Europe has been operating offshore wind energy facilities for 20 years and North America is on the verge of large-scale development. However, as wind energy expands, there is a clear gap in our knowledge on the economic and socio-cultural impacts on fishing behaviour, fishing communities, and coastal economies as our existing knowledge of the impact of wind energy on fisheries focuses mainly on ecological impacts.
ICES Workshop on the Socio-Economic Implications of Offshore Wind on Fishing Communities (WKSEIOWFC; 15-17 March 2021 online) wants to address this gap. Initiated by the Working Group on Offshore Wind Development and Fisheries (WGOWDF), this upcoming workshop will identify and describe the impacts of offshore wind development on fisheries and fishing communities. Chairs Tara Hooper, UK, and Annie Hawkins, hope to develop indicators to assess the socio-economic impact on fishing communities in order to improve the understanding of socio-economic effects of offshore wind projects on fisheries.
Hooper and Hawkins invite experts from the field of fisheries economics, social science, fisheries operations, wind energy development and licensing/permitting authorities to join them in March.
