Wave energy buoys

Jan from Humbol · Jan-06-2009, 07:56 PM

There are a bunch of these planned all over the west coast, we fishermen are going to loose a lot of fishing area especially in the near shore farms.

Be worried, as once they go on line they will be "Power stations" and fall under the protective net of Homeland security and you will not be allowed to fish or even navigate near them.

XXXXXXXXX

From the PFMC site.

The Reedsport project calls for 10 buoys about 2.5 miles off the coast of Reedsport, Oregon. The project could become commercial in the next year or two, according to an Oregonian article.
However, Nick Furman of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission notes that it’s “smack dab in the middle of crabbing grounds.” OPT recently received a $200,000 grant from the Oregon Wave Energy Trust and a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The OPT project will use Power Buoys that will be partially fabricated in Oregon.

The Oregon coast is considered one of the most promising sites for wave energy generation in North America, according to the Oregon Wave Energy Trust

Page 10 and 13

http://www.pcouncil.org/newsletters/currentnews.pdf

G-Spot · Jan-06-2009, 08:45 PM

How much will they actually interfere with fishing? I am asking for knowledge not to argue.... We might be able to have our cake and eat it too....

In the Gulf they have Oil rigs, and many fisherman have found them to be helpful and have not had a big impact at all.... They tie up to them, the formation attracts fish....

I don't have a problem with a single bouy ever so often, unless it deems the entire area useless.....

Can we troll around them.... can we bottom fish near them... Is this a chicken little story?

I would prefer oil rigs over enrgy bouys.... I thought the last one was a flop that go sank????

Capt.E · Jan-06-2009, 08:53 PM

as both a commercial fisherman and a sportsfisher this blows. The crab fleet will be screwed and since all my gear fishes inside 20 fathom we will be out of buisness. The sport fleet will really see a major cut in fishing areas as well. You combine this with M.R.'s and no one will get a chance. I guess this will be a great deal for cheap power right? That will really help since the coastal economies will be non existant. My 2 cents

Jan from Humbol · Jan-06-2009, 09:37 PM

I don't know what the stand off is on these, here in the Eureka/North Coast area they have assigned about 176 square miles to these things.

We were informed since they will have cables on the bottom they won't allow crabbing or fishing in the area of them for fear of damage.

They of course put the buoy area right in the middle of where we salmon fish and crab as well as drift for halibut.

When you try to get answers from PG&E they just blow you off so it's very frustrating.

G-Spot · Jan-06-2009, 09:40 PM

I will definitely have to keep my eye on it and try to educate myself.... I hope it is not as drastic as captain E thinks it will be... That woudl be unforunate to say the least....

Any future info please share.....

Keta · Jan-06-2009, 09:43 PM

Fishwhenican has a good handle on this, hopefuly he'll chim in. If not I'll try to contact him and have him help inform us.

KeyWest · Jan-06-2009, 09:59 PM

I've spoken with the wave buoy folks, the offshore wind energy folks, etc. All of them cite "home land security" as a reason to prevent fisherman from approaching their structures. All the while we can fish around oil platforms that produce 100X the energy they will produce. I would like to suggest we call BS on disallowing access around these structures and instead suggest we tell these folks will support them if we can fish around the FAD structures.

bajadan2000 · Jan-07-2009, 12:01 PM

I attended a meeting on an OR. wave buoy program a while back. One issue hit me like a ton of bricks that I do not hear anyone talking about.

Not only are the waters around the buoys and transfer cables to the beach going to be strictly enforced off limits to everyone, sections of the beach area where the cables make dry feet to the transfer stations will also be strictly enforced off limits to everyone, even beach combers.

Keta · Jan-07-2009, 01:39 PM

If they weren't being dicks I could see a win win situation here but as things currently stand I say FUCK 'EM!!!! WTF!!!!! They let fishermen tie up to oil and gas rigs in the GOM!! Looks like another government lock up of our access to the resource to me.

Capt.E · Jan-07-2009, 01:46 PM

not only will these effect fisherman but what about the impact on the beach own communities that depend on a certain amount of beach tourism. If you cant walk on the beach in seaside why go there

Northern · Jan-07-2009, 01:53 PM

Another blow like December 07 and the bug lovers are going to need to take a step back and do some more consultations with PEW et./all and get their financing worked out. It's not going to be cheap to salvage these mechanical monsters from the creek bottom.

Capt.E · Jan-07-2009, 01:58 PM

no sshit how will they hold up to 80 ft of sweel like in dec.07? I saw what happened to the wheather bouy when it washed up 50 miles north of its position. These things will become a hazard to safety and economy i say go back to nuclear power!