Category Archives: Offshore

If offshore fishing is your thing, then expect to see a little action from kingfish, blackfin tuna, possibly a sailfish and, of course, some barracudas and sharks.

The one fish that has been available in decent numbers are bonitos, also known as false albacore. The action is happening in depths from 80 to 160 feet of water.

Dolphin fish have moved way offshore, so if its mahi mahi you're looking for, then get out to 800 feet of water and start looking for big weed patches or birds. That should be your starting point. If theres no action, then continue your search heading east-southeast until you find what you're looking for.

Dont want to waste a lot of time and gas? Then hit the wrecks in 120 to 260 feet, where mutton, vermillion and yelloweye snappers have been eating chunks of cut baits.

The nighttime reef fishing continues to be productive for mangrove, mutton and yellowtail snappers. Anchoring and fishing cut baits is the way to go for these snappers.

Good luck and be safe out there.

Get Em Sportfishing Charters

Capt. Alan Sherman, who operates Get Em Sportfishing Charters, has been leading fishing charters in South Florida for 30+ years. He can be reached here or by calling (786) 436-2064.

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Avoiding the big storms will be the key to a successful offshore trip this weekend - Islander News.com

For years now, the sanctity of our scenic ocean vistas has been trotted out as reason enough to torpedo offshore wind farming. That is, unsurprisingly, nonsense.

Wind is a safe, clean and renewable energy source, but you know whats not? Fossil fuels. If you look closely at the sources of misinformation about renewables something tells me youll find the greasy tentacles of big oil, coal, etc. Their ability to peddle you more dinosaur juice is to convince people that renewables are either too cumbersome, too expensive or too erratic to meet our considerable energy appetite. They do this by convincing rubes that solar power causes rolling blackouts in Texas and windmills cause cancer.

Windmills do not cause cancer unless you happen upon one made of radium and lick it. Most wind farms are located so far out to sea you run a near-zero risk of having a turbine ruin your view. Climate change is no longer the issue of the future, climate change is here. Unless we get our act together Down the Shore is going to be Metuchen. You wont have to worry about smoking bans in Atlantic City because the Baccarat tables will have drifted into international waters. The technology around renewables is improving and costs are coming down. Investing in wind and solar are no brainers if, like me, you want to keep the ocean as close to its current location as possible.

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Objections to offshore wind farms are hot air | Sheneman - NJ.com

Northern California has some of the strongest offshore winds in the U.S., with immense potential to produce clean energy. But it has a problem. Its continental shelf drops off quickly, making building traditional wind turbines directly on the seafloor costly if not impossible. Butfloating wind turbine farms could be the solution.

Once water gets more than about 200 feet deep roughly the height of an 18-story building these monopile structures are pretty much out of the question.

A solution has emerged thats being tested in several locations around the world: making wind turbines that float. In fact, in California, where drought is putting pressure on the hydropower supply and fires have threatened electricity imports from the Pacific Northwest, the state is moving forward on plans to develop the nations first floating offshore wind farms as we speak.

So how do they work?

A floating wind turbine works just like other wind turbines wind pushes on the blades, causing the rotor to turn, which drives a generator that creates electricity. But instead of having its tower embedded directly into the ground or the sea floor, a floating wind turbine sits on a platform with mooring lines, such as chains or ropes, that connect to anchors in the seabed below.

These mooring lines hold the turbine in place against the wind and keep it connected to the cable that sends its electricity back to shore.

Most of the stability is provided by the floating platform itself. The trick is to design the platform so the turbine doesnt tip too far in strong winds or storms.

Three of the common types of floating wind turbine platform. Josh Bauer/NREL

There are three main types of platforms:

Each platform must support the weight of the turbine and remain stable while the turbine operates. It can do this in part because the hollow platform, often made of large steel or concrete structures, provides buoyancy to support the turbine. Since some can be fully assembled in port and towed out for installation, they might be far cheaper than fixed-bottom structures, which requires specialty boats for installation on site.

The University of Maine has been experimenting with a small floating wind turbine, about one-eighth scale, on a semi-submersible platform. It plans to launch a full-scale version with corporate partners in 2023. Photo: AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

Floating platforms can support wind turbines that can produce 10 megawatts or more of power thats similar in size to other offshore wind turbines and several times larger than the capacity of a typical onshore wind turbine you might see in a field.

