URI survey finds offshore wind farms reduce value of recreational boating experience
A survey of recreational boaters conducted by a team
of University of Rhode Island researchers found that offshore wind farms
detract significantly from the boating experience.
Many these boaters bought into this
Tracey
Dalton, the URI professor of marine affairs who led the survey, said that while
most respondents indicated that seeing offshore wind turbines far in the
distance did not affect their experience, most preferred not to go boating
close to the turbines.
“There
have been a lot of studies looking at the ecological impacts of offshore wind
farms, but we’re interested in what happens when you put a new structure in
place in the ocean and how it impacts people that have historically and
culturally used that space,” Dalton said.
More
than 680 boaters with a hailing port in Rhode Island completed surveys in 2018.
All owned Coast Guard-certified boats, meaning their vessels were at least
26-feet long. The research was published in December in the journal Marine
Policy.
According
to Dalton, the survey results were not homogenous among every category of
boater. Those whose boating objective was fishing, for example, were less
negatively affected by the turbines, perhaps because the turbine structures
have been shown to attract sport fish. Non-fishermen and those who had never
been close to the Block Island wind farm before indicated their experience was
most negative.
“We don’t really know why they reacted that way,” Dalton said. “It could be because of navigational concerns or concerns about other boaters being nearby, since the structures attract other users and it can get crowded out there.
“The
Block Island wind farm is relatively close to shore,” she added. “Most wind
farms that have been proposed along the East Coast are going to be much farther
offshore, so it’s not clear if we’ll see the same issues for those that we see
here.”
About
1.7 million acres off the East Coast are being considered for offshore wind
development in the coming decade, so the results of the URI survey could have
significant implications.
“As we think about where we’re going to put wind farms, we have to be careful because we’re going to displace users,” said Dalton.
“In this case, the boaters
don’t mind being far from turbines, so as long as there’s not a wall of
turbines stretched across the ocean, they can move away from them. But managers
should be aware of the heterogeneity within the boating population. Fishermen
feel differently than those not fishing; those who’ve been to the Block Island
wind farm seem to feel differently than those who haven’t. The more people
visit a wind farm, the more comfortable they might be around them.”
If
navigation concerns are driving some of the concerns expressed by the boaters,
Dalton suggests that those responsible for managing the waters around wind
farms consider providing additional training for boaters.
“I’m
also interested in the social carrying capacity of offshore wind farms,” Dalton
said. “Boaters don’t want to be in places where there are a lot of other
boaters, so one study I want to pursue is looking at how levels of use at wind
farm sites are impacting users. Are they attracting so many users that it’s
turning others away?”
This
study was funded by Rhode Island Sea Grant.