6 days ago
The offshore wind turbines destroying Britain's fishing trade
When Ken Bagley led a convoy of fishing boats into battle against the UK's first wind developers two decades ago, his hope was to save something of the fishing industry that had supported his family since the 1890s.
Bagley's convoy sailed in front of the barges attempting to install the first turbines in the rich fishing grounds off Skegness, halting work and infuriating the contractors trying to kick-start Britain's entry into the world of green energy.
'They were installing that turbine into one of the richest mussel beds in the region, so I led 22 boats into the construction area and halted the work. We thought it was a great victory back then,' recalls Bagley, who is chairman of the Boston Fishermen's Association.
Twenty years later, he sees it as a hollow victory: 'The wind farms are still stealing our fishing grounds from us.'
Now aged 84, Bagley still fishes out of Boston harbour in Lincolnshire – as did his father and grandfather. His son and three nephews have followed their forefathers, each with their own boats.
But where he used to steam daily up to the fishing grounds north of the Wash, hunting for cod, sole and whiting, he now motors out, waits for low tide and then hand-rakes the sand for cockles and other shellfish in the areas so far untouched by wind farms.
'We can't go into the areas between the turbines,' he says. 'If we towed our fishing gear through a wind farm we'd be snagging on something in no time. And with the tidal currents and winds we get round there it'd get really dangerous.'
Around Britain's coast other fishermen tell similar stories of exclusion from fishing grounds where they and their forebears once reaped rich harvests.
Their problem is that the same relatively shallow waters that are ideal for finding fish are also perfect for turbines – and the wind farm developers are taking over. In theory, fishermen are still allowed to fish between the turbines, but the threat of snagging or collision means few do.
Back in the early 2000s there were only a handful of turbines in UK waters – the first two arrived in 2000 off the coast of Blyth in Northumberland.
Since then, about 3,000 of the giant machines have been installed across nearly 50 wind farms that now cover thousands of square kilometres of ocean. The largest so far is Hornsea 2, which covers 462 square kilometres of the North Sea.
Far larger ones are on the way: Dogger Bank, a joint venture between Equinor, Vårgrønn – both Norwegian – and SSE, is being built across a shallow area of the North Sea once among Europe's richest fishing grounds. It will cover around 1,300 square kilometres once complete.
Construction is already destroying the local fishing industry, says James Cole, who fishes out of Whitby in Yorkshire. He's head of the Whitby Commercial Fishermen's Organisation.
'The cables being laid from Dogger Bank plus the carbon capture pipelines that are also being laid out to sea are hugely disruptive,' he says. 'We can't fish in areas where they are working but this is the crab and lobster season, which is the time when we earn most of our income.
'These foreign wind companies are just forcing British fishermen to move away from their traditional fishing grounds. We are being pushed around by big business and useless politicians.'
Dogger Bank is, however, just a fraction of what is to come. The UK's 3,000 offshore turbines have a capacity of about 16 gigawatts – but last week Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, confirmed plans to triple that capacity by 2030 with even more by 2050.
It means thousands more turbines, collectively driving Britain's fishermen into ever smaller areas.
Livelihoods 'under threat'
Mike Roach, deputy chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, says: 'The greatest impact of offshore wind on fishing is displacement. There is an assumption that fisheries are infinitely relocatable, but the fish species we target do not exist everywhere.'
If wind turbines built on the seabed are a threat, then the floating wind farms now being deployed will be a far bigger disaster for fishermen according to experts. Such machines are designed for waters too deep for conventional turbines. In theory they offer a way to encircle the entire British Isles with wind farms – with official maps showing planned construction already approaching this level.
Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, says each floating turbine will need to trail multiple mooring and power cables down the water column and between machines.
'These structures will be anchored to the seabed with complex and extensive subsurface infrastructure, which will make it impossible for mobile fishing gear – trawls et cetera – to fish within the windfarms,' Macdonald says.
'Fishing will be displaced to areas that are less productive, and there will be greater competition for space to fish.'
A study by Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) published in March found that the majority of UK fishermen feel their livelihoods are being threatened by the rapid expansion of offshore wind, with the impact felt across all vessel sizes and fleet sectors.
The key impacts included being pushed out of traditional fishing grounds, damage to nets and other gear from subsea cables, and the destruction of seabed habitats vital to their target species.
'Fishermen across all fleet sectors are experiencing social, wellbeing, and economic impacts from offshore wind developments,' says PML researcher Claire Szostek.
'While a small minority identified potential benefits, most fishermen feel their fishing grounds and livelihoods are under threat.'
The economics of the two industries show why fishermen are struggling to be heard.
The UK fishing industry, with 4,269 active vessels and employing over 6,800 fishermen in 2021, generated a turnover of £802m and a profit of £222m, the PML study found.
That means it is already dwarfed by offshore wind, with trade body RenewableUK claiming the industry employs 55,000 people – and that number is set to increase.
Such claims need to be treated with caution. Many of the jobs reported by RenewableUK will be temporary, linked to initial construction of wind farms, so once they are built some jobs are likely to fall away.
Szostek emphasises that while offshore wind may exceed fisheries in monetary value, these figures omit the cultural heritage value of fisheries, which are vital to many coastal communities and important in fisheries policy development.
Politicians 'know nothing'
Stuart King, of West Coast Sea Products, based in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, runs five scallop fishing boats that operate around UK coasts, generating jobs for 135 people including 35 crew.
He points out that the UK's fisheries minister, Daniel Zeichner, represents landlocked Cambridge. Zeichner's boss is Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary – who is MP for Streatham and Croydon North in south London, also far from the sea.
'Our politicians are making decisions about fishing based on nothing more than watching a David Attenborough documentary,' King says. 'They know nothing. Not only are we excluded from wind farms but there is a growing hazard from the cables taking power ashore. These are often covered in rocks and if we snag them it's a serious safety hazard. These cables are closing off large areas of our fishing grounds.'
RenewableUK rejects such claims. Ana Musat, its policy director, said offshore developers worked collaboratively with the fishing industry to ensure fishing could continue.
'Offshore wind farms are specifically designed to enable coexistence,' she says. 'Where there are temporary disruptions to fishing, for example due to construction safety requirements, developers provide cooperation payments for loss of earnings.
'Offshore wind developers are always willing to listen and take on feedback.'
One of the least expected problems could turn out to be among the most important. The massive armoured cables laid from wind farms to convey their power back to shore are not just a problem for fishermen, but potentially also for marine species.
That's because, in the total darkness of the sea floor, many species rely on the Earth's magnetic field to navigate – but the powerful electrical currents passing through the cables generate far stronger fields.
Scientists have reported some species like crabs becoming mesmerised, while some fish larvae become less active.
Some fishermen see that as a metaphor for the behaviour of politicians, so obsessed with climate change and cutting emissions that they are destroying one of the most traditional of British industries.
Bagley said: 'We are just being pushed out. We have to ask: where are we going to be able to fish? Everything is being taken off us.'
A government spokesman said: 'We are working closely with the Crown Estate to ensure the seabed is strategically unlocked for offshore wind, while minimising impact on fishing.
'We are supporting the next generation of fishers with our £360m Fisheries and Coastal Growth Fund, alongside bringing thousands of skilled jobs to coastal towns through offshore wind projects.'
