-May 28,2022-
Following a model forged with the undersea cable industry 20 years ago, Morro Bay fishermen hope to seal a similar agreement to mitigate loss of fishing grounds expected from the planned Morro Bay offshore wind project. So says City of Morro Bay Harbormaster Eric Endersby who references a 2002 deal between local fishermen and the fibre-optic cable industry.Key to the agreement -if new player entered the scene they too must adopt the agreement.In factor several new companies have joined the organization over the years.
Cable companies laying undersea fiber optic cable to connect to Asia did not want fishing trawlers to entangle with their cable lines and agreed to compensate fishermen to stay away from those areas. A committee regularly hands out grants to fishermen that benefit both parties.
In a January a letter to the federal government from the City of Morro Bay promoted a “legally binding non-profit mutual benefit organization based on the Central Coast Joint Cable-Fisheries Liaison Committee model is the best approach and have the greatest degree of success and support of the fishing industries, OSW industry and Federal, State and local regulators and agencies.”
“The fishermen have been talking with Castle Wind’s Alla Weinstein, but the thinking is all wind power companies participating in the lease of federal waters off the Central Coast, will be part to agreement” expects Endersby.
The City is asking that an agreement be required by all companies that bid in the Bureau of Ocean Management (BOEM) upcoming lease auction, scheduled for early fall.