Some of the strongest wind resources are away from shore in locations with hundreds of feet of water below, such as off the U.S. West Coast, the Great Lakes, the Mediterranean Sea, and the coast of Japan.

In May 2021, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to open up parts of the West Coast, off central Californias Morro Bay and near the Oregon state line, for offshore wind power. The water there gets deep quickly, so any wind farm that is even a few miles from shore will require floating turbines. Newsom said the area could initially provide 4.6 gigawatts of clean energy, enough to power 1.6 million homes. Thats more than 100 times the total U.S. offshore wind power today.

Some of the strongest offshore wind power potential in the U.S. is in areas where the water is too deep for fixed turbines, including off the West Coast and offshore from Maine. Image: NREL

Globally, several full-scale demonstration projects are already operating in Europe and Asia. The Hywind Scotland project became the first commercial-scale offshore floating wind farm in 2017, with five 6-megawatt turbines supported by spar buoys designed by the Norwegian energy company Equinor.

While floating offshore wind farms are becoming a commercial technology, there are still technical challenges that need to be solved. The platform motion may cause higher forces on the blades and tower, and more complicated and unsteady aerodynamics. Also, as water depths get very deep, the cost of the mooring lines, anchors, and electrical cabling may become very high, so cheaper but still reliable technologies will be needed.

Expect to see more offshore turbines supported by floating structures in the near future.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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California Is Planning Floating Wind Turbine Farms Offshore: Here's How They Work - TheInertia.com

(Sydney) Other governments should reject Australias abusive and costly offshore processing of refugees and asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said today. July 19, 2021 is the eighth anniversary of the Australian governments resumption of its offshore processing policy, which has harmed thousands of people.

Denmark has passed legislation allowing the transfer of asylum seekers to offshore locations, and the United Kingdom is considering such a policy.

Australias abusive offshore processing policy has caused immeasurable suffering for thousands of vulnerable asylum seekers, said Sophie McNeill, Australia researcher at Human Rights Watch. The cruelty of these camps, in which seven people have committed suicide and children have been terribly traumatized, should not be replicated elsewhere.

Since July 19, 2013, the Australian government has forcibly transferred more than 3,000 asylum seekers who sought to reach Australia by boat to offshore processing camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Individuals and families with children spent years living in substandard conditions in these centers, where they suffered severe abuse, inhumane treatment, and medical neglect.

Under international law, immigration detention should not be used as punishment, but rather should be an exceptional measure of last resort to carry out a legitimate aim. Adult migrants should be detained for the shortest time necessary. Children should not be placed in immigration detention.

Offshore processing not only inflicts human suffering, but is also costly. It is estimated that offshore processing cost the Australian government A$8.3 billion (US$6.2 billion) between 2014 and 2020. The annual cost of detaining a single asylum seeker in Papua New Guinea or Nauru is A$3.4 million (US$2.5 million).

Refugees and asylum seekers who have been transferred to Australia for medical treatment remain in limbo, with no permanent visas and little support, under threat of being returned to Papua New Guinea or Nauru at any time. At least 169 refugees transferred under the repealed Medevac legislation remain in Australia. Some refugees and asylum seekers are being held in Australia under guard in hotels, in makeshift detention centers referred to as alternative places of detention.

Approximately 962 people have been resettled to the United States, under an Australia-US resettlement deal. More than 230 people remain in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Other countries should learn from these horrors, rather than repeating them, McNeill said. The Australian government should accept New Zealands repeated offers to take some of the refugees, and work toward ending offshore processing once and for all.

For selected accounts, please see below.

Selected accounts:

A 31-year-old Tamil asylum seeker from Sri Lanka. He spent eight years in detention, six and a half years offshore, and one and a half years in hotel detention in Australia:

Offshore processing centers destroyed our lives. We are the victims of this cruel policy. Many of our friends lost their lives because of this cruelty. I myself tried to kill myself twice. Human beings have the right to seek safety and protection. This kind of indefinite detention really causes pain. Its like cutting your neck. Its so painful, no one should do it again to people. We are the examples from Australia who are affected by this policy. Still, I only have a temporary visa and cant live. Im the same human being as anyone, why am I treated like this? I dont know how to explain this feeling.

