NOAA and Fisheries presentation

Now someone from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is pinch-hitting a presentation about marine fisheries regulations. He begins with a slide with seven or eight different laws that govern NOAA's evaluation of marine power projects.

He says that his agency's main need in evaluating ocean energy projects is more information on how renewable energy projects affect marine environments. He repeats a recurring theme from these agencies: we're still learning how to regulate these kinds of projects.

The big, overarching regulation is NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act. NEPA typically requires an Environmenal Assessment or Impact Statement for major projects in the federal government's jurisdiction.

NEPA requires the collection of good baseline data, along with an evaluation of all the probable effects and impacts that a project will have. These might include invasive species, noise, or alteration of hydrology, temperature, or salinity.

"[In] our review of the Cape Wind project... we didn't have a tremendous number of concerns about that project. Offshore wind projects may be a rather benign activity in terms of impact on fisheries. But we don't know what kind of impacts they'll have once they're built. We'll see once they're in the water."

"Quality data needs to be collected before, during and after project installation."