PORTLAND — The Pacific Fishery Management Council is asking federal regulators to rescind two “call areas” off the southern Oregon coast that have been identified for potential offshore wind energy development.

Council members voted 10-0 on March 9 to recommend scrapping both areas over worries that massive floating wind farms will burden commercial and tribal fishermen.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, established the areas last year — including one that covers 1,364 square miles of ocean near Coos Bay, and another spanning 448 square miles near Brookings. 

The Biden administration has set a goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of renewable offshore wind energy by 2030 to fight climate change. 

BOEM plans to release a draft report in the coming months summarizing where within the areas wind turbines may be built safely while minimizing impacts to fisheries and marine ecosystems. The public will then have 30 days to comment. 

Instead, the council is urging BOEM to start the siting process over to consider more appropriate areas for offshore wind along the entirety of the Oregon coast. 

Susan Chambers, deputy director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Alliance and co-chair of the council’s Marine Planning Committee, said fisheries managers do not want to risk losing productive fishing grounds or threaten ocean habitat due to offshore wind.

“The California Current is one of the most productive ecosystems in the world,” Chambers said. “We need to get this right.” 

The council is one of eight regional fishery management groups established by the Magnuson-Stevens Act of 1976. It includes 14 voting members representing state agencies, tribal governments and fishing industry leaders.

Together, they recommend fishery management measures in federal waters off the coasts of Oregon, Washington and California.

Christa Svensson, an Oregon-based council member and sustainability program manager at Tri Marine Group in Seaside, made the motion calling on BOEM to rescind the call areas. 

She said the agency should go back to the drawing board and reexamine the full Oregon coastline for potential offshore wind areas using an integrated spatial mapping tool developed by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science.

Heather Mann, executive director of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative based in Newport, Ore., said this tool has been used in the past to identify areas for aquaculture. It incorporates multiple data sources — including fisheries data — and creates color-coded maps showing where certain ocean activities will have the least impact. 

“The areas that were selected were flawed,” Mann said. “They didn’t have the best available science that went into (developing) them.” 

Mann estimated that commercial fishermen have harvested hundreds of millions of pounds of sustainable hake out of the current call areas over the last 10 years. 

Offshore wind turbines threaten to displace fishermen from those areas, she said, since they will be too dangerous for vessels to navigate.

It also remains uncertain how harnessing wind energy will affect upwelling of nutrients from the ocean water within the areas, which is part of what makes the fisheries in the California Current so productive.

“There’s just a whole host of stuff that’s not known, that we’d like to understand better,” Mann said. “What the president has done is almost pit renewable energy versus sustainable seafood. That’s just stupid, in my mind.” 

The council plans to send a letter to both BOEM and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek outlining their concerns. 

John Callahan, a spokesman for BOEM, said he could not speculate how the agency will respond to the letter. However, he said BOEM “recognizes the vital importance of the fishing industry in Oregon and is committed to working with stakeholders throughout our offshore wind energy area identification process.” 

Anca Matica, press secretary for Kotek, said the governor “looks forward to receiving (the council’s) letter and better understanding the concerns at hand.”