A 34-year-old Arab Iranian asylum seeker. He and his family spent six years in offshore detention on Nauru and he currently remains in immigration detention in a hotel in Darwin:

Please. We need to get out from detention. Its been almost nine years Ive been in limbo. Everyday Im suffering. My mental health is getting so worse. This is not a correct solution. Australia doesnt treat me like a human. Its not right to treat anyone like this. Every night I have nightmares. We live with stress and depression every single day. We are so suffering. We are so tired.

A 25-year-old Ahwazi refugee who left Iran and came to Australia a few days after the resumption of offshore processing on July 19, 2013. He has spent eight years in detention, six years in Papua New Guinea, and two years in detention in Australia:

Its very hard when some country accepts you as a refugee, and youre still locked up. Before I came [to Australia under Medevac], I was in the ICU, in Papua New Guinea. And I was in the hospital for two to three months, suffering from mental health and physical. And then the minister [for Home Affairs] signed for me to come and get treatment. But since two years I have been in detention I did not receive treatment. Were looking for safety, and were looking for a safe place to resettle. We need some place to call it home.

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Australia: 8 Years of Abusive Offshore Asylum Processing - Human Rights Watch

Royal Dutch Shell has joined forces with Scottish Power to develop the worlds first large-scale floating offshore windfarms in the north-east of Scotland.

The energy companies have submitted multiple plans for a string of large floating offshore windfarms to Crown Estate Scotland as part of the property managers latest leasing round for access to the coastline.

Floating turbines, which have no fixed subsea foundations, are a relatively new technology that will play a key part in the governments plan for an offshore wind boom because they can be developed in areas of very deep water where traditional offshore windfarms are not feasible.

The new venture is expected to build on Scottish Powers track record as one of the biggest offshore wind developers in the UK, and Shells decades-long experience working in the hostile waters of the North Sea.

Scottish Powers chief executive, Keith Anderson, said the venture would bring together Scottish Power and Shells collective knowledge, experience and expertise to create a new green industry with massive potential for exporting our skills and experience globally.

David Bunch, Shells UK country chair, said if the bid was successful, the companies would be fully committed to working with Scottish communities and businesses to develop supply chains and expertise which could make Scotland a world leader in floating wind.

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Shell, a relative newcomer to the offshore wind industry, has launched partnerships in windfarms off the Dutch coast and devised plans for a large offshore windfarm off the US coast alongside the French energy firm EDF.

Shell has joined a green rush of oil companies into the offshore wind industry as part of plans to join the energy transition away from fossil fuels and towards clean electricity and green hydrogen.

BP has won the right to build two large windfarms off the coast of Wales, and Norways state oil firm is working with SSE to build the worlds largest offshore windfarm at Dogger Bank.

Scotlands upcoming leasing round for offshore wind rights will be the first in more than a decade and will include floating windfarms for the first time.

Crown Estate Scotland is expected to announce the results of this round of ScotWind Leasing in early 2022.

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Shell and Scottish Power submit plans for floating offshore windfarms - The Guardian

KINGSTON, R.I. July 14, 2021 Offshore wind turbines with a fixed foundation built into the seafloor, like those constructed off Block Island, are not economical in water more than 200 feet deep. A new system of floating turbines is now in development that would allow for electricity generation in deeper water farther offshore where winds are more favorable.

To optimize the operation of floating offshore wind turbines, a team of University of Rhode Island engineers along with colleagues at the University of Maine has been awarded a $1.245 million grant by the Department of Energy to model and test a system for controlling the motion of the floating structures. The grant, entitled Design, optimization, and control of floating offshore wind farms for optimal energy production, was funded through the departments Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program.

This federal grant is good news for URI and will help boost the states research capacity in renewable energy and energy utilization. I hope this research will help spur advances in ocean engineering and ultimately enhance the way we manage offshore wind energy, said SenatorReed, who noted that URI was among nine projects nationwide that received a share of EPSCOR funding from this round of grants that focused on energy research topics, including solar energy, wind energy, and advanced manufacturing.

