Dutch fishermen protest offshore wind power expansion in the North Sea

Fishermen in the Netherlands have protested against the rapid growth of offshore wind power capacity in the North Sea, The Guardian reports. “Dutch, German, and British turbines are pushing us out of the southern part of the North Sea. About half a per cent of our fishing waters are covered by turbines at the moment, but it will be 25% within a decade, and in our prime fishing grounds,” the chairman of activist group Eendracht Maakt Kracht (Unity Brings Strength) said. “They claim that the area around the windfarms creates some kind of paradise of biodiversity,” Schott said, noting that “it is exactly the opposite.” The sound waves resulting from ramming turbine foundations into the seabed “kills everything within six kilometres,” the activist said. According to the article, a recent study conducted by the industry consortium NoordzeeWind says offshore wind farms could in fact have a beneficial impact on local species as it enables them to find new places to hide and settle in formerly open waters.

Read the article in English here.

See the CLEW dossier Offshore wind power in Germany for more information.