Gov. Janet Mills and the state’s congressional delegation want federal officials to consider Maine’s lobster industry as the government weighs proposals for offshore wind farms in the Gulf of Maine. 

Mills, Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, and Reps. Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree are asking the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to avoid areas used by the lobster industry and “minimize all potential conflicts” with the industry. 

The bureau is eyeing commercial wind projects off the coasts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, an area encompassing 9.8 million acres, about twice the area of New Jersey. 

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced in October 2021 a new offshore wind leasing strategy through 2025. Among other goals, the strategy includes “holding a commercial lease sale within the Gulf of Maine in 2024.” 

Mills and the delegation say they’re most worried about a strip of ocean off the coast of Maine about 80 miles long and 23 miles wide where lobstering is restricted between October to February. 

Their letter urges the bureau to not lease space for commercial wind farming outside of that area, to avoid conflict with the majority of Maine’s commercial fishing industry, recreational fishermen and other commercial and recreational marine users. 

The delegation, along with Maine’s lobster industry, is in an ongoing struggle with the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is restricting lobster fishing at the behest of activists and scientists who argued that lobster fishing lines are threatening North Atlantic Right Whale populations.  

The letter suggests it is unfair to offer wind farm leasing in the areas under restriction. 

“If an area is closed to fishing, how could this area still be considered for offshore wind development?” the letter states. “This is inconsistent with the fact that our fishermen are required to comply with closures in these areas.”