The University of Rhode Island is doing exciting research on the development of floating offshore wind turbines, said U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. The biggest challenge to getting offshore wind farms up and running is the siting process, which includes balancing the complex needs of different ocean users. If we can locate floating turbines farther out to sea, we could rapidly scale up offshore wind and get more clean, reliable energy on the grid.

According to Stephan Grilli, the URI professor of ocean engineering who leads the project, the uncertainties and irregularities of ocean waves and other marine factors are major challenges to the development of commercial-scale floating wind turbines. Their operation can lead to unpredictable forces on the structure, leading to fatigue and reduced operational life.

These are top-heavy structures, and when a floating turbine is leaning due to the waves, it has more forces bending the turbine structure, which also affects the wind power capture, said Grilli. Those repetitive movements cause fatigue on the whole structure and lead to a shortened lifespan.

To optimize control of the turbines requires a method of anticipating the movement of the floating structures, and to do that requires real-time information about approaching waves.

No one is using that information yet; they just use the past movement of the float, Grilli said. Weve worked for 10 years on sensing ocean waves using LIDAR, a remote sensing method using lasers, so we can acquire a lot of information on the position of approaching waves almost instantaneously.

Using what Grilli calls digital twins computational models that operate in parallel with scale models of actual floating turbines the researchers will be able to anticipate the forces the structures will face from moment to moment and predict their behavior, which will help to control the system.

Well be running the model in real time at the same time as sensing the waves and providing information to the controller so the controller can do its job, explained Grilli. All of that requires a lot of computational power.

Controlling the system in this way is a key factor in the future commercialization of offshore floating wind turbines, which are not yet in operation in any significant way anywhere around the world. If this technology were ready to be deployed, offshore wind farms being considered for development off the U.S. East Coast could be extended into deeper waters farther from shore, thereby reducing conflict with other ocean users.

In addition to Grilli, other URI researchers involved in the project include ocean engineering professors Jason Dahl, Annette Grilli and Reza Hashemi. The University of Maine team is led by Richard Kimball, professor of mechanical engineering.

The project has received numerous endorsements from local industries and agencies, including Raytheon and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.

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URI researchers awarded $1.2 million federal grant to study floating offshore wind turbines - URI Today

More than 110 (current and former) elected officials from across the US State of New Jersey have signed a letter of support for the responsible development of offshore wind in the state.

The signatories have highlighted that for New Jersey, an average wind farm being considered is estimated to create 4,300 jobs and add USD 702 million to the state economy.

Citing the findings of the Workforce Development Institute, the letter states that 74 different occupations are needed to build an offshore wind farm, which could generate thousands of additional jobs in construction, manufacturing, turbine demonstration, and transmission line projects.

While we emerge from the pandemic, better opportunities for higher paying jobs and training in new professions are a must. Our people need us to do more than return to normal. In Jersey City we need a job creator like offshore wind that could power skilled employment with training in the various professions the industry needs, saidJersey City Councilmember Mira Prinz-Arey.

Furthermore, as it has been estimated that without immediate action much of New Jerseys current coastline would be lost under an 8 feet (almost 2.5 metres) of sea level riseby the end of the century brining financial losses of up to USD 180billion responsible offshore wind development can also mitigate these projected catastrophic consequences while bringing further economic growth, the letter points out.

According to the letter, public support for offshore wind development is growing rapidly in New Jersey, where 82 per cent favour expanding wind energy and 73 per cent believe that offshore wind will impact the environment in a positive way.

The letter has been published a couple of weeks after the states Board of Public Utilities (BPU) awarded 1,510 MW of capacity toAtlantic Shores Offshore Windand 1,148MW toOcean Wind II making this the nations largest combined award to date.

The new 2.7 GW of offshore wind brings New Jerseys total planned capacity to over 3.7 GW, almost halfway toGovernor Phil Murphys goal of 7.5 GW of offshore wind by 2035and 100 percent clean energy by 2050.

