64—South Fork Wind Farm and Fisheries Management with Lowry Yankwich and Doug Christel

Lowry Yankwich, a recent graduate of Harvard Law, speaks with Doug Christel, policy analyst for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. They discuss the approval of the South Fork Wind Project, which is only the second commercial-scale offshore wind project to be approved in federal waters. The project is small but has garnered outsized attention particularly due to its potential impacts on Cox Ledge, an important fish habitat area. The two discuss possible impacts on fisheries from the South Fork project specifically, and wind development generally, and explore ways in which developers and government agencies are attempting to address and mitigate concerns raised by fishers. They put the South Fork project into perspective and show how it represents a significant milestone in the story of offshore wind development in the U.S. Note: at 34 minutes Doug questions his recollection of the micro-siting diameter for turbines, whether it's 500 feet or meters. He later confirmed it's 500 feet. You can read more about the legal implications of this topic here https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/the-implications-of-boem-decision-on-the-south-fork-wind-farm/ A transcript of this episode is available here https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Doug-and-Lowry-transcript.pdf