Sea Service's Consortium of Fishermen will Provide Support Vessels and Monitoring Services During Construction of Northeast Offshore Wind Farms

WATERFORD, Conn. (May 19, 2021) - Joint-venture partners Ørsted and Eversource will collaborate with marine services provider Sea Services North America, and its partner fishermen in Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, to support safe navigation in and around the companies’ Northeast offshore wind farms, including the 704-megawatt Revolution Wind project serving Rhode Island and Connecticut, the 132-megawatt South Fork Wind serving Long Island and the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind project serving New York.

The collaboration will draw on the unique maritime experience of Sea Services and its partner fishermen in the Northeast region. Over the last year, Sea Services’ fishermen provided scouting vessels and monitoring services to assist Revolution Wind’s project research vessels in successfully locating, identifying and avoiding fishermen’s gear during pre-construction marine surveys. This partnership helped improve communication and coexistence during the surveys.

This collaboration will create jobs for fishermen, increase safety standards, and provide training for participating crews. This agreement will provide additional days at sea for the region’s fishing fleet.  Most importantly, this agreement marks the first time an offshore wind developer and a commercial fishing consortium sign a substantial commercial contract in the history of U.S. offshore wind. 

Separately, Ørsted has also begun discussions with Sea Services to expand this scope into its Ocean Wind and Skipjack Wind Farms, serving New Jersey and Maryland respectively.

“We believe strongly that offshore wind can coexist with all ocean users, including the region’s commercial and recreational fishing fleets,” said David Hardy, Chief Executive Officer of Ørsted Offshore North America. “Our expanded collaboration with Sea Services will help us as we strive to achieve that coexistence, with the valuable support from fishermen who know the area’s waters best.”

“Our partnership with Sea Services North America follows through on our commitment to engage other ocean users, such as commercial fishermen, throughout the full life cycle of our projects and utilize local partners to bring commercially successful and mutually beneficial projects to life,” said Ken Bowes, Vice President of Siting and Permitting at Eversource. “We are excited to work with Sea Services on our Northeast projects.” 

“Our partnership with Ørsted and Eversource not only ensures enhanced safety and protection of the ocean environment, but also will support the region’s economy by creating new jobs and providing an economic opportunity for our fishermen,” said Sea Services CEO and co-founder, Gordon Videll. ”When our vessels and crews are not fishing, we will be providing Ørsted and Eversource with 24/7 monitoring of all designated wind project assets, as well as monitoring and education for vessels traveling in designated areas. As wind farms mature grow, so will opportunities for the Sea Services consortium.”

“We are powered by a growing collective of experienced, pragmatic and knowledgeable fishermen from throughout the Northeast with a deep understanding of our shared marine environment,” said Sea Services North America fleet manager and co-founder, Gary Yerman. “Sea Service’s scalable consortium business model allows boats from various ports to sign on to Sea Services’ standards of safety and coordination.”
Sea Services North America, based in Waterford, Connecticut, was founded to offer fishermen the opportunity to diversify their maritime skills and assets to support offshore energy related activities. They are the world leaders in the management of fisheries-based diversification within the marine economy. Sea Services management negotiates contracts with offshore wind developers, provides vessel inspections, pays day rates and fuel, increases safety standards, facilitates crew training and coordinates best in class reporting systems and software to the developer.
For the offshore wind developer, Sea Services provides customized reporting, best in class HSE policies, qualified vessels, safety inspections, ready captains and crews with preliminary training; and complete on water coordination, to ensure safety and the maximum uninterrupted days at sea.