New Jersey can lead our nation in developing Americas offshore wind power, which has the potential to meet90% of total U.S. energy demandby 2050. Were at the vanguard of a new clean, renewable energy industry that will generate thousands of jobs, create prosperity for our communities, improve our health, and help protect our coastlines, the letter from the elected officials states.

The New Jersey Chapter of Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA), an organisation gathering current and former elected officials across the US around the fight against climate change, has also issued a call for more elected officials to join the effort and sign the letter of support.

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Offshore Wind Gets Support of Over 110 New Jersey Elected Officials - Offshore WIND

The logo of Italian energy company Eni is seen at the booth of Eni during the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit in Abuja, Nigeria February 10, 2020. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde/File Photo

MILAN, July 12 (Reuters) - Eni (ENI.MI) has teamed up with Scottish offshore wind developer Red Rock Power Limited to bid in Scotland's upcoming offshore wind leasing round, the Italian energy group said on Monday.

The two companies will be making their joint bid in the round, called ScotWind, with the support of transmission company Transmission Investment, Eni said.

Some 8,600 square kms (3,320 square miles) of Scottish seabed are potentially up for development in a move that could help Scotland achieve its climate goals. read more

A series of top energy companies and investors have already signaled interest including France's TotalEnergies , Macquarie Group's (MQG.AX)Green Investment Group and Orsted (ORSTED.CO). read more

The closing date for bids is July 16.

"The companies will also consider future renewable opportunities in Scotland," Eni said in a statement.

Eni, which has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2050 and taper off oil and gas production, is targeting renewable capacity of 15 gigawatts in 2030 from around 300 MW of installed capacity in 2020.

Last week it agreed to buy one of the largest onshore wind portfolios in Italy from fund manager Glennmont. read more

Reporting by Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Eni teams up with Red Rock Power to bid for Scotland offshore wind - Reuters

The Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) BEECROFT on routine patrol recently intercepted a wooden boat with 162 bags of foreign parboiled riceoff the shore of Lagos.

This is contained in a statement signed by the Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) BEECROFT, Commodore Bashir Mohammed on Sunday in Lagos.

Mohammed said the patrol team intercepted the boat at 3:30pm on June 8.

Preliminary investigations by the Base reveals that the bags of rice were all foreign parboiled rice smuggled into the country from Republic of Benin.

In line with the Nigerian Navy Standard Operating Procedures, NNS BEECROFT on Friday, July 9 handed over the Cotonou boat and 162 bags of rice to the Nigeria Customs Service, the Commodore said.

Mohammed warned smugglers to steer clear off Lagos maritime environment.

He said that the base would be relentless to bring an end to smuggling within its area of operations in line with the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Awwal Gambos strategic directive for 2021 to 2025.

As partners for a safe maritime environment, members of the public, especially our host communities, are enjoined to kindly furnish the base with credible information to assist in curbing activities of criminal elements and economic saboteurs, Mohammed appealed.

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Navy intercepts 162 bags of suspected smuggled rice in Lagos offshore - Guardian Nigeria

Fugro has secured a contract to conduct geophysical and environmental site investigations at the Five Estuaries project, the extension of the operational Galloper offshore wind farm.

Fugro Mercator has been appointed to carry out the geophysical survey at the UK project, which will start on 5 August and have a duration of approximately 14 weeks.

The vessel will be conducting operations across the main array and export cable route areas.

Fugro Seeker will perform the nearshore geophysical operations on the Five Estuaries export cable route for some 6-7 weeks, starting from 1 August.

Additionally, dive support vessel (DSV) Curtis Marshall will conduct the environmental survey from 2 November for two weeks at the main array and export cable route both offshore and nearshore.

The Five Estuaries offshore wind extension has a potential capacity of up to 353MW.

Project partners are the same as at the Galloper wind farm and include a Macquarie-led consortium, RWE and Siemens Financial Services.

The project was announced in September last year when the parties signed lease agreements with The Crown Estate for extensions of the Galloper, GwyntyMr, GreaterGabbard and Rampion offshore wind farms.

Galloper, whichwas officially inauguratedin September 2018,comprises 56 Siemens Gamesa 6.3 MW turbines installed some 30 kilometers off the coast of Suffolk.

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Fugro to Survey Galloper Offshore Wind Extension - Offshore WIND