; but, when you dig into the individual project limitations and regional considerations…there may be barriers to making that happen.”

Grybowski then shares insight from a developer’s perspective sharing that there would likely be a uniform opposition due to the weight of the enormous legal complexities of co-locating these two complicated businesses. “The industry would need to see a lot of work on a lot of pilot programs over a long period of time and convince lots of lawyers, banks and regulators that it could work…it’s going to take a long time to get to that.”